Sociology Research Guide

Encyclopedias and Dictionaries

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP)

Provides scholarly articles on philosophical concepts, theories, and thinkers. It is a reliable resource for both foundational learning and advanced philosophical study.

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP)

A continuously updated, peer-reviewed academic encyclopedia curated by experts in philosophy and related social theory, ensuring scholarly accuracy and currency.

SAGE Knowledge

A comprehensive social science platform offering encyclopedias, handbooks, case studies, and video resources. Some reference content is freely accessible, while full access requires subscription.

Wiktionary

A free, multilingual dictionary that provides definitions, etymologies, translations, synonyms, and pronunciations for words across numerous languages.

Oxford Reference

A collection of authoritative reference works from Oxford University Press, covering multiple disciplines. Selected entries are available for free, with full access via subscription.

Print Books and E-Journals in the Library

CTUAP Library OPAC

Search and locate print books in the sociology collection of CTUAP library.

Sage Publishing

A leading publisher of scholarly journals, books, and electronic media, especially strong in social sciences, humanities, health, and education.

In campus access Off campus access

Taylor and Francis

Publishes high-quality peer-reviewed journals and books across a wide range of disciplines, including social sciences, humanities, and STEM fields.

In campus access Off campus access

Wiley Blackwell Publishing

Known for scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly research publications. Strong in chemistry, biology, health, and education.

In campus access Off campus access

Elsevier (ScienceDirect)

A global leader in scientific, technical, and medical literature. Offers journals, books, and articles from top-tier research.

In campus access Off campus access

Cambridge University Press

The world's oldest publishing house, offering authoritative academic content in humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences.

In campus access Off campus access

Springer Nature

Publishes research across disciplines with a focus on science, technology, medicine, and open access journals.

In campus access Off campus access

Oxford University Press

Renowned for publishing academic and educational materials with strength in humanities, law, medicine, and social sciences.

In campus access Off campus access

Emerald Publishing

Specializes in research in management, business, education, and library studies, with a growing portfolio in social sciences.

In campus access Off campus access

Project MUSE

Provides access to high-quality humanities and social science content from university presses and scholarly societies.

In campus access Off campus access

Research Methodology eBooks

Social Science Research: Principles, Methods, and Practices

Anol Bhattacherjee

A comprehensive and freely available textbook covering research design, methodology, and implementation in the social sciences.

Methodology of Research in Sociology

UGC e-PG Pathshala Contributors

A structured online course providing modules and video lectures on sociological research methodology.

Research Methods for the Social Sciences (Pelz)

David A. Pelz (Adapted by LibreTexts)

An open-access textbook introducing key research techniques in sociology and social sciences.

Research Methodologies and Methods

IGNOU Faculty Authors

IGNOU-provided course material covering research designs, sampling, data collection, and analysis methods.

Social Science Research: Principles, Methods and Practices (USQ Edition)

Anol Bhattacherjee; Edited by Samara Rowling

A practical textbook introducing fundamental research principles, adapted and edited for USQ courses.

Research Methodology and Statistical Analysis – Intro (YouTube)

Content by Academic Lecturers (Playlist Owner: Dr. Rajendra Prasad)

Video playlist explaining research methodology, statistical analysis, and applications in the social sciences.

Quantitative Methods (UGC MOOC)

UGC Faculty Authors

An online MOOC on quantitative research methods in social sciences.

Quantitative Research in Sociology – Methods & Examples

Study.com Faculty Contributors

Lesson-based guide to quantitative research concepts and real-world examples in sociology.

Research Methods – Virginia Tech Guide

Virginia Tech University Libraries Staff

Comprehensive library guide to various research designs and method selection.

Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods

Steven E. Gump; Lisa M. Given (Editor)

Open textbook providing a step-by-step understanding of qualitative research.

Principles of Sociological Inquiry: Qualitative and Quantitative Methods

Amy Blackstone

Free textbook covering qualitative and quantitative sociological research methods.

Social Data Analysis

Multiple Academic Contributors

OER textbook on techniques and tools for analyzing social science data.

Qualitative Research Methods (YouTube – Lesley Andres)

Lesley Andres

Video lecture introducing qualitative research principles.

Qualitative Research – SAGE Research Methods (YouTube)

SAGE Publishing Team

Overview of qualitative research designs, case studies, and data collection techniques.

Qualitative Research Methods Playlist

Various Academic Contributors

A YouTube playlist covering interviews, observation, and qualitative analysis methods.

Statistics and Data Sources

ICPSR

A massive archive of social science datasets for secondary analysis, hosted by the University of Michigan.

data.gov.in

Government of India's open data portal, providing datasets on demographics, economy, health, crime, agriculture, and more.

UNdata

United Nations statistical database with global development, demographic, and economic indicators.

OECD Stats

Economic, social, and environmental statistics from OECD member countries and selected partners.

