Government Social Research
The amount of social science literature that is available to social researchers is daunting, and it is increasing at a very high rate. Getting access to research that has been undertaken on a topic or question is made considerably easier by the development of social science databases that can be searched using free text (i.e. ordinary language) and controlled terms (i.e. index terms created by librarians).
Most of the social science databases record and retrieve published literature, although some such as Dissertation Abstracts Online (DISSABS), identify unpublished studies such as work in progress, dissertations, and unofficial research reports.
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ASSIA (Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts) - references for books and journal articles from 1987 on 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. Contains over 312,000 records from 650 journals in 16 different countries, including the UK and US. Available to GSR desktops in subscribing departments, via CSA Illumina. Ask your librarian for help with searching.
Bibliography of Nordic Criminology - FREE database produced by the Scandinavian Research Council for Criminology. All titles are in the original language, with English translations. Full bibliographic entries are given with, in some cases, English abstracts.
British Library for Development Studies (BLDS) - 'Europe's largest collection on economic and social change in developing countries' maintained by the Institute for Development Studies at Sussex University. FREE web searching of catalogue of 1000+ journal titles', 10,000+ magazine, newspaper, annual report and newsletter titles ', 80,000+ monographs, including individual research reports, working papers and books. 200 of the journals are selectively indexed.
British Library Integrated Catalogue - includes all the existing and new BL grey literature records.
C2-SPECTR - FREE registry of over 10,000 randomized and possibly randomized trials in education, social work and welfare, and criminal justice. Provides support for individuals doing Campbell systematic reviews, and to anyone who cares about the effects of social and educational programs and practices.
CERUK (Current Educational Research in the UK) - FREE database of current or on-going research in education and related disciplines. Covers a wide range of studies including commissioned research and PhD theses, across all phases of education from early years to adults. Commissioning organisations, funders and researchers can use CERUK as a means of finding out what research is underway before commissioning or conducting new work. Also offers regular themed reports on particular areas of research, as well as exemplars which highlight individual studies. These focus on research that is ground breaking or interesting in terms of methodology or topic area.
DISSABS (Dissertation Abstracts Online) - FREE access to the most current two years of citations and abstracts in the Dissertation Abstracts database, and subscription access to a database of more than 1.6 million dissertations.
DrugData - a searchable database from DrugScope, 'the UK's leading independent centre of expertise' on drug abuse, of over 100,000 records of drugs literature in the English Language
DrugSearch - an online encyclopaedia from DrugScope, 'the UK's leading independent centre of expertise' on drug abuse, of drugs and their history, effects and the law
Econlit - references for books and journal articles on economic issues from 1969 onwards. Available to GSR desktops in subscribing departments, via CSA Illumina.
ESDS (Economic and Social Data Service - FREE access to a number of specialist services: ESDS Government, supporting users of the large-scale government data series; ESDS Longitudinal supporting the key UK longitudinal data collections; ESDS International, providing access to a range of international data sources; and ESDS Qualidata, enabling access to a range of qualitative data sources.
Educati on-line - FREE database of the full text of conference papers, working papers and electronic literature which supports educational research, policy and practice.
ERIC - FREE version of a national information system funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences to provide access to education literature and resources. Available to GSR desktops in subscribing departments, via CSA Illumina.
ESRC Society Today - FREE online database from ESRC of over 75,000 records, dating back to the mid-1980's and updated daily. Includes the most current social science research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the UK's leading research funding and training agency addressing economic and social concerns. From March 2005, incorporates the former Regard website the 'Information Centre'
Evidence-Based Program Database - compilation by the Center for Learning Excellence (CLEX) at Ohio State University of quality government, academic, and non-profit lists of evidence-based programs that appear on the World Wide Web and/or in print form. While these existing resources are of excellent quality, they have not been available in a centralized, user-friendly searchable database. Further, the content of all of these lists changes annually, making it very difficult for practitioners to remain knowledgeable of available evidence-based programs and select from them wisely.
Fonds Quetelet Library catalogue - FREE library catalogue of the Belgian 'FPS Economy, SMEs, Self-Employed and Energy'. Specialises in economic and statistical sciences . Includes a large collection of statistics with international coverage. The database contains over 400,000 records of books, serials and articles. Each record includes English, French and Dutch index terms.
