Social Work Research Planner  Tags: social_work social_work_help social_work_research_help  

Good information is available from books, websites, journal articles, and news sources. This page is designed to help you decide which of these sources to start with when you are doing social work research.

• If you need brief, statistical information to supplement your research.
• When you want to find reports on various issues that have been written/sponsored by a social service or government agency.
• If you want, brief, concise background information to help you get started thinking more deeply about a topic.

• You want to supplement your research or paper with current news.
• Note: Unless your professor asks you to use mostly news sources for an assignment, they should not replace research from books and scholarly articles when you are writing a research paper; news sources should only supplement your research.

• you want a comprehensive overview of a topic or chapters on a specific aspect of a topic.
• you are looking for context or historical background on a topic.
• you want a collection of essays that express different points of view on a topic of interest to you.
• you want to develop a vocabulary of keywords for further searching.

• When you are honing in on a specific idea or topic.
• If you want to read about an empirical study or case study.
• When you need peer-reviewed publications.
• If you need the most current information available.