Resources

There are a growing number of sites on the Internet which may help students following particular courses. Here are some of the sites which you might find useful. Please let us know if you discover others and we shall add them to the list of resources.

Sociology Links

Government Departments

Research Resources

  • Arts Council of England - Loads of links to all manner of arts bodies and organizations
  • BIDS: Bath Information and Data - bibliographic service providing access to key databases covering subjects from science, engineering and medicine to economics, politics, education and the arts, including the International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS).
  • British Household Panel Survey
  • British Official Publications Current Awareness Service - You can use BOPCAS to browse lists of UK Parliamentary or Departmental publications indexed by date, publication type and policy area or search the database for details of specific publications.
  • Data Archive at the University of Essex - The Data Archive is a specialist national resource containing a large collection of data in the social sciences and humanities in the United Kingdom. Through these web pages it is also possible to search the catalogues of other national, European and worldwide archives.
  • ESRC Bibliographical Database - REGARD is a searchable bibliographic database, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), containing in-depth information on UK social science research.
  • Foundation for Urban and Regional Studies - Funding organization for Urban and Regional Studies
  • Institute for Fiscal Studies - The Institute for Fiscal Studies is an independent economic research institute; its research looks particularly at the UK tax system, considering the likely effects of fiscal policy on every section of the population. This site contains details of the Institute's research and publications.
  • National Institute for Social Work - The National Institute for Social Work works throughout the UK, in partnership with users and carers and with organisations which share our visions and values, to promote the social inclusion of service users and carers, to support a skilled and knowledgeable workforce, and to encourage and assist partnership between social care and allied disciplines. This site contains links ot online publications and research information.
  • NISS: National Information Services and Systems - NISS (National Information Services and Systems) operates within the UK education sector and provides online information services for the education and research community. The site contains information from and about schools, higher and further education, and government departments, as well as a noticeboard for vacancies and events. (Now part of the HERO website)
  • Political Science Resources - Links to Government sites, political parties, political theory, international relations, local government, electoral systems and many other useful resources.
  • The Social Science Research Grapevine - online source of career development opportunities for social science researchers in all sectors. Contains job vacancies, training and development opportunities and resources for research collaboration.
  • SOSIG - Social Science Information Gateway - The SOSIG Internet Catalogue offers access to thousands of high quality Internet resources, each selected and described by academic librarians and subject specialists.
  • ESRC - The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is the UK's largest independent funding agency for research and postgraduate training into social and economic issues.
  • Question BankThe Centre for Applied Social Surveys (CASS) provides courses and technical information to academic social scientists and to applied researchers in government, market research and the independent and voluntary sectors. Its main activities are teaching short courses in survey methods and developing and disseminating a survey question bank.
  • Resource Guide for the Social Sciences - A range of electronic resources have been set up specifically to meet the needs of those working and studying in the Social Sciences. The Resource Guide for the Social Sciences focuses on resources based at UK higher education institutions.
  • Social Work Research - The National Institute for Social Work research database.
  • Social, Economic and Political Change - reviews of main world demographic and political changes and data used to develop the reviews, and a review of social change.
  • Resources for Methods in Evaluation and Social Research - links to free on line books, manuals, articles on how to do social research, including surveys, interviews, observations and more.

Other Government Information

  • Government Information Service - The link site for Government departments and related organizations
  • Health and Safety Executive - Provides information about some of HSE's research publications and links to various HSE Divisions involved in research activities, as well as general information on health and safety matters.
  • HMSO - Full texts of Acts of Parliament, Satutory Instruments, Measures of the General Synod of the Church of England and Crown Copyright Information.
  • Legal Services Commission - Information on Legal Aid rules and eligibility, with contact details for local offices.
  • New Deal - New Deal is a key part of the Government's Welfare to Work strategy. This site contains information directed at employers, specific age groups, lone parents and disabled people.
  • Office for National Statistics - ONS produces and disseminates social, health, economic, demographic, labour market and business statistics. It also conducts the census and social surveys.
  • Prison Service - Information on the role of psychology within the prison service (and opportunities for psychologists in the Service).

Legal Resources

Academic Journals

  • Sociological Research On-line - Sociological Research Online publishes applied sociology, focusing on theoretical, empirical and methodological discussions which engage with current political, cultural and intellectual topics and debates. Issues are published quarterly, on the last days of March, June, September and December.
  • Social Research Update - Social Research Update is published quarterly by the Department of Sociology, University of Surrey. Full text is available online.
  • British Medical Journal - Published weekly, the BMJ publishes original scientific studies, review and educational articles, and papers commenting on the clinical, scientific, social, political, and economic factors affecting health.
  • Health Services Journal - the UK's leading health policy and management magazine.
  • Housing Today - Every week Housing Today magazine brings you the latest social housing news from across the UK. Includes searchable archive.

Housing

  • UK Housing Resource Guide - housinguk.org is the home on the internet for all things housing. Housing Resource Guide has become an established guide to the housing sites on the internet.

Health

  • Department of Health - Public health, social care, research and development, publications, press releases and other information about the Department.
  • World Health Organisation - Founded in 1948, the World Health Organization leads the world alliance for Health for All. A specialized agency of the United Nations, WHO promotes technical cooperation for health among nations, carries out programmes to control and eradicate disease and strives to improve the quality of human life. The site contains a vast array of searchable information on worldwide health issues.

Internet Freedom and Control

National Lottery

EU Official Pages

European Statistics

  • Eurostat - Eurostat - the "Statistical Office of the European Communities" - uses uniform rules to collect all statistical data from the National Statistical Institutes of each of the 15 Member States of the European Union.

Other European Sites

  • European Governments on the WWW
  • European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research - The European Centre is an international social science research, policy, and information centre and an intergovernmental organization on social welfare, affiliated to the United Nations.
  • ECASS: European Centre for Analysis in the Social Sciences - "ECASS is a centre for comparative and longitudinal data analysis, which conducts and facilitates the empirical study of social and economic change by integrating longitudinal and cross-national European datasets, providing the support services required for their analyses, and acting as the host for major substantive research programmes. "
  • CESSDA (Council of European Social Science Data Archives) - CESSDA promotes the acquisition, archiving and distribution of electronic data for social science teaching and research in Europe.
  • Loughborough European Research Centre - Since January 1992 the ERC has become the home of the Cross-national Research Group, which organises series of seminars and publications on the theoretical, methodological, managerial and practical problems involved in research which crosses national boundaries and on the application of such research in policy analysis.
  • Max Planck Insititue at Cologne - The Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, a member institute of the Max Planck Society, is devoted to basic research in the social sciences. Its work focusses on the governance of advanced industrial societies in the face of internationalization and economic globalization.
  • IST pages
  • European Commission Directorates
  • Official of publications (all publications can be found here)
  • Eurostat
  • EUbusiness - EU information for businesses; includes daily overview of European political and business news and information on EU legislation and EU business developments.

Individual European Countries

European Media

British Social History