Social Services Abstracts Tutorial
This tutorial will guide you through the use of the database Social Services Abstracts, a database with over a thousand social science serial titles.
Once linked into the database, the page will be directed to the default advanced search page. The advanced search mode allows multiple search term entries and specific search options such as date, document type, and so on.
For a broad search let’s use the example adolescents and eating disorders. If you believe that your search term has other related synonyms try using the thesaurus to expand upon other search possibilities. For example, if you type adolescents into the thesaurus, the word teenagers is recommended as another term. To search both terms, type adolescents OR teenagers AND eating disorder. Sometimes it’s helpful to put a multiple word phrase in quotes, so the database searches for the topic as one key term [type “eating disorders”]. Let’s search for this entry.
Once the results screen appears¸you will see the number of results listed at the top of the screen, you can choose to go back and modify your search if your search seems to narrow or too broad. To narrow your search it is helpful to use the descriptors located in the panel to the right. Click on the plus signs next to the descriptors to see the options. For example, you can selectively narrow your search with suggested subject topics, by date, or by a variety of other options.
In the result list each record contains the article’s title and the rest of the citation information. To see the full abstract, or summary, mouseover the preview link, or click on the article title link. If the article is relevant to your search, click on the cite link to save the citation to your records. Then click on the Get it@BU button to see if we have access to this publication. If you are not linked to the article, you can request it through inter-library loan. For more information about the Get it@BU feature, see the tutorial.
Back on the record’s screen, the reference option is another helpful way to expand your search and discover related articles or you can also select the “see similar documents link” under the more like this heading.
Any of these article citations can be emailed, printed, cited, saved, or exported to Refworks. The save to my research option, located in each record, also allows convenient management of citations until the end of your search query.
A help link is located at the top of the screen for other immediate questions, and for all other questions click on the Ask Us logo located on the top right corner of the BU libraries homepage.
[updated2/8/12, AL]