UTEP Library Research Guides: Social Work Saturday : Open Access Resources

What is Open Access?

Open Access is a term used to represent both an idea, that the results of publicly funded research be freely available, and a movement, characterized by various initiatives to make published scholarly literature freely available on the web.

Open Access Databases

There are three primary resources to search for open access articles relevant to social work: Google Scholar, ERIC, and PubMed.

Google Scholar primarily searches the following: academic publisher websites, Google books, insitutional repositories and .edu sites, .gov sites

ERIC is a federally supported database of education-related articles.

PubMed is a federally supported database of health-sciences related articles, including psychology, psychiatry, and public health. PubMed Central is a subset of PubMed; PubMed Central consists of all open access articles.

Directory of Open Access Journals This directory offers a list of freely available online journals, listed by subject area.

Open Access Journals

Advances in Social Work

Peer-reviewed articles on current issues, challenges, and responses facing social work practice and education. Full open access

Journal of Global Social Work Practice

Dedicated to all aspects of developing international social work practice, including practice methods, skills building, theoretical framework development and professional tactics and techniques. Full open access

Journal of Indigenous Social Development

Formerly the Journal of Indigenous Voices in Social Work. JISD publishes on education, practice, research and policy making relevant to indigenous peoples’ social and economic well-being. Full open access

Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research

Research that advances knowledge of social problems, programs, and policies. Special emphasis is placed on publishing findings from studies of the effectiveness of social and health services, including public policies and practices. Full open access

Social Work and Society: International Online Journal

Dedicated to critical analysis of the relationship between social work, social policy, the state and economic forces. Full open access

Behavior and Social Issues
Articles that advance the scientific analysis of human social behavior, particularly with regard to understanding and influencing important social problems. Full open access

Journal of Social Work Values and Ethics
Examines the ethical and values issues that impact and are interwoven with social work practice, research and theory development. Full open access

Web Resources

Information for Practice
Excellent source of up-to-date research for social work practice!

Evidence Based Resources

DARE (Databases of Abstracts of Review Effects)

Contains abstracts of quality assessed and critically appraised systematic reviews. Focuses primarily on systematic reviews that evaluate the effects of health care interventions, and the delivery and organisation of health services.

Evidence-Based Practice for Substance Abuse Disorders

Evidence-based interventions for treating substance use disorders. Each record includes a description of the intervention and its implementation, populations for which it has been shown to be effective, references to supporting literature, the availability of instructional manuals, and author/developer notes.

National Guideline Clearinghouse

A public resource for evidence-based clinical practice guidelines, NGC is an initiative of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices

SAMSHA's searchable online registry of mental health and substance abuse interventions that have been reviewed and rated by independent reviewers.

Social Programs that Work

From the Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, lists EBPs for social programs related to crime prevention, substance abuse, mental health and more.