World Bank Open Data

Free and open access to global development data, covering indicators for countries and regions worldwide.

Qualitative Data Repository (QDR)

The first domain repository in the U.S. dedicated to curating, archiving, preserving, and publishing qualitative and multi-method research data. Hosted by the Center for Qualitative and Multi-Method Inquiry at Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

Open Access Resources

Sociology Commons

A curated collection of scholarly works in sociology, including research articles, theses, dissertations, and working papers from universities worldwide.

OER Commons – Sociology

A hub of free, high-quality, openly licensed teaching and learning materials in sociology for educators, students, and researchers.

NROER (India)

India's National Repository of Open Educational Resources, offering a wide range of digital learning content, including sociology materials, in multiple formats and languages.

eGyanKosh (IGNOU)

A digital repository of course materials from Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), with extensive resources in sociology and related disciplines.

DOAJ – Directory of Open Access Journals

A global directory providing access to high-quality, peer-reviewed open access journals, including many titles in sociology and the social sciences.

SAGE Open

An open access journal publishing peer-reviewed research in the social sciences, including sociology, with a focus on interdisciplinary approaches.

Taylor & Francis Open

A collection of peer-reviewed open access articles across disciplines, including sociology, from Taylor & Francis journals.

SpringerOpen

Open access journals and books from Springer covering social sciences, behavioral sciences, and related fields.

eBooks (Indian Culture)

A repository of digitized books from India's cultural heritage, including resources relevant to sociology, history, and anthropology.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Shodhganga (India)

Maintained by INFLIBNET Centre, Shodhganga is a digital repository providing open access to Indian theses and dissertations submitted to universities across India, supporting research visibility and knowledge sharing.

NDLTD (Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations)

A global initiative to promote the creation, archiving, and dissemination of electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs). It offers a searchable index with links to full-text content when available.

OATD (Open Access Theses and Dissertations)

A comprehensive index of graduate-level theses and dissertations from institutions worldwide, focusing exclusively on freely accessible, full-text scholarly works.

PQDT Open

ProQuest's platform offering free access to selected open-access dissertations and theses from participating universities, covering diverse academic disciplines.

Bibliographical and Citation Databases

Google Scholar

A freely accessible academic search engine indexing scholarly articles, theses, books, conference papers, and patents across disciplines. It offers citation tracking and author profiles to aid research visibility.

Scopus (Subscription)

A comprehensive abstract and citation database from Elsevier covering peer-reviewed literature, including journals, conference proceedings, and patents. It provides advanced citation analysis, author metrics, and research trend insights.

Web of Science (Subscription)

A multidisciplinary research database from Clarivate offering indexing, citation metrics, and analytics for high-quality scholarly literature across sciences, social sciences, and humanities. It supports comprehensive citation tracking and research evaluation.

CiteSeerX

A public digital library and academic search engine, primarily focused on literature in computer science and related fields, while also including resources from selected social sciences.

Dimensions.ai

Developed by Digital Science & Research Solutions Ltd., Dimensions is an integrated research information platform that links publications, grants, patents, datasets, and clinical trials, providing both discovery and analytics capabilities.

Preprint Servers

SocArXiv

An open-access preprint server for sociology and related social sciences, hosted on the Open Science Framework (OSF). It enables researchers to share early-stage research before formal peer review, fostering transparency and collaboration.

Preprints.org – The Multidisciplinary Preprint Platform

A free, multidisciplinary preprint platform that allows researchers from all fields to share their manuscripts before peer review. It supports rapid dissemination and public visibility of scholarly work.

SSOAR (Social Science Open Access Repository)

Maintained by GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, SSOAR collects and archives open-access full-text literature relevant to the social sciences. It aligns with the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities.

SSRN (Social Science Research Network)

A global research repository focused on the rapid dissemination of scholarly work. SSRN hosts specialized research networks across disciplines, enabling authors to share working papers, preprints, and accepted manuscripts.

ASA Citation Style Resources

Purdue OWL – ASA Style Guide

A reliable online resource that explains ASA citation format with clear examples for in-text citations, reference lists, and manuscript formatting, making it useful for students and researchers.

ASA Style Guide PDF (Official)

The official American Sociological Association style manual in PDF format, offering comprehensive rules and guidance for citation, referencing, and formatting in ASA style.

Quick Tips for ASA Style

A concise reference sheet summarizing essential ASA citation rules with practical examples for books, journal articles, websites, and other common sources.

Reference Management Tools

Mendeley

Developed by Elsevier, Mendeley is a reference manager and academic social network that helps researchers organize citations, collaborate online, and discover research. It offers citation styles, PDF annotation, and cloud synchronization.

Zotero

Developed by the Corporation for Digital Scholarship, Zotero is a free, open-source reference management tool that collects, organizes, cites, and shares research materials. It integrates with browsers and word processors for seamless citation management.

