Welcome to the Sociology Research Guide! Sociology is the systematic and scientific study of human social life. Sociologists study people as they form groups and interact with one another. The groups they study may be small, such as married couples, or large, such as a subculture of suburban teenagers. Sociology places special emphasis on studying societies, both as individual entities and as elements of a global perspective. 
In this Guide you will learn about:
When beginning your research, start by thinking about broad topics in the field of sociology. Make a list of protentional topics that interest you and that there is potential to find source material on it.
Example:
| Culture | Social Media |
| Race and Ethnicity | Environment |
| Medicine | Social Issues |
Once you have some general topics, formulate a question or thesis statement that focuses on something specific within that general topic.
Example: Using social media from the previous example, we can develop the following thesis:
Social media has transformed how adolescents socially interact with their peers.
This statement can also be written has a research question:
How has social media changed the way adolescents socially interact with their peers?
After writing a thesis statement or research question, one can start searching for sources that support or even potentially contradict the statement. See the Finding Sources section below to learn where to find different sources.
Before starting your search, develop some search terms that will help you find sources about your thesis statement or research question. Try taking keywords from a developed thesis or research question and add related terms. For example here are some search terms created based on the thesis statement:
| Social Media | Risk factors | Social Media - statistics & numerical data |
| Adolescents | Social Perception | Influence OR Impact |
| Teenagers | Socialization | Communication |
| Children | Social Networks | United States |
Once you have a general question or a rough thesis statement, then you can start searching for sources. A great place to start is Searchbox, Mullen Library's catalog. When searching this catalog, it brings up resources from a vast variety of locations including: Mullen Library, other libraries in Washington, D.C., databases, open access resources, and more. Directly below are a list of helpful general call numbers and subject headings related to education.
There are other places to search for source materials. Another tool for searching are the Library's databases. Databases are organized collections of information which include abstracts, articles, bibliographies, ebooks, indexes, and more. The Library has general, multidisciplinary as well as subject specific databases. Here are some social service-focused databases that may be of interest:
The Library's databases are a great way to find relevant, peer-reviewed information and to narrow down search results.
A final place to consider searching is Google Scholar. Google Scholar searches retrieve articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions that Google has indexed. This is a great place to start your research or to find a citation. Please note that not everything found in Google Scholar will be accessible for free. Use the Library website to see if that resource is available through the Library. If not, make an Interlibrary Loan (ILL) request.
Once you have found a source that you can potentially use, you should evaluate its credibility. While a source may seem useful for your research, it may be produced by an unreliable source or the information in the source may be misleading or false. So it is important to critically analyze sources, and there are a few different methods for doing this. For this guide we will use the CRAAP. CRAAP stands for Credibility, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy and Purpose.
Currency- When was the information published?
Relevancy- Does this source fit with the research you are doing?
Authority- What are the author(s) qualifications related to the subject?
Accuracy- Is the information in the source verified to be correct?
Purpose- What is the author(s) reason for creating this information?
