This document provides guidance on researching the topic of racism, power, and inequality for a sociology course. It instructs the student to choose their specific thesis topic, organize relevant concepts and terms, and construct database searches using Boolean operators and wildcards. Sample searches are provided focusing on topics like property values, homeownership, incarceration, and microaggressions. The document recommends specialized databases for statistics and certain ethnic groups. It stresses selecting the appropriate database and terminology for the topic, searching across multiple databases, and properly citing sources.

1. SOC 436
racism power and inequality
cc: Onyx Truth - https://www.flickr.com/photos/44107298@N05

2. Photo by pouwerkerk - Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License https://www.flickr.com/photos/85515841@N00 Created with Haiku Deck

3. Pick your topic
Home ownership, racism and inequality
cc: Alex E. Proimos - https://www.flickr.com/photos/34120957@N04

4. What are the main issues.
Think of terms and variables that
characterize your thesis topic.
Think about what discipline in
addition to sociology would
research your topic.

5. Organize
cc: oemebamo - https://www.flickr.com/photos/91353934@N00
Remember synonyms, related concepts,
and terminology specific to a database

6. Concept A
Concept B

7. Connect
use these to construct a search
cc: Photosightfaces - https://www.flickr.com/photos/30595068@N06

8. Use this to connect
different variables. For
example: race and
incarceration
and

9. Use this to search for either
term. Always use ( ) around
OR terms. For example:
(television or film)
or

10. Use this to look for root
endings. For example:
rac* looks for racial,
race, races,

11. cUse this to search for
phrases. For example:
“race relations”
This works for Sociological Abstracts, GenderWatch, JSTOR, One
Search and all databases purchased from ProQuest

12. Use this to search for phrases
in Ebsco Databases .For
example:
social w1 dating

13. Sample Searches
“property value” and (race or discrimination)
homeownership and discrimination
Incarceration and race and socioeconomic*
Microaggression and employment
cc: Philip Taylor PT - https://www.flickr.com/photos/9731367@N02

14. Ways to SearchSpecialized Research – Statistics- Selected Databases- Databases by Topic

15. Photo by Anthony Albright - Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License https://www.flickr.com/photos/50125742@N07 Created with Haiku Deck

16. Ethnic Groups
cc: Spiva Arts - https://www.flickr.com/photos/95823288@N05

17. •
•
•
•

18. Photo by r4n - Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License https://www.flickr.com/photos/23680473@N08 Created with Haiku Deck

19. Database by Topic.
allows you to find articles
in a specific discipline
and use more advance
terminology

20. find the article
PDF - HTML - Full Text - Get it @ CSULB
cc: escalepade - https://www.flickr.com/photos/24971777@N02

23. Research Recap
• Pick the correct database
• Match your terminology to the
database
• Search more than one database
• Keep track of your citations
• Contact me for help BEFORE you
get frustrated!
cc: 427 - https://www.flickr.com/photos/7884518@N04