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Scope note: This web page supplements information needs of students in the School of Social Work. The information presented here is not meant to be comprehensive. Please contact Library staff for additional information at social.work.library@umich.edu.
The Social Work Library has access to four important subject-specific databases from the vendor, Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (CSA): AGELINE, Criminal Justice Abstracts, Sociological Abstracts, and Social Services Abstracts.
AGELINE indexes and abstracts books, journals, research reports, consumer guides, and book chapters in the field of aging. Produced by the American Association of Retired Persons, it covers important issues in aging from 1978 to the present. For a list of journals covered in AGELINE, see the Serials Source List.
Criminal Justice Abstracts indexes major journals in criminology and related disciplines, chapters in books, dissertations, unpublished reports, and selected government reports, from 1968 to present. Each record includes an enhanced abstract which includes research findings and methodology. Subjects covered in this database include juvenile delinquency, prevention projects, crime trends, corrections, courts, and victims. There is overlap between this database and the National Criminal Justice Reference Service Abstracts, which is available via CSA Illumina as well as publicly available via the NCJRS web site. For a list of journals covered in Criminal Justice Abstracts, see the Serials Source List.
Sociological Abstracts is the index for sociology and related disciplines in the behavioral sciences. It contains over 620,000 citations and abstracts for sociological literature, indexing and abstracting journal articles concerning all aspects of sociology and covering several core social work journals, from 1963 to the present. It also indexes books, dissertations, book reviews, and conference papers. For a list of journals covered in Sociological Abstracts, see the Serials Source List.
Social Services Abstracts provides citations to social work literature, and includes not only citations to journal articles, but also dissertations and book reviews, from 1980 to the present. While this database indexes more sources than Social Work Abstracts, Social Work Abstracts is still the preferred database for the social work journal literature held at the Social Work Library. For a list of journals covered in Social Services Abstracts, see the Serials Source List.
Below you will find a simple two-step approach to preparing your search strategy, thereby allowing you to search these databases effectively and efficiently.
Step #1. Define your topic in the form of a question or statement, for example, What are the issues faced by Hispanic elderly who are below the poverty line? Then, break down the question into specific logical components or concepts:
| CONCEPT 1: Hispanic |
CONCEPT 2: elderly |
CONCEPT 3: poverty |
Step #2 Using the example in step #1, write down all the synonyms you can think of to describe the concepts, using an appropriate thesaurus:
| CONCEPT 1: Hispanic |
CONCEPT 2: |
CONCEPT 3: poverty |
Hispanics |
elderly elderly women aging older adults age differences old old |
poverty destitution rural poverty urban poverty disadvantaged antipoverty programs poverty programs low income groups standard of living social inequality welfare services |
It is important to use the words in your search that are used in the database. For example, Sociological Abstracts and Social Services Abstracts use the Thesaurus of Sociological Indexing Terms as the official list of subject headings or descriptors (HM 17 .T5311 1996). AGELINE uses yet another set of terms found in the Thesaurus of Aging Terminology (HQ 1061 .D63 1997). Criminal Justice Abstracts (and NCJRS Abstracts) descriptor terms can be found in the National Criminal Justice Thesaurus (Z 695.1 .C84 U57). Please note: some CSA Illumina databases have an online equivalent of their accompanying thesaurus, for example, the Sociological Abstracts and Social Services Abstracts thesaurus can be found under the "Search Tools" tab in the database.
Before you start your search, consider methods for focusing your topic, with specific journal titles, or with dates of publication.
After you prepare your search strategy, you are ready to begin searching the databases. From your web browser, point to the Social Work Library's alphabetical list of databases, and click on the CSA Illumina link.
From the initial database selection screen, check the boxes next to the databases you want to search (AGELINE, Criminal Justice Abstracts, Sociological Abstracts, Social Services Abstracts), then click on the "Continue to Search" link. The default search mode is "Quick Search." Please note: if you chose to use Quick Search, your terms will be searched as a phrase.
