Sociology

Doctoral study in sociology is focused on four areas of inquiry:  the sociology of age and the life course, medical sociology, social inequality, and research methods. Within these areas, students may focus on a wide range of specific topics, such as stress and coping, health disparities, the social construction of diagnosis and disease, and the interaction of race, class, gender, age, and other factors as sources of social inequality.

Below are resources on formulating a research question, developing hypotheses, probability, and non-probability sampling, developing valid and reliable measures, qualitative and quantitative data, choosing research design and data collection methods, challenges of making causal inference, and criteria for evaluating the quality of social research. 

Backward and Forward Citation (also known as Footnote Chasing) Searching has many names. You may have heard it referred to as citation mining, chain searching, and less commonly called pearl growing. To start the process, you must:

Backward Citation Search                                                                                      

1. Locate an article of Interest                                                                                       
2. Examine articles in the Reference or Works Cited
3. Search for articles using TSU's Library Landing Page: www.tnstate.edu/library

Forward Citation Search/Footnote Chasing

1. Locate an Article of Interest
2. Use Web of Science to find articles that cite the initial article

• Will list a brief record and times cited
• Will display a list of articles that cite the initial article

Note: For articles that we currently do not subscribe to, please use: Interlibrary Loan

The information search process can range from simple to complex. Sometimes, you may need advanced search techniques to find appropriate information for your research topics. These advanced techniques are less commonly used but are very effective in yielding results. Below are three advanced search techniques useful for research, especially for graduate students. 

Proximity- A way to search for two or more words that occur within a certain number of words from each other. The proximity operators are composed of a letter (N or W) and a number (to specify the number of words)

Truncation- Also called "stemming," broadens your search by including various word endings and spellings. Truncation occurs when you type the root of a word followed by the truncation symbol, i.e., psych*= psychology, psychological, psyche. (Common truncation symbols: *, #, ?, !).

Wildcard- Similarly to truncation, wildcard substitutes a symbol for a missing letter within a word, i.e., wom?n= woman, women.

Social network analysis (SNA) is a methodology for capturing, storing, visualizing, and analyzing relational data, that is, data concerning relations between specified entities (e.g., individuals, organizations, nations) and patterns of connection within populations of such entities (Oxford, 2016).