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Sociology

Government Resources

 

American Community Survey
From the U.S. Census Bureau
 

UNESCO: Social and Human Sciences
From the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
 

USA.gov
Links to a wide variety of statistics through the federal government.
 

Virginia Department of Social Services

International Development Data & Statistics

AidData
Search foreign aid projects by donor, region, issue, loan amount; hosted by William and Mary, BYU, and Development Gateway

OECD iLibrary: Statistics
 

UN Data
Search and download a variety of statistical resources compiled by the United Nations (UN) statistical system and other international agencies.
 

World Bank's Open Development Site
Provides links to free development data and indicators compiled by the World Bank, as well as descriptions of the World Bank's open access policy and plans.

World Development Indicators - Online
The World Development Indicators is a compilation of relevant, high-quality, and internationally comparable statistics about global development and the fight against poverty.

World Development Report
Annual analysis of status of progress in international development. Includes many statistics.
 

Check out our Statistics Library Guide!

 
In the social sciences and the sciences, scholars use the terms "primary" and "secondary" differently from scholars in the humanities. 
 
Primary research refers to the research conducted by the authors of the original source. The source will describe the authors' methodology, results and conclusions. This might be raw data, letters, research or study, tests, news reports, interviews, or some journal articles.
 
Secondary research describes or analyzes the research done by others. These include news analyses, magazine articles, some journal articles, scholarly books, opinion pieces or editorials. These can be excellent resources that can lead you to additional primary research on your topic.

Citing Your Sources

While writing research papers, you may need to:

♦ List your sources in bibliographies or works cited, and

♦ Provide either footnotes, endnotes, or parenthetical citations


For more help with citations, check this guide out.