• Introduction
• Searching for research
• Published Sources
• Other Sources
• Being Opportunistic
• Web search skills
• Research organisations
• Electronic libraries
• Gateways
• On-line courses
• Research software

Gateways

Gateway websites provide an entry point to an extensive and wide range of other web sites within a given area. They are vital tools to finding out what is going on. Inevitably there is considerable overlap between gateway sites, but each will have a different emphasis or focus. Some search tools enable searches across several gateway sites.

Social Science Information Gateway (SOSIG)
SOSIG is a project of the Resource Discovery Network (RDN). The Social Science Information Gateway (SOSIG) is a freely available Internet service which aims to provide a trusted source of selected, high quality information for students, academics, researchers and practitioners in the social sciences, business and law. It is part of the UK Resource Discovery Network.

SWAP HE Academy subject centre
SWAP is the subject centre for Social Policy and Social Work - one of 24 discipline-based centres, which form the UK-wide Higher Education Academy with the main aim of promoting high quality learning, teaching and assessment in its subject areas. It contains an extensive list of resources and links to support learning and teaching in social work. The HE academy was formerly the Learning and Teaching Support Network (LTSN)

Northern Ireland Social and Political Archive (ARK)
ARK is a joint project between Queen’s University Belfast and the University of Ulster. It is a web resource that allows access to a range of social and political material relevant to Northern Ireland. ARK consists of three components. ORB, the Online Research Bank, contains summaries of social policy relevant research focused on Northern Ireland. ORB allows public access to the world of academic and government social policy research.