Sociology

A great starting point for researching a wide variety of topics in Sociology. Criminology and Education topics are also covered in the 1,800 entries which all point you to further reading too.

Explore Credo for trusted reference sources like dictionaries - a great alternative to Wikipedia! 

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1. Search tips
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Access around 200,000 ebooks across all subject areas.

A collection of over 500 full-text social science textbooks from SAGE.

The British Social Attitudes survey has been measuring and tracking changes in people's social, political and moral attitudes since 1983. We have the print versions in stock at 303.380941/BRI but for convenience, you can access comparative data and reports since 2010 via this site.

The Campbell library produced by the Campbell Collaboration, is a collection of systematic reviews relating to the effects of social interventions in areas such as crime, social welfare, education and international development. At the site, scroll down to Topic Browse and choose Campbell Subject Categories.

Look at the systematic reviews for your subject or view resources such as policy documents.

Oxford Sociology Handbooks offer thorough introductions and a survey of the current state of research in key topics such as class, culture, migration, poverty, the body, sport etc. Chapters review key issues and major debates and indicate how the debates might evolve.

Get search tips from this video.

Read authoritative, peer-reviewed, regularly updated entries written by experts covering criminology and criminal justice across the world. Topics include criminal behaviour, theory, juvenile justice, victimology, cybercrime, policing, race, ethnicity and crime and much more.

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Over 250 unlimited access in-depth guides to current and classic research across a range of subject areas. If you can't access something via this site, put the book title into our general Portsmouth catalogue as we have some titles via Ebook Central instead.

A collection of over 500 full-text social science textbooks from SAGE.

Access books and videos about quantitative and qualitative research methods and many more social science research topics. Use the Tools drop-down at the top centre of the screen to access a handy Project Planner which is full of FAQs about what you need to consider at each stage in a project/dissertation. Tools also contains a Methods Map which is ideal for quickly finding details about a particular research method.

A top-ranking, peer-reviewed journal covering all aspects of sociology, including theory.

Search and browse, or sign up to the daily newsletter, for an independent source of news analysis and informed comment written by academic experts working with professional journalists to reach a wider audience. The Conversation aims to provide the expert insight needed to better understand current affairs and the complex issues we face.

This peer-reviewed journal provides an international forum for analysis and debate on social policy issues.

A peer-reviewed journal covering race, ethnicity and nationalism, including multiculturalism.

A peer-reviewed journal covering a wide range of food topics, including food security, food fashions, eating disorders and cultural norms of food practices.

A peer-reviewed journal including articles relating to gender and sex from a feminist perspective.

A peer-reviewed journal including articles on all aspects of social policy in an international context.

A highly regarded, international, peer-reviewed journal which focuses on young people within a range of contexts, such as education, the labour market and the family, and highlights key research themes such as the construction of identity, the use of leisure time, involvement in crime, consumption and political behaviour.

A popular, peer-reviewed journal which explores the evolving roles and perceptions of men across society.

A highly regarded, peer-reviewed journal covering all branches of sociology.

A very popular, peer-reviewed journal which covers a broad range of sociology topics.

A leading, international, peer-reviewed journal which includes articles on the sociology of work.

Provides access to more than 12 million journal articles, books, images, reports and primary sources in 75 disciplines.
Watch this video for great tips.

A key source for tracking down articles across the social sciences. This database is available on the EBSCO platform allowing you to search this database alongside others within Discovery.

JSTOR started as a journal archive but it now offers much more. Jump straight to the articles and chapters on JSTOR which are most useful for Sociology topics. You will also find tips about using JSTOR and carrying out research.

Large abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature covering all subject areas.

Part of Web of Knowledge, includes records for thousands of scholarly publications. Search across three main citation databases (Science/Social Science/Arts & Humanities). 

Full text articles from many news sources and trade journals both UK and international. Archives sometimes stretching back to the mid 1980s. For use in the UK only.

PressReader lets you access UK and international newspapers, plus a wide range of magazine content. Everything is full colour with archives varying in length depending on the publication.

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Use with care as this tabloid is known for its strong views but it can help with some assignments and certain dissertation topics. Search for stories or use the browse feature to flick through the paper on particular days, including special editions published in connection with Queen Victoria, George V, Elizabeth II's coronation and Winston Churchill. Use Nexis if you want to go beyond 2016.

