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Social Work: Databases

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Databases provide access to high-quality peer-reviewed journal articles, conference proceedings, book chapters, dissertations and many other resources. 

These databases have been especially selected for this subject area. When carrying out your research for a piece of work, you will need to search more than one database to find all of the journal articles relevant to your topic, as each database covers different journal titles.

Database Spotlight

Images from Oxford Bibliographies Online

Oxford Bibliographies Online

Oxford Bibliographies Online is a comprehensive, multidisciplinary resource encompassing material from 43 diverse discipline areas across the humanities, social sciences and sciences.   

Developed in collaboration with scholars worldwide, this database offers authoritative and updated research guides that blend the features of an annotated bibliography with those of a high-level encyclopaedia. Each article serves as an up-to-date, reliable guide to current scholarship across a wide array of disciplines, complete with original commentary and detailed annotations.  

The platform's advanced discoverability tools help users locate the content they need—be it chapters, books, journal articles, websites, blogs, or data sets. Users can sign in to save searches, create personalised lists of citations, and access links to full-text content in print and online.  

Additionally, email alerts notify users of updates to articles and bibliographies.  

With its multidisciplinary scope, Oxford Bibliographies Online is an invaluable resource for teaching and research across the humanities, social sciences, and sciences and complements our access to Oxford Research Encyclopaedias in providing accurate, peer reviewed and regularly updated summaries.  

 

Essential databases

The following are important databases for this subject area, however if you don't see what you're looking for, please go to the Database Directory for Social Work to browse a wider selection.

 

  • Social Care Online Essential
    Social Care Online is the UK's most extensive database of social care information; with everything from research briefings, to reports, government documents, journal articles, and websites. Topics include: anti-discriminatory practice, child protection, families, elder abuse, HIV/AIDS, juvenile and criminal justice, local government, management, mental health.
  • CINAHL Plus Essential
    CINAHL Plus provides indexing for 3,802 journals from the fields of nursing and allied health back to 1937. It covers English-language journals and other publications on nursing, biomedicine, health sciences librarianship, alternative/complementary medicine, consumer health and other allied health disciplines. In addition to journals, the database covers health care books, nursing dissertations, selected conference proceedings, standards of practice, educational software, audiovisual materials and Evidence-Based Care Sheets. Full text material includes nearly 80 journals plus legal cases, clinical innovations, critical paths, drug records, research instruments and clinical trials. The service also includes the Pre-CINAHL dataset. This provides basic bibliographic information about journal articles before they are indexed with CINAHL headings and serves as a current awareness service.
  • International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS) Essential
    The International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS) includes over 3 million bibliographic references to journal articles and to books, reviews and selected chapters dating back to 1951. It is unique in its broad coverage of international material and incorporates over 100 languages and countries. It provides cross-disciplinary coverage across the social sciences, focused on four primary subject areas: anthropology, economics, political science and sociology.
  • Scopus Essential
    Scopus, the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature, features smart tools to track, analyze and visualize research. Scopus delivers an overview of the world's research output in the fields of science, technology, medicine, social sciences and arts and humanities. As research becomes increasingly global, interdisciplinary and collaborative, you can make sure that critical research from around the world is not missed.
  • Social Services Abstracts Essential
    Provides bibliographic coverage of current research focused on social work, human services, and related areas, including social welfare, social policy, and community development from 1980 to date. The database abstracts and indexes over 1,406 serials publications and includes abstracts of journal articles and dissertations, and citations to book reviews.
  • Web of Science Essential
    Web of Science Core Collection provides access to the world's leading citation databases. Authoritative, multidisciplinary content covers journals worldwide, including Open Access journals and conference proceedings. Includes current and retrospective coverage in the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities, with coverage to 1900. All cited references for all publications are fully indexed and searchable. Search across all authors and all author affiliations.Track citation activity with Citation Alerts. See citation activity and trends graphically with Citation Report.Use Analyze Results to identify trends and publication patterns.
  • Community Care Inform Adults. Essential
    The UKs largest providers of online resources for social workers and social care professionals. The database's resources are designed by and for social workers and other professionals who work with disabled and older people. The aim of the site is to provide guidance on the latest good practice, research, legislation and case law; and to help improve standards of practice by equipping practitioners with the information they need to confidently make informed decisions and assessments.
  • Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts (ASSIA) Essential
    An indexing and abstracting tool covering health, social services, psychology, sociology, economics, politics, race relations and education. Updated monthly, ASSIA provides a comprehensive source of social science and health information for the practical and academic professional. It contains records from over 500 journals published in 16 different countries, including the UK and US.
  • PsycInfo Essential
    APA PsycInfo is an electronic bibliographic database providing abstracts and citations to the scholarly literature in the psychological, social, behavioral, and health sciences. The database includes material of relevance to psychologists and professionals in related fields such as psychiatry, management, business, education, social science, neuroscience, law, medicine, and social work. Updated weekly, APA PsycInfo provides access to journal articles, books, chapters, and dissertations.
    About 99% of the journals in the database are peer-reviewed, dating from the early 1800s to the present. Nearly 80% of the database contains journal records that are accepted for coverage if archival, scholarly, peer-reviewed, and regularly published with titles, abstracts, and keywords in English. 30% of the database contains material of European origin, while an additional 12% of the database is from US dissertations.
  • Community Care Inform Children Essential
    Part of the multi-award winning Community Care group, this online resource helps reduce risk for families and for organisations by ensuring social work professionals are able to make confident, robust and evidence-based decisions every day and defend those decisions competently in court. Provides access to trusted, essential resources that save time, improve quality and support learning.

Key database categories

Database Directory

You can use our Database Directory to browse a broader range of databases that are relevant to Social Work as well as other subjects. The directory also allows you to identify databases that provide access to specific types of resources (e.g. Full Text Articles, Streaming Video, Patents, Theses and Dissertations, and much more).

Database Directory Social Work

Research at the University of Manchester

The University of Manchester's research is internationally recognised. Go to Research Explorer, Manchester's research database, to discover the breadth of research produced by staff across the University.

Browse research publications from the Division of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work (please note: whilst many of the publications listed are available to access/Open Access, some records are for forthcoming titles awaiting publication).

 

Research Explorer Search Interface

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