Subject Guides: Sociology: Resources

Books

Books can be a great place to start your reading around a topic.

Sociology books are located in the D section on the first floor of the JB Morrell Library. Many books will also be available online as e-books. Look for the links in YorSearch, under the View It section of each book.

Search for books and journals on YorSearch

Journals & databases

All journal titles are listed on YorSearch, and can be found by searching the journal title.

If you don't have a specific title in mind, you can browse journals in your subject area on Browzine. Journals are organised by field of research, such as:

Browse all Social Science

Browse all Sociology

Criminology and Criminal Justice

Comparative and Historical Sociology

Family, Life Course and Society

Gender and Sexuality

Public Affairs and Public Policy

Race and Ethnicity

Social Movements and Social Change

News, Statistics and Data

News sources

The Library has an extensive collection of printed, microfilm and electronic UK and international newspapers. These can be searched on YorSearch or found on the eResources guide Newspapers list.

Nexis This link opens in a new window
Personalisation is available via the link above.

Alternative link without personalisation if you have problems with the link above (please clear the cookies and cache in your browser): Nexis.
Nexis is a major source of global news and business information. It provides full-text access to over 34,000 publications, with more than 12,000 news sources including UK daily and regional newspapers, current affairs magazines, and professional journals. Updated daily; back issues archive varies by title.

Nexis also includes 80 sources of company information, plus thousands of biographies of government officials, politicians, celebrities, investors and business contacts.

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Statistics and data

The Library subscribes to a range of sources of statistics and data, which are provided on the eResources guide Datasets and Statistics list.

Eurostat This link opens in a new window
The European Commission’s official portal to publicly-available social and economic data about EU member states. English, German or French-language interface available. Data is displayed in pre-formatted tables which can be downloaded into Excel or SPSS. You can customise the variables displayed before downloading.
The European Commission's official portal to publicly-available social and economic data about EU member states. English, French or German-language interface available.

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National Statistics (Office for National Statistics) This link opens in a new window
The most in-depth collection of social and economic statistics about the UK is free-to-access on the National Statistics website, maintained by the state-run Office of National Statistics.
The website of the UK Office for National Statistics. Site includes full texts of the latest press releases (plus a searchable archive); and a substantial collection of free-to-access online statistical publications, such as "The Official Yearbook of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland", "Social Trends", "United Kingdom Economic Accounts", and others (usually most recent edition only). Also Census 2001, and the newly developed Neighbourhood Statistics service, providing access to "a vast range of social and economic aggregate data on a consistent small-area geography" (searchable by postcode).

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OECD iLibrary Statistics This link opens in a new window
26 statistical databases from the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). Coverage includes national accounts, economic indicators, financial affairs, social expenditure, and further series relating to industry, agriculture, energy, employment, health, migration, development and aid, for all 30 OECD member countries and other major economies.

Each data series has a searchable abstract indicating origin, start date, periodicity, content etc. Data tables can be constructed according to your own specifications for viewing online, then exported into a spreadsheet package for further processing.

For information about OECD Health Data, please see the separate entry.
Statista This link opens in a new window
Please note that the University has access to the core Statista database. You will not have access to Statista Global Consumer Survey and Statista Company Database.
Statista is a comprehensive statistics platform giving access to over 1.5 million data sets (with more added daily) and revenue forecasts for over 400 industries. Data and statistics are aggregated from 22,500 sources on 85,000 different topics. Updates to data sets, depending on content type, occur monthly, quarterly, six monthly and yearly. Statista also includes many thousands of downloadable reports, studies and dossiers.

The University has access to the core Statista database. You will not have access to Statista Global Consumer Survey and Statista Company Database.

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UK Data Service This link opens in a new window
To access data you will need to create a personal account.
Consolidates and integrates four services established and funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC): the Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS), the Secure Data Service, the Survey Question Bank and elements of the ESRC Census Programme.

The UK Data Service provides a unified point of access to more than 6,000 collections of high quality social and economic data, including UK Census data, government-funded surveys, longitudinal studies, international macrodata, qualitative data and business microdata.

For help with this resource, take a look at our Quick Guide.

Accessibility information

CIA World Factbook
Compiled by the United States Central Intelligence Agency, a free source of summary social and economic data for all countries, updated annually. Provides a global ranking for each variable.
OECD Factbook
More info Less info
Published annually by the OECD to collate economic and social data about member states and additional major countries. Summary data is presented in tables which can also be downloaded as Excel spreadsheets. Approx. 10 years’ historical data in most cases.

Databases

To start a more detailed search for articles and other research evidence, you'll need to use online databases. These are collections of resources that allow you to search for articles from hundreds of different journals at the same time.

Key databases

Sociological Abstracts (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Sociological Abstracts covers the international literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioural sciences. The database provides abstracts of journal articles and citations to book reviews drawn from thousands of serials publications, and also provides abstracts of books, book chapters, dissertations, and conference papers. Coverage starts from 1952 and the database is updated monthly.

