LibGuides: Sociology: Reference works

Reference works: selection of encyclopedias and dictionaries

General reference

Oxford Reference This link opens in a new window
Multidisciplinary collection of (subject) dictionaries and encyclopedias, timelines and quotations, plus thesauri and guides to English grammar and usage.
Sage Research Methods Online (SRMO) This link opens in a new window
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SRMO helps you to answer your research methods and design questions, with over 100,000 pages of book, journal and reference content. The Cases offer hundreds of case studies of actual research projects. They add nuance and context to the more theoretical material found in SRMO.
SRMO contains
- dictionaries, encyclopedias, and handbooks;
- the entire "Little Green Book" series (Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences) and "Little Blue Book" series;
- two major works collating a selection of journal articles and
- newly commissioned videos.
One of the features is The Methods Map. This is a visualization tool that can be used to discover relationships between methods, to discover new methods and to find content related to them. Underpinning the Methods Map is a new taxonomy of social science research methods, developed by Sage, and containing over 1,400 unique terms.

Related databases: Safari: O’Reilly’s Learning Platform for Higher Education

Discipline-specific reference works

Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology
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Encyclopedia on sociology and related sciences.
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This database contains articles and links on subjects, theories, research and persons. It is an important reference for experts and newcomers and entries vary from short definitions of key terms to extended explorations of major topics. Updated regular.
Dictionary of Sociology
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Terms taken from sociology and the related fields of psychology, economics, anthropology, philosophy, and political science, it provides widespread coverage of all aspects of sociology.
Encyclopedia of Urban Studies
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An internationally orientated encyclopedia intended to provide comprehensive coverage of topics currently studied in urban studies. It adresses both the growth and expansion of urban areas (urbanization) as well as the nature and quality of urban life (urbanism) (2010).
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Specific attention is paid to the study of urban areas (such as urban anthropology, urban economics, urban geography, urban politics, urban psychology, and urban sociology), to professional fields such as architecture and urban planning, and to other fields such as art, literature, and photography that are situated within the built environment.
References for further reading on each topic are provided.
International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences
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Encyclopedia on social and behavioral sciences and related topics (second edition, 2015)
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Contains over 3900 articles on communication, behavioral sciences, social sciences, psychology and education theory.
The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social and Political Movements Online
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Encyclopedia containing over 400 entries exploring social and political movements and related collective phenomena throughout the world.
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Covers a broad range of historical and modern topics to create an understanding of social and political developments and changes throughout much of human history, from the French revolution, to the global women’s movement, to Martin Luther King Jr. and the American civil rights movement, through to more recent issues including environmentalism and the Arab Spring.
Encyclopedia of statistics in behavioral science
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Provides complete coverage of current statistical methods ranging through confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling, random effect/multilevel modeling, generalized linear models, computationally intensive methods such as the bootstrap, and many more.
Emerging trends in the social and behavioral sciences
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Highlights some of the most compelling topics in current scholarship and presents them through an interdisciplinary lens. It provides an opportunity for leading scholars to share their expertise and for readers to understand how groundbreaking ideas will shape the trajectory of research in the coming decades.
International studies encyclopedia
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Published in association with the International Studies Association (ISA).