This archive gives you highly respected commentary and analysis of global news each week from 1843 to 2015. Search by subject or browse by date. The articles are full facsimiles, including photos and charts.
Read about financial crises as they happened.

Access the full text of popular entertainment industry magazine archives, including New Musical Express, Variety, The Stage and Screen International.

Access stories and photos from The Guardian (1821-2003) and The Observer (1791-2003). Use Nexis if you want to search up to the current day.

A British countercultural underground newspaper 1966-1986.

Uncover detailed information about feminist magazines produced by women who campaigned for equality during the 1970s and 1980s. Each entry includes where to find the magazines and links to online copies where possible. Compared to magazines today, these publications contain fewer images and advertisements. They were often non-commercial ventures, produced on a shoe-string budget and reliant on free feminist labour. The financial support of the Greater London Council was vital to magazines such as Spare Rib and Outwrite, while Mukti had funding from Camden Council.

Founded in 1903, the Mirror plays a pivotal role in the history of journalism. Peaking in 1967, with a daily circulation of 5.25 million, the newspaper has had a history full of highs and lows. Today, it is the only mainstream left-wing tabloid remaining in the UK. Gale's Mirror Historical Archive, 1903-2000 features more than 800,000 pages of brand-new, full text searchable, scans of the complete run of the Mirror from 1903-2000, including the Sunday Mirror.

Full text articles from many news sources and trade journals both UK and international. Archives sometimes stretching back to the mid 1980s. For use in the UK only.

PressReader lets you access UK and international newspapers, plus a wide range of magazine content. Everything is full colour with archives varying in length depending on the publication.

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A magazine archive chronicling the lives of Britain’s black community during the 1970s and 1980s. First launched in 1973, it combined radical journalism with campaigning zeal to shine a light on the issues affecting Britain’s black communities, as well as providing insight and commentary on politics in Britain and abroad. The years available in this archive range from 1974 - 1988.

Launched in 1855 as an affordable newspaper (it quickly cut its price to a penny), by 1876 The Telegraph was the largest-selling newspaper in the world. The newspaper was directed at a wealthy, educated readership and is commonly associated with traditional Toryism, despite its more "liberal" beginnings. The Telegraph Historical Archive has over 1 million pages of content and includes the Sunday edition from its inception in 1961. The archive offers a fundamental insight into domestic and international affairs and culture over a time span of almost 150 years.

Under the editorship of poet and Orientalist Edwin Arnold from 1873 to 1899, the newspaper published widely on foreign affairs and foreign cultures. This led to coverage of Stanley's expedition to Africa in search of David Livingstone, which it co-sponsored with the New York Herald in 1874. Its dedication to foreign news coverage was evidenced by its employment of several renowned special correspondents over the years, including: Winston Churchill, who reported from India in 1897, Rudyard Kipling, who braved the trenches of the First World War, and Clare Hollingworth, who, as the first female war correspondent, relayed the start of the Second World War from Poland.

During the twentieth century, The Telegraph cemented its reputation as a pioneering yet reliable source of news reporting. There was the infamous uncensored interview with Kaiser Wilhelm of 1908, in which he successfully alienated Britain, France, Russia, and Japan. In 1942, the newspaper published the cryptic crossword puzzle responsible for recruiting Allied codebreakers during the Second World War.

Search over 200 years of articles. Articles are full facsimiles of what was published on the day and you can view the article in its original page location if you want.

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Search the backfiles of leading women's magazines from the late-19th century through to 2005. Titles include Company, Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, Prima, Seventeen and She from the UK and Canada. If you want to search just the UK versions, go to Advanced Search, then scroll to Place of Publication and tick London. Access more recent content via PressReader.

Eurostat is the statistical office of the European Union and its task is to provide the European Union with statistics at European level that enable comparisons between countries and regions.

The World Bank's one-stop shop for gender information, providing data from a variety of sources.

Data about UK households collected by the UK Government.

This gives a wide range of statistics on population, education, (un)employment, agriculture, industry, motor vehicles, railways, TV and radio etc. Data can be viewed as PDF (downloadable) or Excel format which can then be exported. Make sure to use the "Search within book" option, not Springer's general search box at the top of the screen.

Find statistics for local areas in the UK on a wide range of subjects, including population, crime, health and housing.

Missing Numbers is about the data that the UK government doesn't collect. It is a project of the Centre for Public Data.

