Social Sciences

Article : How does big data change the research landscape for the humanities and social sciences?

Published: Thu, 2012-06-14 15:16 by Amy Cross

JISC News reports that the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) has "issued the first public appraisal of the Digging into Data Challenge, an international grant programme first funded by JISC, the US National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the US National Science Foundation and the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

Repository of the Week : Data Archiving and Networked Services

Published: Wed, 2012-06-13 14:57 by Amy Cross

Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS), based in the Netherlands, promotes "sustained access to digital research data". DANS actively encourages researchers to archive research data through the online archiving system EASY.

Making it Matter

Published: Tue, 2012-03-06 15:25 by Belinda Weaver

Most academics are keen to have impact - either by advancing knowledge in their discipline or by seeing positive change come about in society, in economics or in public policy because of what they have done.

Sociology

Getting Started

If you are not sure what your topic is about, try one or more of the following:

Encyclopaedias:

Encyclopedia of sociology

The Sage encyclopedia of social science research methods

Handbooks:

21st Century Sociology: a reference handbook

The handbook of economic sociology

The handbook of political sociology : states, civil societies, and globalization

Encyclopedia of social measurement

Social Surveys

Dictionaries:

Cambridge Dictionary of Sociology

Dictionary of Sociology

The Penguin dictionary of sociology

Browsing the Shelves:

You can also browse the Catalogue, or the shelves at the following call numbers -

H Social Sciences

HM Sociology (General)

HN Social History & Conditions: Social Problems: Social Reform

HQ Family: Marriage: Women

HT Communities: Classes: Races

HV Social Pathology: Social & Public Welfare: Criminology

RA Public Health

Journal Articles

For recent information, journal articles are often the best sources. Looking through individual journals in the hope of finding relevant material is time-consuming. It is better to use the databases to find articles on your topic.

Journal Articles:

APA-FT: Australian Public Affairs Full Text

Indexes articles from a wide range of periodicals, newspapers, scholarly journals, conference papers and books in the social sciences and humanities. Some references are available in full text.

ProQuest research library

Includes journals, magazines and newspapers on a broad range of general reference subjects including arts, business, humanities, social sciences, and the sciences. I

Proquest Social Science Journals

Links to full text journals in the areas of social science and humanities. Formerly known as Social Sciences Plus text. Subjects include gerontology, economics, international relations, minority studies and urban studies.

Sociological abstracts

Abstracts and indexes literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences

Scopus

Scopus is a multidisciplinary abstract and citation database of research literature and quality web sources. Subject coverage includes chemistry, physics, mathematics, engineering, life and health sciences, psychology, economics, social sciences, and biological and agricultural sciences

Web of Science (via the Web of Knowledge)

Provides access to current and retrospective multidisciplinary information from high impact research journals. Web of Science also provides a unique search method, cited reference searching.

Browse all databases for Sociology

Multimedia

Multimedia:

Multimedia Service Video Streaming on Demand

Related Guides

Related Guides:

Anthropology

Criminology

Gender Studies

Statistics

Statistics:

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)

Australian statistical internet sites --
This site, maintained by the National Library of Australia lists general internet sites for Australian statistics.

Crime and criminal justice statistics --
This site provides access to Australian and international statistics on crime and criminal justice by subject or jurisdiction. Data is drawn from a variety of sources.

Office of Economic and Statistical Research
A web site containung a wide range of demographic, economic and social data relating to the State of Queensland.

The WHO Statistical Information System (WHOSIS) has been incorporated into the Global Health Observatory (GHO) to provide you with more data, more tools, more analysis and more reports.

Web Sites

Web Sites:

TASA - The Australian Sociological Association Sociological Gateways

A Sociological Tour through Cyberspace. Good starting point. Fully annotated list of sites for general sociology resources, sociological theory, data resources, methods and statistics, and specific subjects. Also includes essays on sociology theory and practice as well as a guide to writing a research paper.

SocioSite

Megasite produced by the Sociological Institute of the University of Amsterdam to provide access to European and worldwide resources of academic sociology.

The SocioWeb.

A comprehensive, independent guide to sociology resources on the Internet divided into twelve categories including Internet Indexes and Guides, Commercial Sites, Journals and 'Zines, Sociological Theory, Surveys and Statistics, Topical Research, and University Departments.

SOSIG: Social Science Information Gateway

Offers a catalog of selected, annotated Internet resources in the social sciences, business, and law, plus a search engine for over 50,000 social science web pages.

WWW Virtual Library: Social Sciences.

A composite of many social sciences web sites. Includes data sets, electronic journals and newsletters, organizations, and other sociology resources.

