Research Guides: Social Work: Scholarly Sources

Article Databases

Social Services Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Citations and abstracts for journal articles, books, book chapters, dissertations, association papers, and reviews focused on social work, human services, social welfare, social policy, and community development.
APA PsycInfo This link opens in a new window
APA PsycInfo is the major indexing and abstracting database for psychology, social work, educational psychology, counseling, and related disciplines with records from over 2,400 journals.
APA PsycArticles This link opens in a new window
APA PsycArticles is a database of full-text articles from 119 journals, including Psychological Review, published by the American Psychological Association (APA) and others. Includes articles about all areas of psychology.
Sociological Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Provides citations and abstracts for journal articles, books, book chapters, dissertations, association papers and reviews in sociology, social science, and policy science.
PAIS Index This link opens in a new window
Index to public policy, social policy, and social science documents from journals, books, government publications and other resources. Use the Politics and Policy Thesaurus to find related keywords.
PTSDpubs This link opens in a new window
Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Indexes literature on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental-health conditions caused by traumatic events, without disciplinary, linguistic, or geographical limitations. Formerly known as PILOTS - Published International Literature On Traumatic Stress.

Statistical Sources

There is a multitude of statistical sources both online and in print. Depending upon your field AND topic, the infomation you need might be from the government, journal articles, associations, non-profit organizations, or others source.

ChildStats.gov
Forum on child and family statistics.
The Annie E. Casey Foundation: Kids Count
Statistics on education, poverty, health, child care. Provides data, policy recommendations and tools needed to advance sound policies that benefit children and families.
ChildTrends Databank
National trends and research on indicators of child and youth well-being.

ICPSR This link opens in a new window
The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) maintains and provides access to an archive of social science data for research and instruction, and offers training in quantitative methods to facilitate effective data use. Auraria campus users (faculty, staff, students) must register for a personal ICPSR account from an on-campus, networked computer (or a VPN connection) to be able to download data.
National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) This link opens in a new window
Statistics and data from the federal government on education in the U.S. Includes the Condition of Education and Digest of Education Statistics. Topics include assessments, Common Core, early childhood, elementary and secondary schools, libraries, and college.

UNICEF Country Statistics
Economic and social statistics on the countries and territories of the world, with particular reference to children's well-being.
UNdata
Statistical information from member states on agriculture, crime, education, employment, energy, environment, health, HIV/AIDS, human development, industry, information and communication technology, national accounts, population, refugees, tourism, trade, as well as the Millennium Development Goals indicators.
data.census.gov
A source for population, economic, housing, and geographic information and data about the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Island areas. Includes information about income, education, insurance, employment, housing, poverty, veterans, and much more. Replaces American FactFinder
National Center for Health Statistics
NCHS is the federal governments principal vital and health statistics agency. NCHS provides data on vital events (birth and mortality) as well as information on health status, lifestyle and exposure to unhealthy influences, onset and diagnosis of illness and disability, and the use of health care. The National Survey of Family Growth also includes information on family life, marriage and divorce, pregnancy, infertility, use of contraception, and men's and women's health.

Finding Statistics Using Government Sources

The U.S. government collects and disseminates statistics about a variety of topics; however, it can be difficult to find this data via government websites. Alternatively, you can run an effective Google search using the tricks below.

1. Limit by URL Domain: site:gov

Llimits to URLs that end in "gov," which are typically U.S. (federal, state, and city) government websites.

2. Limit by File: filetype:pdf*

Many research and government publications are in PDF format.

3. Add the word Statistics to your search

4. Add your subject.

Example Search: site:gov filetype:pdf statistics teen pregnancy

Example Search: site:gov statistics schizophrenia

*Limiting by filetype is not always necessary.