Our World in Data is a collaborative effort between researchers at the University of Oxford and the non-profit organization Global Change Data Lab (GCDL)

Authoritative data going back to 1878 from the United States Census Bureau. For earlier years data is available via PDF or Zip files but more recent years have Excel spreadsheets available to download.

Whilst the UK data sets cover such areas as employment, and family expenditure, the international data sets from major bodies such as the IMF, OECD and World Bank are well worth exploring - often giving information down to country level (previously ESDS).

Official statistics from the UK Government.

Use this site to help gather a large range of statistics, including detailed data on progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

Surveys of American public opinion. There is also a section which covers countries across the world.

Go to the Political Monitor and Political Polling sections for UK public opinion data relevant to Politics courses.

Public opinion from over 350,000 volunteers from across the UK.

Look here for expert checking of environmental, political and social issues in the news

Expert fact checking of stories in the news

The official UK body with the mandate to challenge discrimination.

Full Fact are a team of independent fact checkers who check claims made by politicians, public institutions and journalists, as well as viral online content. They ask people to correct the record when they get things wrong in order to stop and reduce the spread of bad information. They are a registered charity launched by a cross-party group, and their board includes representatives of different political parties and viewpoints. Click the Fact Checks tab to jump to thematic sections covering education, health, crime etc.

Research and analysis on a wide variety of topics from education, poverty and social policy to foreign policy, trade and economics produced by impartial experts in the House of Commons Library. Either click Research at the top of the screen, then scroll down to browse by topic or click Search at the top right of the screen, then change to Search all research services before putting in your topic so that you can pick up House of Lords reports as well as House of Commons.

A key UK organisation which aims to address problems caused by poverty, poor housing/homelessness and an ageing society, plus a broad range of other social issues. Use the Topics drop-down at the top of the site to access a wide range of useful reports dating from 1994 onwards, plus relevant statistics.

Britain's leading independent social research institute. Research covers all areas of social policy. Reports are produced in the following areas: Equality & Diversity, Children, Schools & Families, Health & Wellbeing, Social Inclusion, Crime & Justice, Income & Work and Social & Political Attitudes

Access the world’s largest public policy database with 3.2+ million resources from 24,000+ global organizations. Covers topics like health, education, business, and more. Free registration needed for 25 searches a month. Watch this short video to see how it could help you.

The UK's leading race equality think tank providing authoritative, evidence-based interventions to overcome racial inequality.

This searches the websites of over 1,200 institutions across the world that generate public policy research, analysis and activity. These sites are affiliated with universities, governments, advocacy groups, foundations, and non-governmental organizations. This site also leads you to other sources for finding policy.

An archive of UK television and radio programmes from free to air channels (1998 onwards). For use in the UK only. Find some great tips about how to use BoB in these short videos.

Watch videos on a range of sociology topics recorded by academic experts

This resource is restricted to members of the University of Portsmouth

You have two ways to access the login instructions:

1. Contact the Library from any Library enquiry desk or by contacting us:

• Email: library@port.ac.uk
• Tel: 023 9284 3228

2. Connect to the University VPN and use the link below:

View restricted access information for resources

To verify you are a University member, please use your university email account or include your student/staff number in your message. If calling, please have your student/staff card ready.

A unique collections of films including award-winning documentaries, training films and theatrical releases on every topic imaginable. Content can be searched or browsed.

Online learning and training courses covering business and employability, as well as creative and technical skills.

Founded in 1905, ASA is the US national professional membership association for sociologists with a mission is to serve sociologists in their work, advance sociology as a science and profession, and promote the contributions and use of sociology to society.

Founded in 1951, the British Sociological Association (BSA) is the national subject association for sociologists in the UK and its primary objective is to promote sociology. The BSA is the largest sociological network in the UK and is the public face of sociology in Britain.

Founded in 1949 under the auspices of UNESCO, the goal of ISA is to represent sociologists everywhere and members come from 126 countries

UK organisation for social researchers established in 1968

Access the annual reports and other publications of the UK's Commission for Racial Equality from the 1970s - 2008.

Explore 20 collections of documents, including minutes of meetings and conferences, press releases, fliers, brochures, press clippings, US government memoranda and reports, private correspondence, surveys and photos.

Watch this quick introduction to the archive - please note we only subscribe to Part 1 which contains British material as well as coverage from North America.

The Connected Sociologies Curriculum Project provides open access resources for those interested in ‘decolonising’ school, college and university curricula. It enables rethinking of sociological concepts, categories, and topics that help us to make better sense of the worlds we inhabit. The Project Director is Gurminder K Bhambra, Professor of Postcolonial and Decolonial Studies at the University of Sussex.

