Research Guides: Public Affairs 112 Social Movements: Reference Sources

Librarian for Public Policy & Urban Planning

Michelle Brasseur

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Contact:

Young Research Library, Level A

310-825-1639

Subjects: Geography, Public Affairs

Online Encyclopedias, Reference Sources, and Dictionaries

The links below lead you to encyclopedias and online reference tools.

These resources are often great starting points because they often give broad subject coverage and/or historical context. Review an entry's references for more possible sources.

Encyclopedia of social problems
Comprehensive approach to the field of social problems, utilizing experts from anthropology, biology, business, chemistry, communications, criminal justice, demography, economics, education, environmental studies, geography, health, history, languages, political science, psychology, social work, sociology, and women's studies.

Gale eBooks (formerly Gale Virtual Reference Library) This link opens in a new window
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Online encyclopedias, dictionaries, and specialized reference sources, primarily in the social sciences and humanities.
Twayne's Authors Online; gvrl

International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences
A scholarly encyclopedia covering disciplines of the social and behavioral sciences: Anthropology, Economics, Geography, Political Science, Psychology, Social Welfare, Sociology, and related fields and concepts.

SAGE Knowledge This link opens in a new window
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E-books and reference works in the social sciences. Includes scholarly monographs, reference works, handbooks, series, professional development titles, and more. Includes books published by both Sage and CQ Press. UCLA subscribes to only a small fraction of the books available.

SAGE Encyclopedia of Political Behavior
The SAGE Encyclopedia of Political Behavior explores the intersection of psychology, political science, sociology, and human behavior. This encyclopedia integrates theories, research, and case studies from a variety of disciplines that inform this established area of study. Aimed at college and university students, this one-of-a-kind reference covers voting patterns, interactions between groups, what makes different types of government systems appealing to different societies, and the impact of early childhood development on political beliefs, among others.
Merriam Webster Online
A commercial site that has both a dictionary and thesaurus.

Oxford English Dictionary This link opens in a new window
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Includes the complete text of the Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. plus quarterly updates of new and revised entries. Trace the origin and history of words and their meanings in this etymological dictionary.
oed; o.e.d.

oed; o.e.d.
Oxford Reference This link opens in a new window
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Spans 25 different subject areas, bringing together 2 million digitized entries across Oxford University Press’s Dictionaries, Companions and Encyclopedias. UC subscription allows limited simultaneous users, so if you can't connect try again later.
oxford premium
SAGE Research Methods This link opens in a new window
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Books, reference works, and instructional videos about qualitative and quantitative methodologies in the sciences and social sciences. Includes Research Tools (online tools for planning research and choosing methods), Cases (examples of real research), Video (research process, data science, and methods) and Datasets (sample data chosen specifically to support practice with various statistical analysis methods).

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