FRANCIS - French subscription database but current year is accessible FREE, from L'Institut de l'Information Scientifique et Technique (INSTI) which hosts core worldwide literature in Humanities and Social Sciences from 1972. Records include bilingual descriptors (French-English) and 80% of the records contain an abstract. 41% of records are English and 31% French. 79% of records are journal articles.
IBSS (International Bibliography of the Social Sciences) - essential online resource for social science and interdisciplinary research. Available to GSR desktops in subscribing departments, via Ovid/SilverPlatter. Ask your librarian for help with searching.
ISI Web of Knowledge - unique research environment that connects researchers to a wealth of high quality content and powerful array of tools and technologies.
NCJRS - abstracts 170,000 criminal justice publications, including US Federal, State and Local government reports, books, research reports, journal articles, documents and unpublished research on a wide range of criminal and juvenile justice topics. Available to GSR in subscribing departments, via CSA Illumina.
Policyfile - US resource offering access to thousands of citation abstracts linking to sources of information e.g. on economic policy, defense policy, democratization, health policy, human rights, science and technology policy, urban policy, global economics and international trade.
PAIS (Public Affairs Information Service) - references to international public policy materials, including journal articles, official publications and statistical directories. Contains references to more than 479,000 journal articles, books, government documents, statistical directories, grey literature, research reports, conference reports, publications of international agencies, microfiche, Internet material, and more. Available to GSR desktops in subscribing departments, via CSA Illumina.
PubMed - FREE service of the National Library of Medicine. Includes over 14 million citations for biomedical articles back to the 1950's. These citations are from MEDLINE and additional life science journals. PubMed includes links to many sites providing full text articles and other related resources.
Question Bank - FREE online resource introduced in 1996 to store questionnaires and questions rather than data or datasets.
Regard - from March 2005 Regard is incorporated as the 'Information Centre' into the ESRC Society Today
The RURU database from the Research Unit for Research Utilisation, University of St Andrews , is a fully searchable library of references on research utilisation and the implementation of evidence-based policy and practice (EBPP). It draws on papers from four key sectors: health care, education, criminal justice and social care.
The database contains almost 400 papers and is still expanding. The database holds references to journal articles, books, reports, conference proceedings and seminar papers. It has a three-tier structure, comprising:
Literature sources include key electronic databases, the internet, reference lists, citation indices and web sites, as well as 'grey', or unpublished, literature. References are to English language papers dating back to 1985.
The on-line Help pages provide details of search options.
Social Programs That Work - database from the Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy of findings from well-designed Randomized Controlled Trials. Topics include: Early childhood; Education (K-12); Substance abuse prevention and treatment; Crime/violence prevention; Welfare and employment; International development. This site is a work in progress and suggestions of other important RCTs to include are invited.
Social Services Abstracts - covers social work, human services, and related areas, including social welfare, social policy, and community development. The database provides abstracts from journals and dissertations, and citations to book reviews, from 1980 and is updated monthly. Available to GSR desktops in subscribing departments, via CSA Illumina.
Society Today - FREE online database from ESRC of over 75,000 records, dating back to the mid-1980's and updated daily. Includes the most current social science research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the UK's leading research funding and training agency addressing economic and social concerns. From March 2005, incorporates the former Regard website the 'Information Centre'
Sociological Abstracts (also called Sociofile) - abstracts and indexes the international literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioural sciences. Available to GSR desktops in subscribing departments, via CSA Illumina.
UKDA (UK Data Archive) - FREE internationally-renowned centre of expertise in data acquisition, preservation, dissemination and promotion. Curator of the largest collection of digital data in the social sciences and humanities in the UK
A list of key databases for social research and public policy purposes, and a brief description of each of them, is available on Policy Hub.
Not all government social researchers have desktop access to these databases. Departmental librarians, however, have access to many of these databases and can assist with mediated searches (i.e. searches done by librarians). They can also provide government social researchers with advice and guidance on how to use databases effectively.
If you would like to suggest a database to be listed on this page, please contact the GSR web team.