Social Work | MacOdrum Library

Start your research

Pick a research topic

Read your assignment instructions carefully
Pick a topic that interests you and meets the criteria of the assignment
Identify key concepts of your research topic
- Need extra help? Try Choosing an essay topic
Do some background reading on your topic using Wikipedia or an encyclopedia.
- Using Wikipedia wisely (video)

Identify key concepts

Subject specific dictionaries and encyclopedias are useful for helping you figure out the jargon of a discipline and can give quick overviews of a topic to get you started. You can often pick up keywords to use in your search strategies from these sources:

Use this worksheet to write out your research topic and identify key ideas.

Developing a good search strategy is important

what is your assignment?
what is the main topic?
what aspect of the topic is of interest to you?
who has an interest in that topic?
what other language might they be using to talk about that topic? do they spell it differently?
when was it relevant? is it a new idea, or a long standing issue?
what other factors play into your issue? climate, population, government, geography, etc.

BOOLEAN SEARCH TIPS:

Use keywords only, DO NOT search using a full sentence.
Combine keywords for different ideas with AND
- Search by keyword for specific topics: Bereavement AND women
- Or by country: Homelessness AND Canada
Combine synonyms or similar words for an idea with OR. Use as many synonyms as you want but they must be in brackets and have OR between each term.
- (bereavement OR grief)
Capitalize your AND and OR terms
Use the * at the end of the root of a word to find all the forms of that word
Use " " quotation marks to find a phrase such as "human rights"

Use Filters offered by the database

Controlled vocabulary

Some databases have a list of terms used to index articles in a consistent manner. These terms can be used to search for relevant material.

This list may be referred to as:

Thesaurus
Subject Headings
Taxonomy
Synonyms

Filters

Use database filters to narrow down and focus the results you find. For example:

Category or Topic
Document Type
Date
Search within
Discover new search terms

As you read through a list of search results, take note of any new terms that are relevant to your topic. Search using these new terms.

Writing for Social Work

The Columbia Guide to Social Work Writing

Journal articles and books/eBooks

Start with the Omni search box to search across most of the library's databases. Use the main keywords from your research topic. As you retrieve results, use the filters on the left of the screen to narrow or broaden your search.

However, OMNI doesn't search everything that the library owns or subscribes to so you will still need to search other databases (see below) to find everything that you need.

Search Strategies for Database Searching

See tips offered in tab above Start Your Research
Use Filters offered by the database: especially Scholarly/Peer Reviewed so you see only the academic material.

KEY Databases for Social Work:

Databases by SUBJECT you should also use:

Both CPI-Q and Canadian Business and Current Affairs Database have Canadian content.
JSTOR and Google Scholar are both excellent multidisciplinary databases.

Special topics

Children: Child Development & Adolescent Studies and Child Welfare Information Gateway
Criminal Justice: Criminal Justice Abstracts
Education: ERIC
Health (including women's health): Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health (CINAHL)
History: America History and Life
Human rights: HuriSearch
Indigenous peoples: Bibliography of Indigenous Peoples in North America and America History and Life and Native Health Database
Labour and Work: Gender & Work Database
LGBTQ+: LGBTQ+ Source and Gender Studies Database
Mental Health: PsycINFO
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): PTSDpubs and PsycINFO
Political Economy: EconLit
Policy-related literature: Policy Commons and PAIS Index and Business Source Complete
Poverty: Sociological Abstracts and World Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology Abstracts
Social change, social welfare, social care and social services: Sociological Abstracts and Sociology Database
Women: Gender Studies database and Studies on Women and Gender Abstracts and Gender & Work Database

Do not limit yourself to these databases alone. See also: Databases by Subject.

More tips for effective searching

If you find one relevant article for your research it can lead to other relevant papers by the following:

using the databases, including OMNI, look to find all papers & books published by the author or co-authors
explore the bibliography in the paper for sources
using Web of Science or Scopus, look for articles that cite the article you found. Remember, some databases will also list citing articles but those lists are limited to the current database. The Web of Science and Scopus are more comprehensive, with coverage from multiple databases.
Remember to see if a citing article has itself been cited.

eBooks

Check out our eBooks page for lots of useful information.

Watch this very short video about eBook etiquette

How to do I get material that is not available in the library?

You can order journal articles and print material directly from OMNI now. This service is free and has a very quick turnaround.

Journal articles will be emailed to you and can be available within a few hours.

Print material will be available at the Library Services Desk and you will be notified by email. You can even have your material sent to another university for pick up. For example, if you live downtown, you may want to have your material sent to the University of Ottawa Library.

Watch this video to see how it is done!

If you need assistance with this, contact the Library Services Desk:

Library.Services@carleton.ca
613-520-2600 ext. 2734

Grey Literature

Grey literature

Grey literature is an important source of information in social work.

