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Social Work Graduate Programs

This guide highlights general resources related to Social Work at the graduate level.

As you perform your research, you will need to organize and track your resources. Depending on the scope of your project, you may need to keep track of just a handful of preliminary resources or dozens of articles. You might also want to find a method to track the resources you use throughout your academic career. You never know when an interesting reading from one class will wind up being an important resource for a future research project!

Collecting and Managing Resources

  • Many of the library databases include built in tools to help you store articles and books that you locate in that database. However, it is important to note that these tools are usually limited to the platform that you are currently working in and are not available universally.
    • For example, articles that you save to a My Research Folder in ProQuest will not be visible in your Folder in an EBSCOhost database.
       
  • Permalinks are a great resource available in most databases. These are stable web addresses that you can use to return to an article or even a whole set of search results. These are different from just copying the url from the address bar and are usually found by using the "Share", "Save for later", or "permalink" option. 
    • Example: a quick technique for storing many articles that you would like to review later across without stopping to download full text or generate full citations is to email yourself a series of permalinks so that you can note your interest in the resource and come back to it later.
       
  • In addition to saving items for you, most databases will also help you format citations for your materials using a variety of styles, such as MLA, APA, Chicago, and more.
    • These citations specify the exact article/book/item that you consulted and they are required in academic research writing.
    • These tools are not perfect! Always read the citation that you are given thoroughly and make sure to fix any errors.
      • If you need help with checking citations, ask an expert consultant at the Writing Center to review your work.
    • A citation can also be used to help you locate the item again if you lose your original copy. Ask a Librarian if you need help interpreting the information in the citation to retrace your steps!
       
  • For small scale collections of resources, you can do something as simple as making a folder on your computer or in a cloud service (such as Google Drive or OneDrive) to store PDFs of your articles and a Word document to store permalinks and citations.

Set up Alerts for Your Research Topic

Creating an alert will send you an email when new results for your search parameters appear.

In an academic database, Search Alerts can save valuable research time by providing automatic e-mail notification whenever new search results for scholarship in your area of study becomes available. In a search engine you can get info about news, products, or specific terms, such as mentions of your name.

Setting an alert will send you emails when new results for a topic show up in Google Search. For example, you can get info about news, products, or mentions of your name.

Create an alert

  1. Go to Google Alerts.
  2. In the box at the top, enter a topic you want to follow.
  3. To change your settings, click Show options. You can change:
    • How often you get notifications
    • The types of sites you’ll see
    • Your language
    • The part of the world you want info from
    • How many results you want to see
    • What accounts get the alert
  4. Click Create Alert. You’ll get emails whenever we find matching search results.

Edit an alert

  1. Go to Google Alerts.
  2. Next to an alert, click Edit Edit.
  3. If you don’t see any options, click Show options.
  4. Make your changes.
  5. Click Update Alert.
  6. To change how you get alerts, click Settings Settings and then check the options you want and click Save.

Delete an alert

  1. Go to Google Alerts.
  2. Next to the alert you want to remove, click Delete Delete.
  3. Optional: You can also delete an alert by clicking Unsubscribe at the bottom of an alert email.

-From Google, Create an alert

A search alert notifies you when there are new articles that match your search query. All alert related email from ProQuest will be sent from the address alert@proquest.com.
Helpful Tip: use this address to set up a filter if you wish these message to arrive in a folder other than your inbox.

It is not necessary to have a My Research account to subscribe to email alerts. However, if you are signed into your My Research account while creating an alert you can view and manage all your alerts from within My Research.

Follow the steps below to create a new search alert.

  1. Make sure you are on the Set up Your Search Alert page by doing one of the following:
  • Run the desired search from either the Basic or Advanced pages.
  • Note: If you want to receive notification only of full-text documents, make sure you limit your search to full-text documents.
  • From the Results page, click Set up Alert.
  • Or, from the Basic or Advanced pages, click on Recent Searches. Locate the desired search, mark the check box next to the search and then click on Set up Alert next to the search.

2. Select how frequently you want alerts sent. Your options are:

  • Daily
  • Weekly
  • Monthly
  • Quarterly


Check the box next to Send message when there are no new results to receive an alert, even if no new results are available.

  1. Select when to stop sending the alerts. Your options are:
  • Two weeks
  • One month
  • Two months
  • Four months
  • Six months
  • One year


Alerts can be renewed, if desired.
      1. Enter the email address to which you'd like to send the alerts. You cannot send an alert to multiple addresses.
      2. The remaining fields are optional and include: a subject header for the email, and a message you'd like to include in the body of your email.
      3. Pick the formatting for your alert (HTML or Text Only)
      4. Click Set up alert.
      5. You will see a confirmation page, summarizing your information. If the information is correct, click Close. Otherwise, you can click Delete this Alert to delete the alert.

You will receive a confirmation message by email. If this is the first alert for this email address you will need to click "accept" to begin receiving alerts. (You will only be asked to "accept" the first time you set up an alert for your address.)

