Research guide to social work, social sciences and pedagogy resources

Be efficient in your research and use the various databases, reference works and additional literature in the field of social work, social sciences and pedagogy.

Databases

Reference works

Bachelor's and master's theses

Databases

We recommend that you search the databases in order to research and review up-to-date and discipline-specific content on a topic. They mostly contain references to resources as well as full text articles from journals. Depending on the database, additional types of publications such as conference reports, book chapters, pictures, videos and much more are included.

Overview

The table below provides an overview of the databases in the area of social work and pedagogy. Please note that databases marked with an asterisk (*) require special access information. You will find more information in the details of each database.

Name	Subject	Content
edudoc - Swiss document server for education	education system	references, some full texts
ERIC - Educational Resources Information Center Database	pedagogy	references, some full texts
Education Research Portal	pedagogy	references, some full texts, research data, research projects
German Education Index	pedagogy	references, research data
FORS - Swiss Foundation for Research in Social Sciences	social sciences	references, some full texts, research data, research projects
GESIS - Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften	social sciences	references, some full texts, research data
IBSS - International Bibliography of the Social Sciences	social sciences	references, some full texts, facts
Oxford Bibliographies: Social Work	social work	references
Policy Commons	politics, political economy	references, reports
Social Services Abstracts	social work	references
Sociological Abstracts	sociology	references
Social assistance (Sozialhilferecht)	social law	references, some full texts, handbooks, occupational pensions act (BVG)
Swisslex*	child and adult protection, constitutional law, contract law, copyright law, corporate law, criminal law, family law, labour law, property law, social law, tax law	references, some full texts, canton Bern commentary, canton Zurich commentary, federal tribunal (BGE), handbooks, jurisdiction
Teacher Reference Center	pedagogy	references
WISO	economics, social sciences	references, some full texts

* Requires access information. You will find more information in the details of each database.

Open access portals

Search for scientific publications that are worldwide freely available, also known as open access publications.

Reference works

Reference works are the ideal starting point for your research. In addition to defining concepts, they help you to gain an overview of a topic, narrow down a topic and find key concepts for future work.

All electronic reference works can be found and searched in ZHAW swisscovery. The selection of titles below provides you with a quick introduction to your specialist area. General reference works can also be found with the monolingual (in German) and multilingual dictionaries (in German).

Title	Additional information
A Dictionary of Social Work and Social Care	-
Enzyklopädie Erziehungswissenschaft Online (EEO)	-
Handbook of Child Psychology and Developmental Science	-
Historisches Wörterbuch der Philosophie	-
International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences	-
Methoden-Lexikon für die Sozialwissenschaften	-
Oxford Handbook of Migration Crisis	There are further handbooks of Oxford on the topic of sociology
The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Nationalism	-
Wörterbuch Soziale Arbeit	-
Wörterbuch der Schweizer Sozialpolitik	-

Bachelor's and master's theses

A selection of bachelor's and master’s theses are published electronically and are freely accessible via the ZHAW digitalcollection. Some older Bachelor’s theses are available to borrow.