It adds a valuable global perspective
It provides detailed overviews on specific populations
It may be the only source of local information

Grey literature is defined as "information produced on all levels of government, academics, business and industry in electronic and print formats not controlled by commercial publishing" ie. where publishing is not the primary activity of the producing body." ICGL Luxembourg definition, 1997. Expanded in New York, 2004

Types of grey literature

Government Information
Dissertations and Theses
Conference Proceedings (select Conference Proceedings Citation Index- Science, you may also want to select the Social Science and Humanities option)
Newspapers and Magazines
Think Tank publications

Library resources

OMNI (change Content Type to types of grey literature such as government documents, conference proceedings etc.)
Google Scholar (change country, for example, to find international material)
Databases such as Social Work Abstracts or the Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health (CINAHL Database) (check document types; may include theses, conference proceedings, etc.)
Business Source Complete (select publication type "Grey literature")
CURVE Theses and Dissertations Collection
Dissertations and Theses Global

Other Resources

Grey Literature Report
Grey Matters (a checklist for health technology assessment from the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH))
GreyNet International (an international directory of organizations in Grey Literature and a repository)

Web sources of grey literature

Social work organizations

Canadian Association of Social Workers
Canadian Association for Social Work Education (CASWE-ACFTS)
Council on Social Work Education (United States)
International Federation of Social Workers
National Association of Social Workers (NASW) (United States)
National Institute for Social Work (United Kingdom)
Ontario Association of Social Workers
Social Work Policy Institute (United States)

Social research groups

Ontario Public Interest Group (OPIRG) Toronto
Caledon Institute of Social Policy A private, non-profit social policy think tank that conducts social policy research and analysis.
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
Canadian Council on Social Development
Canadian Index of Wellbeing Provides analyses of changes in Canadians' lives in areas such as health, standard of living, quality of the environment, time use, education and skills, community vitality, and civic engagement.
The Centre for the Study of Living Standards (CSLS) (Canada)
The Council of Canadians
Social Research and Demonstration Corporation Canada (a non-profit research organization, that develops, does field tests and evaluates social programs)
Think Tanks (University of Alberta Library)
Vanier Institute of the Family

Social Work Gateways

Charity Village Canada's supersite for the nonprofit sector
Social Work Access Network (SWAN) (University of South Carolina)
Social Work Internet Guide (University of Sydney Library)

More social work grey literature can be found under Special Topics

Government Documents, Policy Institutes and Data and Statistics

Government Documents

Open Government
Government of Canada's publications catalogue This portal searches the following publications:
- HillNotes: concise overviews of current and emerging issues of immediate interest
- Background Papers: in-depth studies of policy issues with references
- In Briefs: short briefings on current issues with references to more substantive discussions on the same topic
- Legislative summaries: concise analyses of certain bills before Parliament

Historical parliamentary documents

Federal government policies

The government information webpage (government websites, all levels)
Canadian Heritage. Click on "Funding" in the left-hand corner of the page, then "Topics". From this list pick "Cultural diversity and rights", then "Human Rights" and then "Canada's Reports to the UN" in the middle section of the page. These reports detail government policies and activities (federal and provincial) related to important international treaties such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
Employment and Social Development Canada.
Office of the Auditor General of Canada (evaluations of federal government policies and programs).
Library of Parliament of Canada (publications on policy issues).
The Canadian Government Policy Cycle subject guide. The section on Action explains the ways that the Canadian government can implement policy.
Search the Canadian Research Index.
CanLII This is a searchable site for Canadian policies/legislation. It has all federal, provincial, and municipal policies.

Note

Estimates are the detailed breakdown of proposed spending by ministry and government agencies that must be debated and approved by the government (federal or provincial). These detailed reports can contain information about revenues and expenditures and the actual monies received and spent in previous years.
Public Accounts are a detailed breakdown of what the government actually spent. These may be of use if estimates are not provided.

City of Ottawa

City of Ottawa
- Locate Ottawa (use this interactive map based on census data)
City of Ottawa Statistics and Demographics
Federation of Canadian Municipalities
Ottawa Neighbourhood Study

More specific social work government documents can be found under Special Topics.

Canadian Policy Institutes

Data and Statistics

What is the Difference Between Data and Statistics?

Data are the raw materials out of which statistics are produced, usually available as digital files for manipulation in statistical software. Statistics are facts or figures that tend to be aggregate counts, totals, sums, or averages.

Online Statistical consulting is available through the library.

Data

ODESI

Federal

Statistics Canada
Community Information Database (based on census data; socio-economic and demographic data and information for all Canadian communities)
Health In Canada
Canada Mortgage and Housing Data and Research
Ottawa Insights
Finding Local Census Data - Video

Provincial - Most provinces have statistical offices and are easily found through Google.

International

Special Topics

Abuse and Violence

About Family Violence (Department of Justice, Canada)
Canadian Centre for Abuse Awareness
Domestic Shelters (Canada)
Family Violence Laws (Canada)
Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime
La Marsh Centre for Research on Violence and Conflict Resolution (York University)
Child Welfare Information Gateway (United States)
Stop Family Violence (Canada)
Violence and Abuse Canada