Anthropology

Getting Started

If you are not sure what your topic is about, try one or more of the following:

Encyclopaedias:

Encyclopedia of anthropology (online)

Companion encyclopedia of anthropology

Encyclopedia of cultural anthropology

Encyclopedia of social and cultural anthropology

The encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia

Handbooks:

Moving anthropology : critical indigenous studies

The handbook of ethical research with ethnocultural populations & communities

Browsing the Shelves:

You can also browse the Catalogue, or the shelves at the following call numbers

CC Archaeology
DU History of Australia and Oceania
E & F History of America
GF Human ecology; Anthropogeography
GN Anthropology

Dictionaries:

The dictionary of anthropology

Image Collections

Image Collections:

National Museum of Natural History - Anthropology image collection

Picture Australia - A collection of Australian images, objects, maps and art

UCLA's Fowler Museum - Online collection of global arts and cultures with an emphasis on works from Africa, Asia, the Pacific, and the Americas

Western Australian Museum - Archaeological and anthopological image collections, including maritime archaeology

Journal Articles

Journal Articles:

Key databases

APA-FT

Indexing and full text database providing access to journal articles from published material on the social sciences and humanities. APA-Full Text includes all the journal indexing from the Australian Public Affairs Information Service (APAIS) database.

Humanities index

Indexes publications in all areas of the Humanities, including archaeology, from 1984

Australian heritage bibliography (formerly HERA)

Indexes and abstracts articles from material on Australia's natural and cultural environment

Sociological abstracts

Provides access to international research in theoretical and applied sociology, social science, and policy science

Anthropology plus

Provides indexing of journal articles, reports, commentaries, edited works, and obituaries in the fields of social, cultural, physical, biological, and linguistic anthropology, ethnology, archaeology, folklore, material culture, and interdisciplinary studies.

Other databases

Mura

Catalogue of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) library which contains comprehensive collections of print materials on Australian Indigenous studies

ProQuest Research Library

Includes journals, magazines and newspapers on a broad range of general reference subjects including arts, business, humanities, social sciences, and the sciences.

AIATSIS

Indexes published and unpublished material on Australian indigenous studies. All records relate to Australian indigenous studies and are in English with some in Australian indigenous languages.

eHRAF World Cultures

This is a cross-cultural database organised into cultures and ethnic groups. Although it only contains limited Australian material, it is a useful starting point for finding papers about a particular ethnic group.

Browse all databases for Anthropology

Multimedia

Multimedia:

Ethnographic Video Online and Anthropology Online

Web Sites

Web Sites:

Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander Studies (AIATSIS) - A gateway to research publications and multimedia resources

Voice of the Shuttle

Trove - A collection of images, multimedia, maps, letters and diaries focused on Australia and Australians

Anthropology tutorials - Web based tutorials on biological and cultural anthropology topics

Archaeology

Getting Started

If you are not sure what your topic is about, try one or more of the following:

Encyclopaedias:

Encyclopedia of archaeology

Encyclopedia of archaeology : History and discoveries

Encyclopedia of archaeology : The great archaeologists

Archaeological method and theory - an encyclopedia

The Oxford companion to archaeology

Encyclopedia of anthropology

Handbooks:

Archaeology in practice : a student guide to archaeological analyses

The first farmers : origins of agricultural societies

Handbook of archaeological sciences

On the road of the winds : an archaeological history of the Pacific Islands before European contact

Browsing the Shelves:

CB3-CB482 History of Civilization
CC Archaeology
DE - DG Ancient Mediterranean
DT43 - DT154 Ancient Egypt
DU120 Australian Archaeology
GF Environmental Archaeology
GN69 Forensic Archaeology
GN700 - GN890 Prehistoric Archaeology

Image Collections

Image Collections:

Archaeology in Action - flickr group with a rich collection of archaeology related photos

eKokuhou - Images of archaeological and other objects from the National Musuem of Japan

School of Oriental and African Studies - Image collections and online exhibitions from countries across Africa and Asia

Western Australian Museum - Archaeological and anthopological image collections, including maritime archaeology

Journal Articles

Journal Articles:

Key databases

APA-FT

Humanities index

Indexes publications in all areas of the Humanities, including archaeology, from 1984

Australian heritage bibliography (formerly HERA)

Indexes and abstracts articles from material on Australia's natural and cultural environment

Mura

Catalogue of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) library which contains comprehensive collections of print materials on Australian Indigenous studies

Other databases

Anthropology Plus

JSTOR

A database established in August 1995 to convert back issues of paper journals into electronic format. Subject collections include arts and sciences, general science and language and literature

Humanities retrospective

Indexes publications (1907-1984) in the areas of: art, archaeology and classical studies, dance, drama, film, folklore, history, journalism and communications, language and literature, music, performing arts, philosophy, religion and theology.

Browse all databases for Archaelology

Maps

Maps:

Arch atlas - Geospatial mapping and archaeology

Archaeological atlas of the world

Atlas of ancient archaeology

Primary Materials

Primary Materials:

Australian pottery from the 1930s - Collection of images and information on Australian pottery from the 1930s

Identification of historic bottles - A resource to assist with dating, identification and classification of historic bottles and bottle fragments

Project Perseus (art and archaeology artifact browser) - Includes coins, buildings, sculpture and pottery

Specialised Resources