-From ProQuest, Create a Search Alert

The EBSCO platform supports two types of alerts: Journal Alerts and Search Alerts. This means you can add alerts to your account to notify you when a specific journal adds content or when new records have been added matching the parameters of a saved search. 

NOTE: To create an alert, you must Sign In. 

Click the "MyEBSCO" link located at the top right of any page and then the "Sign in to MyEBSCO" button to enter your personalized workspace where you can save your resources to Project Folders and even share folders with a group. 

If it's your first time signing in, click the "Continue personalized" button.

Because your EBSCOhost account works across the full platform, your folders are available any EBSCOhost database.

After signing in to MyEBSCO you have access to: projects, saved, recent activity, and alerts.

Journal Alerts

You can add alerts to your account to notify you when a specific journal adds issues or articles.

To set an alert for a journal, click on the "Publications" tab in on the Advanced Search page. Search for the journal title you are interested in. Click on the three dots menu to the right of the journal title for the publication tools and click, "Create Alert".

This will open a pop-up window that ask your preferences on notifications. Enter the required information and click on the "Create alert" button at the bottom of the page.

The alert will now appear on the Alert page in your My dashboard. You can remove the alert by clicking on the three dots menu and selecting "delete".

Search Alerts

You can set up alerts for your searches and be notified when new records have been added matching your parameters. This is useful for long term research projects or research of personal interest.

Run your search. Then click on the three dots menu located to the right at the top of the results list and select "Create alert".

This will open a pop-up window. Input any additional details on the search and your notification preferences. Click on the "Create alert" button at the bottom of the page.

Your search will now appear on the Alerts page under the "Search alerts" tab. You can remove the alert by clicking on the three dots menu and selecting "delete".

JSTOR does not have an alert system, however it does have a “Workspace.” 

With your Workspace, you can:

  • Save what you find on JSTOR, including articles, book chapters, images, and primary source materials to revisit anytime
  • Organize your research with folders
  • Add your own notes to items you've saved
  • Export your research as reference lists or presentations
  • Present your research in full screen mode
  • Share folders with other members of your institution

Create your Workspace account:

  1. Log in to JSTOR through the library website: https://lbbl.nsu.edu/jstor
  2. Click on the "Register" button in the upper right corner.
  3. Provide an email address.
    • The email address you choose to register with will be your default username.
  4. Confirm your email address.
  5. Select a strong password. Passwords must:
    • Contain at least one (1) upper or lowercase character.
    • Contain at least one (1) number or special character.
    • Be a minimum of six (6) characters in length.
    • No blank spaces are permitted.
  6. Confirm your password.
  7. The institution or university field should be pre-populated with "Norfolk State University"
  8. Optionally, provide any additional information you would like to share (role, area of study, etc.).
  9. To opt into updates from JSTOR and/or JSTOR-participating publishers, select JSTOR Updates.
  10. To stay logged in, select Keep me Logged In.
  11. Review the Terms and Conditions of use and select the checkbox.
  12. Then click the "Register" button.

Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites.

Setting an alert will send you emails when new results for a topic appear in Google Scholar Search. For example, you can be notified when a new article appears in your area of research. 

You must have a Google account to create an alert.

Create an alert:

  1. From Google Scholar homepage, expand the menu on the top left
  2. Select Alerts from the menu.
  3. Choose your account and log in.
  4. Click CREATE ALERT button and fill out search words.
  5. On this page you will see sample search results generated as you type and you have the option to change the email address where the related alerts are sent.
  6. Click the CREATE ALERT button to set the alert.
  7. Locate Alerts Envelop in right column to view saved alerts

Delete an alert:

  1. From Google Scholar homepage, expand the menu on the top left
  2. Click the Alerts Envelop on the left
  3. Click CANCEL on the alert you would like to remove.
  4. A screen will appear with a confirmation of the alert query you wish to cancel and your email. Click the CANCEL ALERT button.

 

PubMed Central® (PMC) is a free full-text archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature at the U.S. National Institutes of Health's National Library of Medicine (NIH/NLM). 

Create an alert:

  1. Navigate to the Sign in to MyNCBI link at the top right of the PubMed homepage to sign in, or to register for a new account.
  2. Perform a search for which you would like to set up an alert.
  3. Click the Create Alert link located directly below the search box.
  4. You can set
    • Which email accounts get the alert.
    • How often you get notifications
    • How many results you want to see
  5. Click Save. You’ll get emails whenever we find matching search results.

Edit an alert:

  1. Sign in to MyNCBI link at the top right of the PubMed homepage.
  2. Click on your account name in the upper right.
  3. Click on Dashboard.
  4. Under Saved Searches, click on the settings icon settings gear icon
  5. Make any changes you to the search you would like
  6. Click Save to confirm changes.

Delete an alert:

  1. Sign in to MyNCBI link at the top right of the PubMed homepage.
  2. Click on your account name in the upper right.
  3. Click on Dashboard.
  4. Under Saved Searches, click on the settings icon settings gear icon
  5. Click the Delete button at the bottom.
  6. Click OK to confirm deletion.