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Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Web of Science provides access to the Science Citation Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index, and Arts & Humanities Citation Index.

For help with this resource, take a look at our Quick Guide.

For help using this resource for bibliometrics see Bibliometrics: a practical guide.

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Scopus This link opens in a new window
Personalisation options are available via the link above.

Alternative link without personalisation if you have problems with the link above (please clear the cookies and cache in your browser): Scopus.
An abstracting, indexing and citation database covering peer-reviewed research literature and web sources in the natural sciences and medicine, social sciences, arts and humanities.

For help with this resource, take a look at our Quick Guide.
For help using this resource for bibliometrics see Bibliometrics: a practical guide.
For further information about Scopus metrics see Elsevier's Research Metrics Guidebook.

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Criminal Justice Abstracts (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
Criminal Justice Abstracts aims to provide comprehensive coverage of the major journals in criminology and related disciplines, extensive coverage of books, and access to some reports from government and non-governmental agencies. For each document, a summary of the findings, methodology, and conclusions is provided. Topics include crime trends, prevention projects, corrections, juvenile delinquency, police, courts, offenders, victims, and sentencing. The database coverage extends from 1968 onwards, and is updated weekly.

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Additional sociology databases

Anthropological Index Online This link opens in a new window
Index to current periodicals in the Museum of Mankind Library (incorporating the former Royal Anthropological Institute library).
AnthroSource This link opens in a new window
AnthroSource is a fully integrated information resource. Its powerful search engine makes precision research quick and easy.

AnthroSource is more than a content collection. It is an evolving, interactive repository of research and communications tools designed to bring the most credible and relevant of anthropological scholarship together in one place and to support a strong community of scholars, teachers, and students in the field.

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Fürer-Haimendorf Collection This link opens in a new window
A collection of 20,000 images, films and written material from the 1930s to the 1980s produced by Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf, professor of anthropology at SOAS, showing rituals, festivals, everyday life, textiles and jewellery, shaman-led rituals and acrobatics of tribes in the Himalayas and South Asia.
Men's Bibliography This link opens in a new window
A bibliography of writing on men, masculinities, gender, and sexualities listing nearly 22,400 books and articles in over thirty major subject areas.

Other databases

African American Music Reference (Alexander Street) This link opens in a new window
Reference, biographies, chronologies, sheet music, images, lyrics, liner notes, and discographies which chronicle the diverse history and culture of the African American experience through music. With coverage of blues, jazz, spirituals, civil rights songs, slave songs, minstrelsy, rhythm and blues, gospel, and other forms of black American musical expression.

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African Writers Series (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
This online edition of Heinemann's African Writers Series gives access to the full text of over 250 volumes of fiction, poetry, drama and non-fictional prose from some of the most important and significant writers in modern African literature.

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American Broadsides and Ephemera, Series 1 (1749-1900) This link opens in a new window
Includes approximately 15,000 broadsides printed between 1820 and 1900 and 15,000 pieces of ephemera printed between 1749 and 1900 all reproduced as full colour digital editions.

The broadsides cover a range subjects from contemporary accounts of the Civil War, unusual occurrences and natural disasters to official government proclamations, tax bills and town meeting reports.

The ephemera includes such items as: clipper ship sailing cards, early trade cards, billheads, menus and invitations for civic, political and private celebrations, stock certificates illustrated with manufacturers’ vignettes, theater and music programs, autobiographies and dying confessions of convicted criminals, theater playbills, sheet almanacs, publishers’ prospectuses, advertisements, newspaper carriers’ addresses, patriotic and popular songs and poems and more.
American Film Institute Catalog (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
AFI Catalog is a national filmography documenting the history of American cinema. It currently covers the years 1893-1974 comprehensively, with additional records covering selected major films from 1975 onwards.

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American Film Scripts Online (Alexander Street) This link opens in a new window
The University has perpetual access to Volume I. There is temporary access to Volume II until 30th June 2024. If you would like us to keep access to this collection contact your Faculty Librarian.
Accurate and authorised versions of 1,500 copyrighted screenplays covering a period from 1903 to 2009. The screenplays are accompanied by detailed information on the scenes, characters and people related to the scripts. Facsimile images for more than 500 of these screenplays are also available. Many of these scripts have never been published before and are not available online anywhere else.

- American Film Scripts Online: Volume I contains more than 1,000 scripts of American cinema's greatest classic films.
- American Film Scripts Online: Volume II includes scripts for 500 films including international and contemporary titles.

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American National Biography This link opens in a new window
The major biographical work on the people whose lives have shaped and influenced American history and culture. It contains over 18,000 profiles of men and women of all eras, from the famous and infamous to important but lesser-known figures, and is updated quarterly. Entries are cross-referenced and there are links to the online edition of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

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American Song (Alexander Street) This link opens in a new window
American history explored through music with songs by and about American Indians, miners, immigrants, slaves, children, pioneers, and cowboys. Topics covered include Civil Rights, political campaigns, Prohibition, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and anti-war protests, with a wide range of genres represented including country, folk, bluegrass, Western, old time, American Indian, blues, gospel, shape note singing, doo-wop, Motown, R&B, soul, and funk.

