Women's and Gender Studies | MacOdrum Library

Key Resources

Gender Studies Database

Key resource for all aspects of women's and gender studies

Sociological Abstracts

Excellent for feminist, gender, activist research

Scopus

Good source for women and health

Web of Science

gender and feminist aspects in the sciences and social sciences

CINAHL Database

Excellent for social health issues

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The MacOdrum Library is located on the unceded territories of the Algonquin nation. Use this guide to begin your research and contact Martha Attridge Bufton, who is available for online consultations.

Start your research

Meet Martha Attridge Bufton in the following video.

Pick a research topic

Read your syllabus (assignment instructions).
Pick a topic that interests you and meets the assignment instructions.
Narrow or broaden the scope of your topic so that it is "doable."
- What's scope? Scope refers to the "people, places and things" or "who, what, when and where" that you are studying. For example, Canada or another country? Children or adults? Education or child protection services?

Identify key concepts

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

Do an initial search for academic sources

Here are some videos to help you pick the right search engines and sources for your assignment.
- Beware of filter bubbles: What to know about Google and filtered information.
- Search faster, search smarter: How to search using your key concepts.

Use the CRAAP test to evaluate the quality of online sources.

Find dictionaries and encyclopedias

Reference materials (dictionaries, encyclopedias and handbooks) can help you find a definition as well as an introductory and simple coverage of a topic. You can find these resources using the library’s search system on the home page.

Try searching using terms such as:

dictionar* AND feminism
encyclopedia* AND women
Handbook AND "women's studies"

Note: When you put the quotation words around two or more words that create a single idea, you can search for materials that contain this phrase rather than for random keywords.

Here’s a sample of what you can find in the library collection:

Dictionaries

Encyclopedias

Find peer-reviewed journal articles

Databases

Use the list of databases at the top of this page to search for journal articles.

Other databases with relevant content include:

Open access journals

A sample of recommended peer-review journals in our library collection

Some publications are available either only in print or online. Others are available in both formats. Check UlrichsWeb for more information about individual journals.

Find books & ebooks

Find books

In the search field on the library home page, use keywords to find books and ebooks (i.e., use your key concepts to search for relevant materials).

Ebooks

The library has a number of ebook collections. These collections include:

To retrieve these materials with a keyword search in the library main search engine or other databases:

To find ebooks, use the "available online" and "books" filters in Omni.
To find journal articles
- Use the "available online" and "articles" filters in Omni
- Use the "linked to full text" filter in other databases.

Cite your sources