accessing research

Strict copyright restrictions mean that articles in almost all major research journals are only available through a subscription or by buying individual articles.

• Information on access to various social care library and information services can be found on the SCIE website
• the British Library runs a comprehensive service providing access to copies of any published journal article. The cost of an article is approximately £8.75 (April 2007). If you wish to borrow a book you need to be a registered user of the library (registration is free). The cost is then £10.95 per item (including postage)
• Order books from bookshops or internet booksellers or borrow them from a local library. Inter-library loan schemes mean that most books can be obtained locally, for a small fee

are some free sources for full text research articles on the internet:

• Directory of Open Access Journals. An international directory of free, full text, quality controlled scientific and scholarly journals hosted and maintained by Lund University. Contains 179 Education Journals and 169 Social Science titles in a variety of languages
• Critical Social Work A Canadian interdisciplinary journal which aims to provide a forum for constructive dialogue in the interest of achieving social justice
• Education-Line A database of the full-text of conference papers, working papers and electronic literature which supports educational research, policy and practice
• Social Work and Society Published three times a year is an online-only Open Access Publication available free of charge