Access thousands of items from archives based mainly in the USA but also including the UK, Ireland, Spain and Brazil. The largest collections are photos, clippings and newsletters but you will also find correspondence, speeches, posters and ephemera.

Disability in the Modern World: History of a Social Movement encompasses an international set of resources to enrich study in a wide range of disciplines from media studies to philosophy.

The official UK body with the mandate to challenge discrimination.

Explore primary sources for gender history, women's suffrage, the feminist movement, the men's movement, the body, domesticity and the family. The records available include some from pressure groups giving details of 20th century lobbying and activism.

Watch this 40 minute webinar to understand more about the content available.

The World Bank's one-stop shop for gender information, providing data from a variety of sources.

Features of the site include a timeline, links to personal stories/memories, photographic archives etc. The Resources link at the top right of the site leads to a wide range of links relating to women's organisations and activism in the UK and beyond

Uncover detailed information about feminist magazines produced by women who campaigned for equality during the 1970s and 1980s. Each entry includes where to find the magazines and links to online copies where possible. Compared to magazines today, these publications contain fewer images and advertisements. They were often non-commercial ventures, produced on a shoe-string budget and reliant on free feminist labour. The financial support of the Greater London Council was vital to magazines such as Spare Rib and Outwrite, while Mukti had funding from Camden Council.

This site unpacks the issues of migration, identity and diversity facing contemporary societies. It features information, stories, images and learning resources, with links and further reading to follow up. Read about new research on the histories and cultures of Britain's diverse communities. The Migration Histories section looks at some major historical migrations and how they have helped shape the UK.

This award-winning hub from the Open University offers fresh perspectives on race, racism and ethnicity through free courses, articles and audiovisual materials. These resources will help people to understand both historic and contemporary ideas of race and racism and how these ideas could inform our decisions and interactions.

The UK's leading race equality think tank providing authoritative, evidence-based interventions to overcome racial inequality.

Themes covered include: childhood and family, objects, food, disability, the body, the home, women, dress and fashion, theatre, animals, the sea, work, leisure and consumption etc. Each theme goes from antiquity through to the 21st century. You can search by time or place as well as by theme.

Explore five centuries of primary source material documenting the story of food and drink. The materials in this collection illustrate the deep links between food and identity, politics, power, gender, race, and socio-economic status, as well as charting key issues such as agriculture, nutrition, and food production.

You can access printed and manuscript cookbooks, advertising ephemera, government reports, films, and illustrated content revealing the evolution of food and drink within everyday life and the public sphere. The unique material in this collection has been sourced from across the globe to reflect a wide range of food cultures and traditions.

Use this site to find UK Government information, publications or statistics.

Launched in 1981 by the University of Sussex as a rebirth of the original 1937 Mass Observation, this aims to document the social history of Britain by recruiting volunteers to write about their lives and opinions. It is one of the most important sources available for qualitative social data in the UK. This collection consists of the directives (questionnaires) sent out by Mass Observation in the 1980s/1990s and the thousands of responses from the hundreds of Mass Observers on topics such as elections, Europe, AIDS, the miners' strike, Britishness, the fall of the Berlin Wall, TV soaps, family life, education, the National Lottery, the Stephen Lawrence Enquiry, the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.

Watch this quick overview of the material covering the 1990s.

Material collected by Mass Observation during the COVID-19 pandemic, including diaries and writing created by people living in the UK

This site unpacks the issues of migration, identity and diversity facing contemporary societies. It features information, stories, images and learning resources, with links and further reading to follow up. Read about new research on the histories and cultures of Britain's diverse communities. The Migration Histories section looks at some major historical migrations and how they have helped shape the UK.

A useful blog from Bristol University Press/Policy Press with current coverage of (mostly UK) social issues. The aim of Transforming Society is to have an impact, from bringing research to a place where it can affect national, local or global policies, to changing the way one person views the world.

Search or browse one of the most detailed primary sources for the history of Britain and its former colonies. Reports from military officers serving abroad are included, as well as Command Papers, Bills, Committee reports. Hansard is available from 1803-2005. (See UK Parliament link if you need more recent papers.)

Access the daily record of debates in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords right up to the present (the Weekly Information Bulletin, business papers, Committee publications and Register of Members' Interests are also available). Includes Hansard.