SWRK 5787 - Research for Evidence-Informed Social Work Practice - Social Work Research - Research Guides at Saint Louis University Libraries

This page is designed as a quick reference guide for students in SWRK 5787. Please contact Social Work Librarian, Rebecca Hyde, if you have any questions or problems as you go about your research. I recommend utilizing additional resources on the Social Work Research Guide in addition to those included here.

Gathering Background Information

Encyclopedia of Social Work This link opens in a new window
Updated monthly. From NASW and Oxford University Press, this is a continuously updated reference work with over 700 edited articles, including 400 overview articles on key topics ranging from international issues to ethical standards in the field of social services.

Social Work Policy & Practice Library Guide - Policy Areas
Use this guide to start finding organizations, government entities, and statistics related to your practice or policy question. Non-profit and government organizations will be a good source for background information and potentially best-practices, recommendations, case studies, and research reports not included in the library databases.

Formulating Your Question

"Posing Well-Structured Questions for Evidence-Informed Practice"
This chapter by Eileen Gambrill from the Social Workers' Desk Reference will help you formulate your question, which in turn will help in searching for literature.

Searching the Literature

Social Services Abstracts This link opens in a new window
1980-present. Indexes and abstracts over 1,400 journals and magazines in the social services in addition to social work dissertations. Includes most journals indexed in Social Work Abstracts, plus more international coverage.
APA PsycINFO (1987 - Present) This link opens in a new window
Search the index and abstracts in this database for the professional and academic literature of psychology and related disciplines. Content includes journal articles, books, book chapters, and dissertations in English. Find full text for search results using the Find It @ SLU button.

Additional Databases
See the "finding Articles in a database page of this Guide to find more subject-specific databases and sources for systematic reviews.

Managing Citations & APA Format

Managing Citations & APA Format Page
See the See the Managing Citations & APA Format Page on this guide for more information on citation management tools and resources for proper APA citation.

20 Minute Rule

Have you already spent 20-30 minutes searching and you feel like you're hitting a wall? Stop what you're doing and contact your librarian!

Research takes time, and when you're working on research for a paper you might spend hours researching and try many, many searches before you're done. But these should feel like productive hours of research, not frustrating hours. I can help you develop search search strategy, and maybe choose another database more suited for your topic. Please contact me before you feel ready to give up!