LibGuides: Social Sciences Book Reviews: Locating Social Sciences Book Reviews

Disciplinary Databases...

You will probably want to search disciplinary databases (i.e. Worldwide Political Science, Criminal Justice Abstracts, and Sociological Abstracts) in addition to the more multi/interdisciplinary resources on this page. These links will take you to the disciplinary database library guides here at the WSU Libraries. Look here for disciplines not on included.

Political Science
See also: The Law & Politics Book Review
Criminal Justice/Criminology
See also: Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books
Sociology/Social Work
See also: Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews
Anthropology
Communication/Comm Studies
broadcasting/mass media; comm studies ; journalism
Economics
Education
Law
Psychology
History
Yeah, I know - but to me its a social science ;-)

Librarian Corner...click on image for more info

Lorena O'English

Email Me

Contact:

Terrell Library 120-D
Washington State University

Office Hours: (Spring, 2023): Click the "Schedule Appointment" link above to set up a Zoom appointment, or email me directly via the button (which I recommend).

Subjects: Criminal Justice, Government Information, Law, Political Science, Sociology, Sport Studies

Interdisciplinary/Multidisciplinary Databases and Online Review Resources

Finding Reviews: Some databases will let you filter by "book review" as an article type, but the search will not always be comprehensive. Generally it's good to search for the title of the book in quotation marks (usually the part before the subtitle is fine), with the word review*, i.e. "Net Delusion" review* (The asterisk is a common truncation symbol and will let you search for both the word review and the word reviews in most databases). Sometimes you may want to search by the author's name in addition to (or instead of?) the title.

LSE Review of Books
"Daily academic book reviews from the social sciences" via the London School of Economics. Check out their Google Map showing reviewed books by topic and region.
New Books Network: Politics & Society
Includes a wide range of social science disciplines and topics. Click on "Politics & Society" - topic areas are links (but careful - it blinks out quickly :-(
H-Net Reviews
"H-Net Reviews in the Humanities and Social Sciences is an online scholarly review resource. " Use the Advanced Search link in the left-hand menu bar.
Arts and Letters Daily
From the Chronickle of Higher Education - a great multidiscipline and serendipitous list of links to interesting book reviews, articles, long reads, profiles, and more.
Social Sciences Abstracts [article database]
Formerly known as the Social Sciences Index
Humanities International Index
JSTOR [journal collection]
Note: Does not include most recent 3-5 years of most of the journals included.
Project Muse
Elsevier ScienceDirect [journal collection]
This resource contains the full text of Elsevier science journals with over 650 journals avilable in full text from 1995 to the present. This includes almost 300 title available at WSU in electronic form only.
Humanities & social sciences index retrospective (1907 - 1984) [online]
Cumulates: International index (and its predecessor titles), 1907-Mar. 1965; Social sciences & humanities index, Apr, 1965-Mar. 1974; Humanities index, Apr. 1974-Mar. 1984; and, Social sciences index, Apr. 1974-Mar. 1983.
Provides citations to journal articles covering a wide range of interdisciplinary fields from a broad array of humanities and social sciences journals.

Academic Search Complete
Academic Search Complete includes full text for 1800 publications as well as images, for nearly every academic field of study.

For Fun and Serendipity

Five Books: The Best Five Books on Everything
Powell's Bookstore: Staff Picks
Mouse on the Staff Picks tile to see other lists.
New Books Network
"The New Books Network is a consortium of author-interview podcast channels dedicated to public education. Covering 100+ subjects, disciplines, and genres, we publish 70 to 100 episodes every week. The NBN reaches about half a million people every month; NBN listeners download close to 1.5 million episodes a month."

Book Review Databases and Print Reference Sources

Book Review Digest Retrospective : 1908-1982 (EBSCO)(H.W.Wilson)(XML)
Covers 1908-1982; provides book review citations and excerpts.

