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University Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Social Work 410: Social Welfare Policy and Services: Case Studies

Class guide for SOCW410.

To Find Case Studies Online:

To find case studies online, start by finding an appropriate database to search.  This list of Social Work Databases is a great place to do such.  Here you'll find a list of all our social work databases, with a brief description of the type of content you'll find within each one.  There are 'best bets' at the top of the list.  These are generally good places to start your social work research.  You'll also find more specialized databases that focus on a particular topic, like AgeLine (gerontology) or ERIC (education).  

Once you've found a database to search, type in your topic keywords in the first search box and “case studies” in the second search box.   After searching, you should see a list of relevant results.   If not, you may need to either broaden your search or try different keywords.  

NOTE:  Some databases have case study searching built into the advanced search.   This is found in limiting options like “Document Type” or “Methodology”.   With these databases, only include the search topic in the keyword searching area and utilize these limiters appropriately.  For example, when searching PsycInfo, you can limit the "Methodology" to 'Clinical Case Study' and 'Nonclinical Case Study' in order to find case studies on your topic.

Searching Case Study Journals

There are scholarly journals devoted entirely to publishing case studies.  You can search within these journals below: