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Doctoral Social Work Research: Tracing Theories

This guide gives an overview of resources for doctoral research in social work (PhD and DSW)

Tracing Social Work Theories

Reference Resources

Use these sources to find background information about social work and other relevant theories to search for a theory's beginnings and current developments.

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Finding Articles

Below are some strategies for finding articles about a theory's past and current developments.

 

Using Date Filters

When searching for older articles, keep in mind that...

1) some theories and practices were not referred to by the same names or acronyms in the past as they are today, so adjust your search terms accordingly, and

2) depending on the topic, the Library's journal subscriptions may not always go as far back as you need so use the Publication Date filter to be sure you're searching in the specific date range you need. 

Screenshot of the database date filter

Searching in Google Scholar is also a great way to find older publications because of its much larger scope. You can similarly use Google Scholar's publication date filter to narrow results to the appropriate date range.

Screenshot of the Google Scholar date filter

Getting Older Articles in Full Text

If you run into the problem of not being able to access older articles in full text (meaning their full text isn't available in the databases or online via Google Scholar), you can submit an Interlibrary Loan request for any article you can't find.

 

Searching Dissertations

Another rich source for tracing a theory's development is a dissertation that explores the theory. Dissertations are not peer-reviewed, so you may not be able to cite them directly for an assignment, but their reference lists  are often treasure troves, particularly for a theory's early, foundational articles. You can find dissertations via Google Scholar, but you can also use the Dissertations & Theses Full-Text database. Get started by searching a theory's name.

 

Citation Searching
Citation searches are a great way to find the folks writing articles in direct conversation about a theory when it emerged. It's a great way to find more recent publications as well, and you can do both in Google Scholar. Citation searching means looking at a publication's reference list (folks they cited before publishing) and "cited by" list (folks who cited them after they published). The reference list is easy--it will be at the end of the article and you can pick which sources you want to track down. The Cited By list is different but just as easy with Google Scholar. Simply search for the article/publication in Google Scholar, then click the Cited By link below the title in the search results.
This will bring up a list of all the publications Google Scholar can find that cited the original article. You can use the date filter to narrow that list to publications published in the timeframe you need (both when the theory was first developed and in the last few years). You can do this type of search with any publication you find until you have what you need.