EndNote Basic

Developed by Clarivate Analytics, EndNote Basic is a web-based reference management solution that enables researchers to store, organize, and format citations in various bibliographic styles. It supports collaboration and integration with Microsoft Word.

Plagiarism Detection Tools

Drillbit

Drillbit is an advanced plagiarism detection software that compares submitted content with web pages, published works, and proprietary databases to identify potential text similarity and academic misconduct.

URKUND (now Ouriginal)

(Institutional Access Required)

Developed by Ouriginal Group, this plagiarism detection tool integrates with learning management systems to scan documents against a wide range of sources, helping educators uphold academic integrity.

Turnitin

(Institutional Access Required)

Developed by Turnitin, LLC, Turnitin is one of the most widely used plagiarism detection and academic integrity tools. It checks submitted works against extensive academic, web, and student paper databases while providing originality reports.

PlagScan

(Institutional Access Required)

Developed by PlagScan GmbH, PlagScan is a plagiarism detection service for academic institutions and businesses, providing detailed similarity reports by comparing documents against online sources and proprietary databases.

Literature Review Tools

Connected Papers

Developed by Connected Papers Ltd., this tool helps researchers explore and visualize relationships between academic papers. It generates a graph of related literature based on co-citation and similarity analysis, enabling efficient literature discovery.

Research Rabbit

Developed by ResearchRabbit, Inc., Research Rabbit is a literature discovery and visualization platform that helps track research topics, authors, and papers over time. It provides personalized recommendations and collaborative research features.

Litmaps

Developed by Litmaps Ltd., Litmaps enables researchers to visualize citation networks, track the evolution of ideas, and discover new relevant literature through interactive mapping of academic publications.

Statistical Analysis Tools

R + RStudio

R, developed by the R Core Team, is a powerful programming language and environment for statistical computing and graphics. RStudio, developed by Posit, PBC, is an integrated development environment (IDE) for R that provides user-friendly tools for coding, data analysis, and visualization.

PSPP

Developed by the GNU Project, PSPP is a free, open-source alternative to SPSS for statistical analysis. It supports descriptive statistics, correlation, regression, and non-parametric tests, and can handle large datasets efficiently.

JASP

Developed by the JASP Team at the University of Amsterdam, JASP is an open-source statistical software that provides both classical and Bayesian analysis. Its intuitive interface is designed to make advanced statistical methods accessible to researchers.

Python

Developed by the Python Software Foundation, Python is a versatile, high-level programming language widely used for data analysis, machine learning, web development, and scientific computing. Its extensive libraries and community support make it a leading choice for research applications.

Data Visualization Tools

VOSviewer

Developed by the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS), Leiden University, VOSviewer is a software tool for creating and visualizing bibliometric networks. It is widely used for mapping co-authorship, citation, and keyword networks in research analysis.

Bibliometrix

An R-based open-source tool for comprehensive bibliometric and scientometric analysis. It supports data import from major databases like Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed, and offers statistical, network, and thematic mapping functionalities.

CiteSpace

A Java-based application for visualizing and analyzing trends and patterns in scientific literature. CiteSpace is used for detecting emerging topics, mapping knowledge domains, and identifying critical articles in a research field.

Research Metrics Tools

CiteScore (CS)

CiteScore measures the average citations received per document published in a journal over a four-year period. It helps assess a journal's scholarly impact and influence.

JCR Impact Factor 2024

(PDF Link)

Published by Clarivate Analytics, the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) Impact Factor indicates the average number of citations to recent articles published in a specific journal. It is a widely recognized metric for evaluating journal performance.

SJR (SCImago Journal Rank)

The SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) indicator, developed by SCImago Lab and based on Scopus data, measures a journal's prestige by considering both the number of citations and the importance of the citing journals.

Other Tools

Open Policy Finder

Developed by Jisc (UK), this tool helps researchers and institutions locate and compare open access policies from publishers and funding agencies. It supports compliance with funder mandates and promotes transparency in scholarly publishing.

UGC Regulation and Research Integrity

This document outlines the University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines on promoting ethics and academic integrity in higher education. It details best practices for maintaining research quality, avoiding misconduct, and ensuring adherence to ethical standards.

Elsevier Journal Finder

A free tool that helps authors match their manuscript to Elsevier journals based on the title, abstract, and keywords, along with information on scope, impact, and submission guidelines.

Taylor & Francis Journal Suggester

Assists authors in finding suitable Taylor & Francis journals by analyzing their manuscript details and suggesting relevant matches.

Springer Journal Finder

Provides a searchable database of Springer journals, enabling authors to filter by discipline, scope, and impact to identify the most relevant publication outlet.

Wiley Journal Finder

Matches manuscripts to suitable Wiley journals using title, abstract, and keyword analysis, with details on scope, acceptance rates, and submission requirements.

JANE (Journal/Author Name Estimator)

A free journal recommendation tool primarily for biomedical and life sciences. It matches manuscript content to journals indexed in PubMed, helping authors identify relevant publication venues.