Subject Guides: Social Policy, Social and Political Sciences and Social Work: Resources

Books

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

Social Policy books are located in the DA 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.

Shelf location	Subject
D	Social Sciences
DA	Social Policy and Social Work
H	Politics
J	Law

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

Criminology and Criminal Justice

Law and Legal Studies

Political Science

Public Affairs and Public Policy

Social Work

Sociology

News, Statistics and Data

Newspapers

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.

Accessibility information

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.

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.

Accessibility information
National Statistics (Office for National Statistics) This link opens in a new window
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).

Accessibility information
OECD Data This link opens in a new window
A collection of 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 Statistics, please see the separate entry.
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, French or German-language interface available.

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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.

Resources for all subjects

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.

Accessibility information
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.

Accessibility information
Social Policy & Practice (Ovid) This link opens in a new window
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A bibliographic database containing over 200,000 records. Subject coverage includes public and social policy, public health, social care, community development, mental & community health, homelessness, housing, crime, law and order, families, children and older people. Indexes journal articles, books, grey literature, and UK government publications.

Social Policy and Practice combines the content of AgeInfo from the Centre for Policy on Ageing; Acompline from the Greater London Authority; Planex from IDXO plc (ex Planning Exchange) and Social Care Online from the Social Care Institute for Excellence.

Social Policy and Practice contains information from 1890 to date with most references from the 1980s onwards.

Updated quarterly.

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

Accessibility information

Social policy resources

Policy Commons This link opens in a new window
Provides free access to millions of policy documents from IGOs, NGOs, think-tanks and research centres. Register for a free account in order to access documents.
University Press Scholarship Online: Policy Press This link opens in a new window
More than 1,000 titles from Policy Press covering subjects in architecture, business and management, earth sciences and geography, economics and finance, education, environmental science, history, law, philosophy, political science, psychology, public health and epidemiology, religion, social work, society and culture, and sociology.

Accessibility information

Social work resources

Oxford Bibliographies Online: Social Work This link opens in a new window
An up-to-date and authoritative guide to the literature across a wide range of topics in social work. Sources covered include journal articles, reference works, monographs and book chapters.

Accessibility information
Social Services Abstracts (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Social Services Abstracts provides bibliographic coverage of current research in the areas of social work, human services, and related topics, including social welfare and social policy. It indexes and abstracts over 1,400 serial publications and includes abstracts of journal articles, dissertations, and citations to book reviews.

Updated monthly.

Accessibility information
Social Work Connect [accessible until 31st January 2025] This link opens in a new window
For access please register with your @york.ac.uk email address and verify your account. After registered you can login with your @york.ac.uk email address and the password you have created.
Social Work Connect is a tool designed to help users connect social work theory to social work practice. It gives access to a range of activities and resources including an Envelope activity, Theory library, Lunch time learning selection of videos, information about the SHARE model of social work, and My CPD with downloadable documents.

Criminology resources

You might also like to explore the Criminology Subject Guide for further resources.

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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Oxford Bibliographies Online: Criminology This link opens in a new window
An authoritative guide to the essential literature across the various subfields of criminology. Sources covered include journal articles, reference works, monographs and book chapters.

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Oxford Handbooks Online: Criminology and Criminal Justice This link opens in a new window
Access to the full text of complete titles and chapters from titles not yet available in print. You will have access to content published online up to and including the year 2022, plus selected individual titles.

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Routledge Handbooks Online: Criminal Justice & Criminology This link opens in a new window
Access to the full text of handbooks covering the areas of criminology and criminal justice.

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Politics resources

You might also like to explore the Politics Subject Guide for further resources.

International Political Science Abstracts (Sage) This link opens in a new window
Published by the International Political Science Association with abstracts of articles in the field of political science published in journals and yearbooks all over the world.

Online coverage is from 2007 onwards. Print editions of the abstracts from 1951-2006 are available in the Library's Journals collection. Please check YorSearch for further details.

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Sociology resources

You might also like to explore the Sociology Subject Guide for further resources.

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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Law resources

You might also like to explore the Law Subject Guide for further resources.

Westlaw UK including Practical Law This link opens in a new window
You will need to register the first time you use Westlaw UK. Practical Law subscription provided by York Law School for educational use only.
An extensive full text database which includes UK case law and legislation (the consolidated text of all UK legislation and some point-in-time versions of Acts), EU case law and legislation, the Legal Journals Index covering English language legal journals published in the UK and Europe, and a broad selection of journals and commentary in full text.

Practical Law is an online legal know-how service which provides practice area overviews, practice notes, standard documents, step by step transactional guides, precedents, checklists and current awareness services.

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Lexis+ UK (formerly Lexis Library including LexisPSL) 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): Lexis+ UK
A large full text database of UK legal resources including all cases from the All England Law Reports, UK legislation (the consolidated text of all UK legislation and some point-in-time versions of Acts) and legislation from the Scottish Parliament, the Encyclopaedia of Forms and Precedents, Halsbury's Laws of England, selected commentaries, a number of specialist resources in the area of employment law, and a selection of UK law journals.

Practical Guidance (formerly LexisPSL) gives access to up-to-date practice-area specific guidance, checklists, precedents, forms, drafting notes, legal analysis and news.

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Social Policy, Social and Political Sciences and Social Work

Resources

Finding Resources

Books

Books

Journals & databases

Journals

News, Statistics and Data

News, Statistics and Data

Newspapers

Statistics and data

Databases

Databases

Resources for all subjects

Social policy resources

Social work resources

Criminology resources

Politics resources

Sociology resources

Law resources