MU Libraries Sourcepack
SOCIOLOGY 3420 - "The Family"
Instructor: Veronica Medina
Sociology Librarian: Nancy Turner Myers
What is a Literature Review?
A literature review is a summary of previous research on a topic. The purpose is to help you explain how the question that you’re investigating fits into the larger picture and why you’ve approached the topic the way you have. It allows the reader to be brought up-to-date with the state of research on the topic and familiarizes her/him with contrasting perspectives and viewpoints on the topic. It helps you answer for the reader, “Who cares?” by laying out why it is important and worthy of study. Link to more info: http://info.wlu.edu/literature_review/literature_review.html
How do you find the Literature to review?
Before you delve into the Sociology or other professional journals, you might want to get a better understanding of your topic or phenomenon by doing some reading in more general or "popular" sources. This can help you to narrow or focus a topic and help you decide what might be an appropriate "lens" through which to view your topic.
From MU Libraries' Gateway page, click "Find a Database” then, "Popular Databases"
Academic Search Premier is an index to major journals and magazines in all subject areas, so it's especially good for interdisciplinary topics. Many articles are full-text or link to full-text. Updated continually so it's a good place to look for the latest research. Keep in mind that this database covers all subjects (besides Sociology, for example, Education, Political Science, Mass Media, and Psychology), so there is breadth but not depth in any one field.
You can easily focus your search by clicking on "Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals" to limit search results to research articles. (Note that the terms "Peer Reviewed" and "Academic" are used interchangably). Here are two results from the same search on “children of prisoners.” Note that one is a brief newspaper article and the other is an in-depth, 14 page, research journal report.
Tales From Prison: How Jailed Mothers Tell Bedtime Stories --- Using Tapes Allows Inmates To Read to Their Children; `The Love in My Voice' By Jeffrey Zaslow. Wall Street Journal (Eastern edition). New York, N.Y.: Apr 11, 2002. p. A.1.
Incarcerated Mothers and Fathers: A Comparison of Risks for Children and Families. By: Dallaire, Danielle H.. Family Relations, Dec2007, Vol. 56 Issue 5, p440-453, 14p.
CQ Researcher is a weekly report focusing on one issue in-depth. Covers many topics in the news of interest to sociologists such as immigration, crime, education, gender, family and popular culture. Not considered a scholarly or peer reviewed source but it can help you identify scholars, books and research articles to follow up on.
Newspapers can be an excellent source of information, especially for an emerging phenomenon or local issues. Although usually brief, newspaper articles can often lead you to experts on a topic, advocacy groups, help identify key incidents and players and give you "clues" to follow up on in research journals. From the MU libraries' Databases page, click on the Newspapers category for a listing of choices.
Find Scholarly Articles from Sociology & other Disciplines' Journals
Sociological Abstracts is the database that covers the field of sociology in-depth, indexing over 1,800 journals. This is where you will find scholarly research articles written by sociologists. Similar to the MERLIN catalog, you can start by searching by key words and then see what the subject (descriptor) is to find more on the topic. You can also search by author or by a specific journal title and other elements. Here's an example of an article found by a key words search on "(gay OR same sex) AND adoption"
Cahill, Sean, Juan Battle and Doug Meyer. 2003. "Partnering, Parenting, and Policy: Family Issues Affecting Black Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) People." Race & Society 6(2):85-98.
Link to this article: to see a model of how the research is presented, including the literature review, data and methods section, how statistical tables are displayed, discussion of results, etc.
JSTOR is another good database choice since it covers most of the core journals in Sociology and other disciplines and contains the full-text for all. Keep in mind that it is a journal archive and does not have the latest issues of any journal. Use a database that is frequently updated such as Academic Search Premier (above), or others such as Sociological Abstracts (above) or Social Sciences Citation Index, to search for articles from the last 3 - 5 years.
If your topic is from a related discipline, such as Psychology, Social Work, Education, Political Science, or Health, find the relevant databases by starting at the "All Subjects" page from the MU Libraries Databases listings.
Find the Full-text of Journal Articles
If you're looking at results in one of the databases listed above, just click on the button next to the article citation. The article will display if it's available electronically. If there is no online access, you'll be give the opportunity to look for a print copy in the MERLIN Catalog.
If you have an article reference, but are not currently in a database, go to the MU Libraries' Gateway page and click on Find a Specific Article or Journal on the left side of the screen to enterFind it @ MU. Once in 
you're given the opportunity to search for a specific article or journal title. If electronic coverage is not available, check the MERLIN Catalog to see if we have a print subscription to the journal.
MU Libraries does not subscribe to all journal titles. If you find a journal article that you need, but cannot find the article using Find it @ MU, logon to https://ill.mul.missouri.edu/MUU/logon.html (our interlibrary loan service) and fill out a journal article request form (available on the Libraries Gateway page under "About the Libraries." You will need to register the first time you use ILL@MU. Usually you will receive the article electronically via e-mail within a few days of placing your request.
Google Scholar is a sub-set of Google that provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations. Keep in mind that it is because MU Libraries subscribe to or have access to the item online, that you will be able to click to get the full text.
Find Library Books
- From the MU Libraries' homepage , choose the MERLIN Catalog. Type in words describing the topic you are researching. Once you have a list of hits, select one that looks on-target, then examine the subject headings for that item. Try clicking on that subject to retrieve similar items.
- If you do not find enough books on your topic to meet your needs, change your search to "ALL MERLIN." By doing so you will be checking the library holdings at UMSL, UMKC, UMR and MU all at once.
- Still not enough? Click on the MOBIUS Catalog button. This expands your search to about 50 additional libraries in our state network.
- Most books you find through MERLIN or MOBIUS are requestable online, simply by clicking the "Request Item" link. Books requested through MERLIN or MOBIUS normally take about three working days to arrive.
- You may request books not listed in MERLIN or MOBIUS via Book and Articles Request under About the Libraries on the MU Libraries' homepage .
Find Background Information
Here are three online encyclopedias/handbooks focused on sociological issues:
Encyclopedia of Social Theory George Ritzer, editor
Encyclopedia of Sociology Edgar F. Borgatta, editor-in-chief
21st Century Sociology Clifton D. Bryant and Dennis L. Peck, co-editors
Writing an Annotated Bibliography
Click on the link above for detailed help and examples of annotated bibliography entries.
Using ASA Citation Style
Here are two sites that can help you with formatting your paper in ASA style:
American Sociological Association's site
Another useful site at Cal State
Need More Help?
Stop by, call (882-4581), or e-mail (ellisref@missouri.edu), Ellis Library Reference Desk, First Floor, South, Ellis Library.