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Finding Statistics: Media Types
Where to find books on a particular topic. Use online library catalogs at colleges and universities or academic medical centers or huge booksellers such as Amazon or Barnes & Noble to locate books that exist on a topic.
How do I obtain specific books I want?
Once you’ve identified potential books or material by searching major catalogs, see if your local public or academic library has a copy of the book. It’s much easier to begin on a local level because if the book is not part of that collection the local library can obtain a copy of the book through interlibrary loan. Check with the reference librarian at the reference desk.
Tips for searching online library catalogs
Using the Library of Congress subject headings with the “statistics” subheading will find books or handbooks that focus on statistics. Another approach would be to conduct a topical search and browse the actual books looking for appropriate statistical information. Frequently, authors will introduce their topic with recent statistics.
Consider searching by keyword; in other words, cross a subject topic with keywords for statistic?, trend?. Choose keywords from the Potential Keywords list above; combine the concepts with ‘and’ or ‘or’. Here are some sample search strategies using keywords:
community violence and statistic?
child? and (ptsd or posttraumatic stress or post traumatic stress) and data
The journal literature will often contain articles that report and analyze the results of studies and surveys. Because the topic “Children Exposed to Violence” crosses many disciplines (mental health, social work, criminal justice, medicine, psychiatry, psychology, education, religion), there are multiple databases (in both electronic and print formats) that may be searched to locate statistics on a topic. The major databases are listed below with a description of scope, coverage, availability, and tips for searching for statistics having to do with children and violence.
Note: Some of the databases listed below are not freely available.
MEDLINE (via PubMed)
Scope and Coverage:
MEDLINE ®, produced by the National Library of Medicine, provides extensive coverage of the world's biomedical journal literature. MEDLINE covers more than 4000 journal titles and is international in scope. Broad coverage includes basic biomedical research and the clinical sciences since 1966 including nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, pharmacy, allied health, and pre-clinical sciences. MEDLINE also covers life sciences that are vital to biomedical practitioners, researchers, and educators, including some aspects of biology, environmental science, marine biology, plant and animal science as well as biophysics and chemistry. Increased coverage of life sciences began in 2000.
PubMed provides access to bibliographic information, which is drawn primarily from MEDLINE, PreMEDLINE, as well as Publisher-Supplied citations. In addition, for electronically supplied journals that are indexed selectively for MEDLINE and include articles unrelated to medicine or the life sciences, PubMed includes all articles from that journal, not just those that are included in MEDLINE.
Availability:
PubMed is freely available from the National Library of Medicine.
Tips and Techniques for searching MEDLINE via PubMed:
MEDLINE is based on the Medical Subject Headings and using those headings is the most efficient and effective way to search for information in the database. Use the MeSH browser (located under PubMed Services on the blue sidebar) to identify the best subject headings. Try variations of the words listed above in the Keywords table. To look for statistical information, click on the Detailed Display link and select one or all of the following subheadings. These subheadings can be used in MEDLINE to help you narrow your topical search to retrieve citations to articles containing statistical information.
- ‘statistics & numerical data’ is used with non-disease headings for the expression of numerical values that describe particular sets or groups of data.
- ‘epidemiology’ is used with diseases for the distribution of disease, the factors that cause disease, and the attributes of disease in defined populations. Includes incidence, frequency, prevalence, endemic and epidemic outbreaks. Also includes surveys and estimates of morbidity in geographic areas and in specified populations.
- ‘mortality’ is used for mortality statistics, and with procedures for deaths resulting from a procedure; includes survival.
- ‘trends’ is used for the manner in which a subject changes, qualitatively or quantitatively, with time, whether past, present, or future. Includes "forecasting" & "futurology".
Another way to search MEDLINE via PubMed is to use the query line. Type your search in the query box; include all concepts linked with ‘and’. Searching using the query line will probably retrieve the types of articles that you want but you’ll also tend to retrieve many irrelevant citations. For example, type on the query line:
violence AND domestic AND children AND statistics
In PubMed, you must capitalize the AND.
The National Library of Medicine has a complete tutorial for using PubMed.
PsycINFO
Scope and Coverage:
The PsycINFO ® database, produced by the American Psychological Association, covers the professional and academic literature in psychology and related disciplines including medicine, psychiatry, nursing, sociology, education, pharmacology, physiology, linguistics, and other areas. Coverage is worldwide, and includes references and abstracts to over 1,300 journals and dissertations in more than 30 languages, and to book chapters and books in the English language. Over 50,000 references are added annually. Popular literature is excluded.
Availability:
PsycINFO ® is a proprietary database and is not freely available to everyone. If you are affiliated with an academic library, then access to PsycINFO ® is probably available through the library. For those using school or public libraries, contact the reference librarian for help. The American Psychological Association also offers options for searching their database.
Tips and Techniques for searching PsycINFO ®:
Along with the terms from the Potential Keywords table above, try these subject headings:
Adjustment Disorders
Antisocial Behavior
Anxiety Disorders
Coercion
Combat Experience
Conflict
Dangerousness
Emotional Trauma
Family Violence
Nonviolence
Partner Abuse
Patient Violence
Physical Abuse
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Riots
Self Defense
Stress Reactions
Terrorism
Torture
Traumatic Neurosis
Violence
War
ERIC
Scope and Coverage:
ERIC is the world's largest source of education information, with more than 1 million abstracts of documents and journal articles on education research and practice. The Database, updated monthly with the latest citations available, provides access to ERIC document citations from 1966 through May 2001 and ERIC journal citations from 1966 through July 2001.