Book Review Index to Social Science Periodicals (print)
1964-1974
Located in the Terrel Library Stacks (non-reference): H1 .B66x
Book Review Index
1965 - 2003
Print: Terrell Library Reference: Z1035 .A1 B6
Current Book Review Citations
Print; Terrell Library Stacks: Z 1035 .A1 C86
1976-1982

Fall 2023 Update: New/Newish Helpful WSU Libraries Resources and Services

JSTOR - we have continuing access to ALL of JSTOR's journal content (including the Security Studies and Sustainability thematic collections)! This was originally set to end in June 2023, but has been extended as a permanent subscription.

HeinOnline / Hein Online
Database of legal and government resources, including laws, regulations, some trials and court reports, treaties, monographs, and a variety of other materials covering United States and foreign law. Coverage includes private and public international law, intellectual property and legal history. Includes full text image-based searchable database of legal periodicals. Database coverage for each periodical is from the beginning issue to the most current allowed under contract. New and updated material added frequently.
Statista
Statista provides access to statistics and studies gathered by market researchers, trade organizations, scientific publications, and government sources on over 600 industries.
PolicyMap
Now permanent!!! as of January 2022
An online (no software installation needed) U.S. national data and mapping tool and analytics platform with multidisciplinary applications for college students and faculty. Undergraduate and graduate schools use us in their curriculum and research related to social sciences, urban studies, real estate and housing analysis, community and economic development, public administration, public health, policy and political science, education, business, economics, statistics, and geography, among others. Users can leverage thousands of U.S. data indicators in PolicyMap to perform demographic and socioeconomic analysis, from a neighborhood census block group in many cases, up to a national level, as well as create custom regions, for their research and studies.
Look for Blog Posts, Customer Stories, and sample Maps, Tables, and Reports.
SAGE Research Methods
Designed to guide users to the content they need to learn a little or a lot about their method, SAGE Research Methods includes more than 1000 books, reference works, journal articles, and instructional videos by world-leading academics from across the social sciences, including the largest collection of qualitative methods books available online from any scholarly publisher. The Methods Map can help those less familiar with research methods to find the best technique to use in their research.

Off-Campus Access: Open Athens and LibKey Nomad
Open Athens is the invisible way you can access library resources after logging in with your WSU NetID. The WSU Libraries' LibKey Nomad extension can be used to provide instant access to PDFs available through the WSU Libraries - it will follow you around (and NOT collect any data!) and will show a green logo in the lower left corner of your screen if you are on the landing page of an article WSU has access to. Click it and it will take you to Search It for access.
Citation Linker
Use this link when you have a citation and want to get to the book or article. It will link to the item you want. If it is not available at the WSU Libraries, it will generate an automatic Interlibrary Loan form so you can easily request it.
Note: you can also find this at the top of Search It - but you'll have to click on the ... menu.
The Dimensions Lab
Big Monitors. Cool software. Large (but not really large) scanner. 3D Photogrammetry. Macs. 3-D printer. And more. #DigitalMaking
The Libraries’ Dimensions Lab is equipped to provide computing resources and tools for computer-based projects in the fields of media, art, music, engineering, computer science, and physics. The lab is located on the first floor of the Holland Library on the WSU Pullman campus, right off the main elevators between Holland and Terrell.
Added in fall 2021: a small recording studio, the Audio Lab.
WSU Libraries Citation Style Quick Guides (includes APA 7th)
"These quick reference guides are designed to provide easy access to common formatting and stylistic requirements for each citation style."
APA Style (7th Ed.) Handouts and Guides (free)
"The following are instructional aids for the seventh edition Publication Manual, Concise Guide to APA Style, and Mastering APA Style Student Workbook. They can be used in homes, classrooms, libraries, or anywhere you are learning or teaching APA Style."
APA: The Basics of Seventh Edition APA Style (free)
Free tutorial
Just in case, APA Sixth Edition Resources
APA: Style and Grammar Guidelines (7th edition; free)
Just in case, APA Sixth Edition Resources