Database Guides

SocINDEX with Full Text

SocINDEX with Full Text is often described as the world's most comprehensive and highest-quality sociology research database.

It includes extensive coverage of all sub-disciplines and related subject areas including social work, substance abuse, social policy, social psychology and some health related topics.

It provides access to over 800 full text journals, with abstracts from over 1500 more journals, plus some conference papers in full-text.

Finding Journal Articles

When searching for journal articles, break down your topic into keywords and phrases.

Enter these words and phrases on different lines. Place quotation marks around phrases to ask the database to find the words within the quotation marks together as a phrase.

Example

If you are looking for literature on the possible role of music in improving the quality of life of people with dementia, enter the word music on the first line, the phrase "quality of life" on the second line and dementia on the third line. This will find any article which mentions all of these concepts.

At the bottom of the search screen you will see Search Options. In most cases you will not need to use these options, and most can be applied once you see your list of results. If you have, however, been asked by your lecturer to find only Peer Reviewed material, you may wish to select Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals.

Once you have entered relevant keywords and phrases, click Search to view a list of results.

Top Tip!

If your search results are disappointing, think of different ways of expressing your topic. For "quality of life" you could try wellbeing.

If you add the wildcard symbol * to the root of a word you can find all words beginning with the letters in front of it - so music* would find music, musical, musician and musicians at the same time.

Click on the title of a particularly relevant article to view the summary and see what subject terms have been used to describe that article. You can then search on those terms.

To find out more about planning a search, creating search strategies and using different search techniques, explore our search techniques guide.

Narrowing Down Your Search

You can use the options on the left of the screen under Refine Results to narrow down your search. You may wish to slide across the bar under Publication Date to limit your results to those from a particular time period.

Further down this section you may find options to narrow your search by:

source (type of material)
subject
publication
language

Please note that a limit, once applied, stays in place until you click to remove it.

Getting the Full Text

You can see further details, and a summary, of any items listed on SocINDEX, by clicking on the title of the item in the results list.

If the article you require has a PDF icon or a HTML Full Text icon underneath or adjacent to it, click on it to view the full text. You can then choose to download, print or email the article, as well as adding details of articles to a folder. These details can be emailed to yourself, or transferred to RefWorks.

If the article you require does not have a PDF or HTML Full Text icon, it is not available in full text on SocIndex with Full Text. However, it may be available in full text elsewhere in our collection - check by clicking on Full Text @ RGU.

More information on how to use Full Text @ RGU can be found below.

Top Tip!

Some articles may have a Times Cited in this Database link under them. Click on this link to find details of other newer articles, some in full text, which have included this article in their list of references and may discuss similar topics.

Full Text @ RGU

Even if we don't have the full text of an article available on the particular database that you are browsing, we may have it available elsewhere.

Full Text @ RGU is here to help you find the full text.

To see if full text is available, first click on the Full Text @ RGU logo (usually shown under or alongside the article).

If we have the full text available on one database, you will be taken straight to the full text.

If we have the full text available on multiple databases, you will be taken to the Full Text @ RGU page. Here you will be given a choice of links that will each take you to the full text on a different database.

The catalogue will check if we have the item available

You might be required to log in using your RGU username and password. Then, you should get access to the full text article.

If we do not have full text available for the article anywhere online, you will see the page below.

We may still have a paper version of the article available as part of our print journal collection. Print journals are not currently shown on the catalogue, but can be checked by following the guide at https://library.rgu.ac.uk/findingjournals

If we do have a print copy of the article available, visit the Library and have a look for the journal on the shelves. If the journal is held in the level 2 store, please speak to the library receptionist.

If you are an online learning student and only paper copies are available, you can place an Article & Chapter request.

If we do not have the article available either online or in print, then RGU does not have access to the article.

In this situation, you could try placing an inter-library loan request. An inter-library loan is where we borrow the item from another library on your behalf. More information about inter-library loans can be found at https://library.rgu.ac.uk/inter-library-loans

On the screen shown below, click the sign in button.