Availability:
ERIC is freely available at http://askeric.org/Eric/
Tips and Techniques for searching ERIC:
Look at the ERIC help pages for very specific searching tips. As a sample, try: violen* and child* and statistic*
Along with the terms from the Potential Keywords table above, try these subject headings:
Aggression
Antisocial Behavior
Battered Women
Bullying
Child Abuse
Crime
Crisis Intervention
Crisis Management
Delinquency
Demonstrations (Civil)
Domestic Violence (Family)
Emotional Response
Family (Sociological Unit)
Family Problems
Family Violence
Guns
Hazing
Homicide
Marital Instability
Rape
Revolution
School Security
Self Injurious Behavior
Student Violence
Terrorism
Victims of Crime
Violence
War
Weapons
Social Sciences Citation Index
Scope and Coverage:
The Social Sciences Citation Index is a multidisciplinary database, with searchable author abstracts, covering the journal literature of the social sciences. It indexes more than 1,725 journals spanning 50 disciplines, as well as covering individually selected, relevant items from over 3,300 of the world's leading scientific and technical journals.
Availability:
Social Sciences Citation Index through the Web of Science is a proprietary database and is not freely available to everyone. If you are affiliated with an academic library, then access to the Web of Science might be available through the library. For those using school or public libraries, contact the reference librarian for help.
Tips and Techniques for searching Social Sciences Citation Index:
This database utilizes keyword or textword searching, so it is important to think about synonyms and variations in word endings. Try variations of the words listed above in the Potential Keywords table. For example:
violen* and statist* and child*
Make sure to look at the searching help screens for Social Sciences Citation Index.
Academic Universe
Scope and Coverage:
Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe is a WWW interface to the powerful Lexis-Nexis news and information service which provides access to newspapers, magazines, transcripts, business and legal information and much more. The NEXIS service began in 1979, starting with news content, as a companion to the LEXIS® service. Since that time, NEXIS has grown to become the largest news and business online information service with not only news, but company, country, financial, demographic, market research and industry reports. The NEXIS service is unmatched in depth and breadth of information, offering more than 13,800 sources of news and business information. In fact, 120,000 new articles are added each day from worldwide newspapers, magazines, news wires and trade journals. Sources include the New York Times, CNN, The Economist, AP and NPR. Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe also offers legal statutes, business directories, biographical information and corporate profiles.
Availability:
Academic Universe is a proprietary database and is not freely available to everyone. If you are affiliated with an academic library, then access to Academic Universe might be available through the library. For those using school or public libraries, contact the reference librarian for help.
Tips and Techniques for searching Academic Universe:
Because this search service includes mostly full-text information, it requires different techniques in searching. Using AND as a connector/operator will usually retrieve too much information. Carefully read the help screens for suggestions in searching full-text. Try variations of the words listed above in the Potential Keywords table. For example:
violence w/3 (exposed or witnessed)
(violence w/3 (exposed or witnessed)) and children
(study or survey or report) w/3 (children near violence) w/ (exposed or witnessed)
NCJRS Abstracts Database
Scope and Coverage:
The National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS) Abstracts Database contains summaries of more than 150,000 criminal justice publications, including Federal, state, and local government reports, books, research reports, journal articles, and unpublished research. Whenever full-text documents are available online from NCJRS, the abstract includes a live link to the full report.
Availability:
The NCJRS Abstracts Database is freely available.
Tips and Techniques for searching NCJRS Abstracts Database:
The NCJRS Abstracts Database provides excellent tips for searching.
Try variations of the words listed above in the Potential Keywords table.
Print Indexes
There are several bibliographies, indexing and abstracting services that continue to be available in print format:
- Violence and Abuse Abstracts
- Child Development Abstracts and Bibliography
Check with your local public or academic library to see if they subscribe to these publications.
Newspapers are a great source for statistics — important numbers are always reported by the media. Much of this information might not have been uncovered and printed in other public forums. Newspapers cover trends, demographic patterns, data from opinion surveys, major medical studies, and data from social services and crime studies.
Searching for statistics in newspapers requires a creative mind and persistence. Make use of word patterns (for full-text) and indexing terms (for databases). If you’re still not locating the type of data you need, consider visiting your local library and utilizing their reference service.
Places to Search
- Individual newspapers (New York Times, Washington Post, etc.). For a comprehensive list of online newspapers, check Yahoo’s News and Media section
- Academic Universe (see above)
- Biomedicine and Health in the News The University of Connecticut Health Center’s Biomedicine and Health in the News provides quick access to the biomedical, scientific and health journal literature referenced in newspaper articles appearing in the New York Times. Newspaper articles that announce new research findings and refer to current or forthcoming publication are given highest priority. Unpublished research reported at professional meetings is also included. Each newspaper article is briefly summarized and accompanied by the complete citation to the article. Whenever possible, the full citation to the published journal literature is included. In some instances, only a partial citation is given since a press release may precede the library's receipt of the specific issue of the journal.
- Selected Online Newspapers is Yale University’s guide to online newspapers
Using web search engines such as Google, Hot Bot or Northern Light (to mention just a few) is sometimes frustrating. Because the web is so large, finding exactly what you want becomes more difficult. Your retrieval usually numbers in the thousands and you still get results even if you misspell a word. There’s no quality control and much of the information is inaccurate. Keeping that in mind, the web is still a great resource for statistical information.
Make sure that you read the help screens for the search engine you choose to use. Try variations of the words listed above in the Keywords table and follow the examples that the search engine provides.
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