International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences
The International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences (IESBS) is a comprehensive resource providing an excellent place to begin your research in sociology, psychology, economics, social work, political science, history, religion, ethnic studies, education and other related disciplines.
This online resource contains over 4,000 articles and includes over 90,000 bibliographical references. The dynamic reference linking within this encyclopedia will take you directly from a cited reference within an article to the source abstract. There is also internal cross referencing between articles in the encyclopedia, as well as linking to journal articles when available.
Within the IESBS you can browse a subject area or search for a specific word or phrase within the entire encyclopedia. There is also an extensive subject index.
Using the IESBS, a search on the topic of Adoption will lead you to further articles on "Children and the Law," "Family as Institution," and "Repartnering and Stepchildren" among many others. The references within the article on Adoption would lead you to "The President's Initiative on Adoption and Foster Care," and testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee on child welfare, as well as citations to books and journal articles.
As stated in the introduction to the IESBS, "In today's language -- and using the perspective offered in the master of all modern encyclopedic work -- encyclopedias are 'self-contained reference works' with two aims: to include up-to-date knowledge about a particular discipline or group of disciplines and to make this knowledge conveniently accessible." This encyclopedia strives to fulfill this goal with articles that contain clear definitions of the concepts, changes in the focus or emphasis of the concept over time, emphases in current theory and research, methodological issues or problems evident in the concept, and probable future directions of theory and research.
With this information in mind, next time you are researching a topic, think of the International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences as a place to begin your search.
For more information on the International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, please contact Cindy Snyder.