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ASSIA (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
ASSIA (Applied Social Science Index and Abstracts) indexes around 650 English language social science journals. Subject coverage includes social services, health, employment, ethnic studies, education, criminology, and related areas.

For help with this resource, take a look at our Quick Guide.

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Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology This link opens in a new window
The online version of the 11 volume print edition available in the University Library. It gives access to over 1800 specially commissioned entries written and edited by an international team of scholars and teachers.

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Box of Broadcasts (BoB) This link opens in a new window
You will need to register for an account the first time that you access Box of Broadcasts.

Please note that you may only access and use Box of Broadcasts in the United Kingdom..
Box of Broadcasts (BoB) is an on demand TV and radio service for education. Users can record programmes from over 65 free-to-air channels and access an extensive archive of programmes already available. Users can also create clips from programmes and compile playlists.

Please note that you may only access and use BoB in the United Kingdom.

For help with this resource, take a look at the BoB FAQs.

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British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries (Alexander Street) This link opens in a new window
British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries is a major collection of diaries and correspondence spanning more than 400 years and giving access to the personal experiences of nearly 500 women. It contains around 100,000 pages of published letters and diaries and over 4,000 facsimile pages of previously unpublished manuscripts. Letters and diaries of famous historic and literary figures can be found alongside the thoughts and experiences of ordinary women, including the unpublished letters and diaries of women who served during both world wars. The texts themselves are accompanied by biographies of the authors and bibliographic details of the sources.

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British Cartoon Archive This link opens in a new window
Digitised images from the the national collection of British social and political cartoons housed at the University of Kent. This includes the entire Carl Giles Archive of 15,000 cartoon images and 5,000 pages of related paperwork.
Cambridge Companions Online: Philosophy, Religion and Culture This link opens in a new window
Specially-commissioned collections of essays addressing topics and figures ranging from Plato through Kant to Habermas, and philosophical movements such as the Scottish Enlightenment and German Idealism.

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Cornell University Library Witchcraft Collection This link opens in a new window
A selection of titles from Cornell University Library's extensive collection of materials on Witchcraft digitally scanned from microfilm. The collection focuses on witchcraft as theology and as religious heresy and includes material about the earliest and the latest manifestations of the belief in witchcraft with works on canon law, the Inquisition, torture, demonology, trial testimony, and narratives.

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History of Feminism This link opens in a new window
Primary and secondary resources charting the history of feminism over the long nineteenth century (17761928). The collection is organised into eight subject areas covering education, empire, literature and writing, movements and ideologies, politics and law, religion and belief, society and culture, and women at home; with primary source documents accompanied by secondary source book chapters, journal articles, thematic essays, and images.

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JSTOR This link opens in a new window
For alumni access please the Virtual Library JSTOR section on Alumni Learning.
A digital archive collection of core scholarly journals starting with the first issues (many of which date from the 1800s). See JSTOR's online help guide for further information.

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Nexis This link opens in a new window
Personalisation is available via the link above.

Alternative link without personalisation if you have problems with the link above (please clear the cookies and cache in your browser): Nexis.
Nexis is a major source of global news and business information. It provides full-text access to over 34,000 publications, with more than 12,000 news sources including UK daily and regional newspapers, current affairs magazines, and professional journals. Updated daily; back issues archive varies by title.

Nexis also includes 80 sources of company information, plus thousands of biographies of government officials, politicians, celebrities, investors and business contacts.

Accessibility information

Research tools

SAGE Research Methods exists to help social science researchers and students with their projects, consisting primarily of a collection of e-books with supporting dictionary articles, journal entries and videos.

Created by the scholarly publisher SAGE, the Research Methods collection covers all aspects of research principles and design and analysis, from hypothesis formation and literature searching to evidence-gathering and drawing conclusions.

SAGE Research Methods will help you:

Design your research project
Understand your chosen method
Identify a new method
Conduct your research
Write up your findings

SAGE Research Methods Online This link opens in a new window
Please note that you will find content that you are not entitled to access.
A substantial collection of ebooks, journal articles, reference materials, cases, videos and tools for exploring all aspects of the research process from identifying and understanding particular research methods to designing research projects, conducting research and writing up findings.

Included are SAGE's "Little Green Books" (the Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences series) and "Little Blue Books" (the Qualitative Research Methods series).

Please note that you will also find content that you are not entitled to access.

For help with this resource, take a look at our Quick Guide.

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Sociology

Resources

Finding Resources

Books

Books

Journals & databases

Journals

News, Statistics and Data

News, Statistics and Data

News sources

Statistics and data

Databases

Databases

Key databases

Additional sociology databases

Other databases

Research tools

SAGE Research Methods