Perspectives on U.S. Poverty

Journal Articles

• Sociological Abstracts
  Indexes scholarly journals in fields such as sociology, anthropology, economics, education, medicine, community development, philosophy, demography, political science, and social psychology.
  Use  to link to the full text of articles.
• ERIC
  Indexes education-related scholarly journals and reports from government and other agencies concerned with education.
  Use FindIt to link to the full text of articles.
• Social Services Abstracts
  Indexes the journal literature in social work, human services, and related areas, including social welfare, social policy, and community development.
  Use FindIt to link to the full text of articles.
• Social Sciences Full Text
  Index to and selected full text of international, English language journals in sociology, anthropology, geography, economics, political science and law.
  Use FindIt to link to the full text of those journals that do not have full text coverage in Social Sciences Full Text.
• Social Sciences Citation Index
  Indexes the journal literature in the social sciences.
  Use FindIt to link to the full text.

Please contact your librarian for further database recommendations or consult the Library's subject guide for sociology.

3 helpful tips

  Your gateway to the full text of journal articles.

Content is available via the following links:  Click on the Article link(s) to go to the full text.
Request from another library:  Submit an interlibrary loan request online. It takes on average 3-5 days for the article to arrive via email.

What is a scholarly journal article?

A scholarly journal article is a lengthy journal article based on primary research or original theoretical speculation and published in what is often referred to as a peer-reviewed journal. Most scholarly journal articles in the social sciences include the following elements:

Author name and affiliation
Abstract
Introduction & literature review
Data & measurement
Analysis & results
Conclusion
Bibliography

For a more detailed description of the differences between scholarly journals and popular magazines click here. You can find a detailed description of the peer-review process on Wikipedia.

Search multiple databases simultaneously.

This works for all the databases listed above.  Click on the Specific Databases link below the search box after you logged into Criminal Justice Abstracts or any of the other databases. You will be prompted to select from a list of databases. Select the databases that you would like to include into your search and click on Continue to Search. The search screen will identify your selections under Now selected.

Books

Library Catalog
Use the online catalog to find books, whether in print or online format. The Library's catalog has a number of different search options: keyword and subject searches are good starting points when first exploring a topic. Search results can be narrowed with facets, which appear to the right of the results. Topic, era, language are some of the available facets.

• Books about your topic: Search by subject – poverty
• Narrow your search with the help of the facets listed on the right hand side of the results screen: Public welfare, Social policy, Urban poor
• Find related books with the help of the subject links listed for each book title.
• Use Boolean statements to combine topics: immigration AND poverty
• Use quotation marks for phrases: “urban poverty”

Narrow search results with additional keywords.
Note that results can be sorted by publication date as well as further narrowed by topic or format.
Each record in the catalog has a Cite This icon that will create a citation in APA and MLA style.

The Library will mail books from its collection to distance education students. Click here for more information on book delivery for distance education students.

Background Research

These online resources are useful for an overview of a topic, as well as selecting a research topic.

• Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology
  Use the index or the search feature to find useful articles such as: 
  Poverty
  Family Poverty
  Feminization of Poverty
  Urban Poverty
  Homelessness
  
• Blackwell Companion to Social Inequalities
  See the chapters on Environmental Racism, The Internet and Social Inequality, and Definition, Measurement and Legitimacy in Studies of Homelessness.
• Encyclopedia of American Urban History
  Browse the Reader's Guide for topic ideas. Here are links to two articles:
  Federal Housing Administration
  Education in Cities
• Encyclopedia of Social Problems
  See the articles on Culture of Poverty and Working Poor.
• Encyclopedia of Homelessness
  
• Encyclopedia of American Immigration

More e-reference sources in sociology can be found on the Library's sociology subject guide.

Data/Statistics

• Statistical Abstracts of the United States
  The Statistical Abstract of the United States, published since 1878, is the authoritative and comprehensive summary of statistics on the social, political, and economic organization of the United States.
  Sources of data include the Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bureau of Economic Analysis, and many other Federal agencies and private organizations.
• Social Trends and Indicators U.S.A. (2003)
  Provides detailed statistics on social issues paired with expert analyses of the statistics. Statistics are gathered from respected sources, including the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bureau of the Census, Bureau of Economic Analysis, and the Social Security Administration; data is also gathered from the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and stock exchanges.
• Statistical Insight (Proquest)
  Some datasets are available down to the county level. Data can be displayed as graphs or maps.
• ICPSR
  Data archive that covers a wide range of social science areas such as population, economics, education, health, social and political behavior, social and political attitudes, history, crime, aging, and substance abuse.
• U.S. Census Bureau

Citing Your Sources

• Research and Documentation Online - APA
  Online guide to citing in APA style.

• Export references in APA style from the databases/journal indexes listed above.

  Check off selected articles  and click on Save, Print, Email. The QuickBib feature offers a selection of citation styles. APA style is the most widely used style in the social sciences.

  

• RefWorks
  Never type a bibliography again! RefWorks will help you easily gather, manage, and store bibliographic citations for all types of information, as well as generate footnotes and bibliographies.

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