However, for the most effective method to search these databases, library staff recommend that you use "Advanced Search" mode. Click on the green "Advanced Search" tab. Using the descriptors from the example above, perform an "Advanced" search, such as:
Click on the "Limited to: Journal Articles Only" box if you want to eliminate any citations to books, unpublished reports, consumer guides, dissertations, etc. Click on the "Search" button. The terms entered will be searched in the subject heading (descriptor) fields only. Your search results will display on the screen, indicating how many citations the system found in all the databases (duplicate citations will be removed). If you want to see how many citations were retrieved from each database, click on the plus sign (+) at the end of the "total results found" statement, for example:
To view the complete record for a citation, click on the "View Record" link near each citation. Note the the abstract (AB) field, and the descriptor (DE) fields for additional useful terms to refine or broaden your search. Click on "Return to Results" button to return to the list of search results.
You may mark records as you browse, for later printing/emailing. Click on the boxes next to the record numbers. After records are marked, click on the "X Marked Records" button from the results screen (where "x" is the number of records you marked). Click on the "Update Marked List" link to add records to your temporary list. Only the records you marked will display. These records remain on your marked list until you end your search session.
Click on the "X Marked Records" link near the upper right side of the screen (where "X" is the number of records you marked). Next, click on the "Save/Print/Email" link.
On the Save,Print,Email screen, confirm that "Use X Marked Records" is selected (where 'x' is the number of records you marked). In the format pull-down menu, we recommend that you select "full - omit refs" option to capture all the record information without the list of references. If you are emailing these records, type in your complete email address in the "To:" box (jqpublic@umich.edu). Click on the "Email" button; a screen should appear indicating that your records were sent. Click on "Return to Results" to return to your search results screen.
If you want to save (download) your records, from the Save,Print,Email screen select the appropriate file format (PC, MAC, or UNIX) and click on the "Save" button. Save your file to disk. Your file is saved as a text file (.TXT) and can be opened with any word processing software or bibliographic management application.
If you want to print your citations, from the Save,Print,Email screen, click on the "Print Preview" button. Your records appear in your browser window; use your browser's print command to print out the citations. Click on the browser "Back" button to return to the Save,Print,Email screen, and then click on "Return to Results" link to return to your search results.
To save your records to RefWorks, from the Save,Print,Email screen, simply click on the "Export to RefWorks" button. Your marked records are imported directly to your RefWorks account.
After performing a few searches for your terms, click on the "Search History" link near the upper right side of the screen. On the Search History screen, you will see a list of all the searches performed during your session. In the "Combine Searches:" box, type in the numbers of the search statements you wish to combine, e.g. #1 and #3. Click on the "Search" button to combine both search statements with an AND connector.
To find out where your cited journal is available online, click on the SFX button next to the citation in the results screen or in the full record of the citation. A new window will appear, with links to any electronic versions of the journal and a link to the Mirlyn catalog. If no electronic full-text is available, click on the link to the Mirlyn catalog. A catalog search for the publication title will run in a separate window. Display the full record to discover which volumes are on campus and which libraries own those volumes.
Use the asterisk (*) to search for variations of word endings, such as adolesc* for adolescent, adolescents, adolescence. Use the question mark (?) to replace one character within a word, e.g. wom?n for woman and women. Use the operator within# to find words within a specified number of words, but in any order, e.g. substance within 2 abuse.
In addition to the search connectors AND, OR, and NOT, you may use WITHIN X and NEAR between your key terms. Use WITHIN X, where "x" is a number, to search for a proximity relationship of fewer than "x" words between your terms, such as child within 2 protection. Use NEAR to search for a proximity relationship of fewer than 10 words between your terms, such as child near welfare.
Multiple CSA Illumina databases can be searched for the same terms simultaneously. Please remember that these databases do not use the same terminology to describe the same concepts, making it necessary to search for synonyms and to determine appropriate database-specific subject headings. Note that the descriptors appear on the right side of each citation in the results list, allowing you to search for valid sujects with a single click.
or Criminal Justice Abstracts or or Social Services Abstracts
This database is restricted to validated U-M students, staff and faculty.
Created by: Karen Reiman-Sendi
Content last updated on: 14 April 2005
Social Work Library | (734) 764-5169 | social.work.library@umich.edu
B700 School of Social Work Building, 1080 S. University, Ann Arbor MI 48109-1106
