BU Libraries Search
You can use the BU Libraries Search box to connect to information across databases that you have access to.
By choosing to start your search within a database below, you can ensure that it comes from within your specific discipline or apply different filters.
Where you start searching depends on your own personal research needs and goals.
Find Databases
Use the relevant BU subscription databases to search for scholarly material related to your topic. This list is all databases most relevant to social work research. It includes:
Social Services Abstracts: Full text and abstracts of articles from over 1,300 journals in the social work and human services fields. Topics covered include social work practice, social welfare, community and mental health services, and crisis intervention.
APA PsycInfo: Articles, books and book chapters, and dissertations that cover the scholarly literature in the psychological, social, behavioral, and health sciences.
APA PsycArticles: Full text access to articles from journals published by the American Psychological Association, the APA Educational Publishing Foundation, The Canadian Psychological Association, and Hogrefe Publishing Group. Subject areas include general psychology as well as specialized areas such as animal behavior, cognition, memory, psycholinguistics, and social psychology.
Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection: Full text of articles from more than 500 journals. It covers a broad range of topics related to psychology and the behavioral sciences including observational and experimental methods, child and adolescent psychology, and many areas of counseling.
Social Sciences Full Text: Full text access to hundreds of English language journals in the social sciences. About two-thirds of the journals are peer-reviewed.
Social Sciences Citation Index: Social Sciences Citation Index, accessed via Web of Science, provides comprehensive data on bibliographic and citation information.
Public Health and Social Care: Policy statements on public health topics.
Other Relevant Databases
Other relevant databases include:
Child Development & Adolescent Studies: This database focuses on the growth and development of children through the age of 21.
Sociological Abstracts: Provides indexes and abstracts international on social and behavioral health. 40% of research is based outside of North America.
PAIS Index: The PAIS International database covers current public policy issues and areas of potential legislation.
Abstracts in Social Gerontology: This database includes the full text and abstracts of articles that cover essential topics related to social gerontology including the psychology of aging, elder abuse, and society and the elderly.
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: Geared for psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and other mental health practitioners, the DSM-5 provides comprehensive guidelines for diagnosing mental disorders. Published in 2013.
Open Social Work: A collaborative project that addresses open education and open access projects and initiatives in social work.
Academic Search Premier: Mostly peer-reviewed resources in the social sciences.
Social Work Journals
Important journals to the field of social work include but are not limited to:
