The purpose of this study was to examine the impact factor of cognitive psychology journals indexed in the Science and Social Sciences edition of "Journal Citation Reports" ("JCR") database over a period of 10 consecutive years. Cognitive psychology journals were indexed in 11 different subject categories of the database. Their mean impact factor…

Big Data is an increasingly popular term across scholarly and popular literature but lacks a formal definition (Lohr 2012). This is beneficial in that it keeps the term flexible. For librarians, Big Data represents a few important ideas. One idea is the idea of balancing accessibility with privacy. Librarians tend to want information to be as open…

This article describes a year-long application of critical information literacy theory for social-science-related library workshops. Each of these workshops had a customized section that included working with special collections and university archives. The students who participated ranged from incoming freshman to seniors at Stanford University.…

To determine the mix of resources used in social gerontology research, a citation analysis was conducted. A representative sample of citations was selected from three prominent gerontology journals and information was added to determine subject scatter and database coverage for the cited materials. Results indicate that a significant portion of…

This article highlights an assessment of library instruction needs among graduate students in the social sciences. The article addresses the development and implementation of the assessment and the application of assessment results to an established set of library instruction workshops. The article provides a detailed summary of assessment…

Twitter (www.twitter.com) has become kind of a popular culture punch line. It's often used as a shorthand to represent how self-obsessed and self-involved the American culture has become, and while Twitter does lend itself to a kind of needless sharing, it also has some potentially useful features. Twitter is a microblogging service that allows…

Open access publishing is now an accepted method of scholarly communication. However, the greatest traction for open access publishing thus far has been in the sciences. Penetration of open access publishing has been much slower among the social sciences. This study surveys 309 authors from recent issues of open access journals in education to…

This overview of 48 online databases relevant to behavioral and social sciences provides access and scope information for each database, a listing of database vendors, and a list of selected references. Use and limitations of online bibliographic searching and difficulties encountered in staying up to date are discussed. (Author/EJS)

Summarizes three aspects of the federal government's involvement with social science information: changes in scope of federal statistical efforts; rise and decline of federal support for bibliographic information systems and services; development of National Technical Information Service into social science information resource. Eleven references…

Presents fundamental guide to legal documents for librarians servicing patrons interested in social and behavioral sciences. Basic bibliographic information for secondary level materials (finding aids, dictionaries, encyclopedias, serials, monographs) and primary legal materials (items of which law itself is composed) is provided with…

Discussion of CD-ROM titles available through the Depository Library Program of the U.S. Government Printing Office that are useful for research in the social sciences reviews 12 titles issued by the Bureau of the Census, Department of Commerce, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Labor, and Department of Health and Human Services.…

Describes H. W. Wilson's information retrieval system which provides access to such familiar printed indexes as "Social Sciences Index,""Humanities Index,""Education Index," and "Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature." Use of this flexible system is explained and illustrated. (CDD)

Analyzes 93 reference works and 23 microform collections concerning the Black American experience in 13 subject areas of the social sciences (anthropology, biography, race relations and civil rights, the Black church, communication studies, economics, education, dance, genealogy, Black history, sports, women's studies, and literature and language)…

Describes a computerized database of social sciences research activities in Israel. The problems of constructing a database in a small country with special linguistic problems are covered, and the printed products and services offered are described. (Author/EM)

Offered as an alternative to the search strategy model for bibliographic instruction, the approach to library instruction in psychology which is described involves analysis of the natural structure of the research literature. An example using Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance is presented. Twelve references are cited. (EJS)