SOC 445/545 Research Guide: Sociology of Race Relations

Get help from your librarian: Miriam Rigby, rigby@uoregon.edu; (541) 346-7202

This is a guide to the library and research materials you may find useful to accomplish the objectives of SOC 445/545 (Sociology of Race Relations) with Dr. J. Shiao, Spring 2010.

Finding Background Information:

• Encyclopedias and Dictionaries

  are a useful place to gather background information on your topic. We have many specialized encyclopedias - some online and many in print in the Knight Library Reference Section. Here is a small selection out of the many that may be useful to you:

• • • Dictionary of race and ethnic relations
    • Encyclopedia of race and ethnic studies
    • Encyclopedia of racism in the United States

   

• Sources for Current Research

  These sources can help you identify a topic for your research. Some provide an overview of a specific issue and suggest other materials which might be useful for your research. Others help you to notice a topic that might be of interest to you.

  • Overviews:
    • Annual Review of Sociology  (1975-current)
      Has review articles on various topics in Sociology written by scholars. These articles are great ways to get an overview of research on a topic as well as a reliable source of citations to important scholarship
  • Individual Journals:
    • Ethnic & Racial Studies (1987-current)
    • Race and Society (1998-2004)
    • Du Bois Review (2004-current)

Finding Articles in Databases:

• Sociological Abstracts provides access to citations and abstracts of scholarly research in Sociology.

• Web of Science is an interdisciplinary index to articles in the sciences and social sciences, making it particularly useful for the multidisciplinary needs of Sociology researchers.

Looking for Articles in Specific Journals

When you know the name of a journal, you can use the "Journal Titles" Tab in the UO Libraries' Green Search Box to find it.

Here are a few direct links to the catalog entries for three key journals as well. In these catalog records, you will find call numbers for the physical/print copies, and links to online access when we have it:

• American Sociological Review

Is your book or article an Academic / Peer-reviewed source?:

• AAUP Presses The American Association of University Presses website lists (and links to) all of the University Presses within the United States and Canada who are members.

• Ulrich's Periodical Directory covers thousands of journals, newspapers, and magazines. Use Ulrich's to see if a journal is scholarly/peer-reviewed/refereed.

Finding Book Reviews:

In addition to searching in Sociological Abstracts and Web of Science for journal articles (including book reviews) you can use this journal which focuses exclusively on book reviews:

• Contemporary Sociology  (1972-2007 online; For more recent issues, use the print edition here: KNIGHT HM 1 .C65)  This is journal of book reviews of sociology books. Each volume is divided by subject and there is a cumulative index for each year.

Citation Guides:

For additional help, check out:

• Sociologists can use the American Sociological Association Style Guide to format citations for papers. See the overview and samples of the style.
• The Chicago Manual of Style Online is the most current (16th) edition. The Chicago Manual style closely matches ASA style and the full guide is here online.
• UO Libraries' Citation Style Help
• Purdue's OWL gives good information and examples for creating annotated bibliographies. (They also have some nice citation guides linked from this page.)