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Sociology: Websites & Grey Literature

  • ASA Sociology Glossary. 
  • Consortium of European Social Science Data Archives (CESSDA). "A one-stop shop for search and discovery enabling effective access to European social science research data".
  • 14 Helpful Blogs For Online Sociology Degree Students. "From pop culture to social justice, sociology blogs cover a wide range of issues that can help you stay informed about key issues and trends in this evolving field."
  • Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence. This center at the University of Colorado provides fact sheets on topics related to violence, including many focused on school violence.
  • Cyborgology: humanity meets technology. An interesting blog discussing about the benefits and perils of having so much technology in our lives from a sociological viewpoint. Focuses on Web 2.0, the internet and Social Media.
  • Everyday Sociology Blog. Welcome to Everydaysociologyblog.com, a site that features interesting, informative, and most of all entertaining commentary from sociologists around the United States.
  • FASS Research. Showcasing the Research of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the National University of Singapore (NUS. )
  • Global Sociology blog. Conversations between sociology students at the University of California, Berkeley and scholars from around the world. Recorded since 2011 and then made available to a global audience through the International Sociological Association.
  • National Opinion Research Center (NORC). NORC at the University of Chicago pursues studies on a wide variety of topics from aging to energy consumption, and substance abuse.
  • NBER Working Papers. The NBER working paper series includes over 1000 papers each year, authored by leading research economists, on a wide variety of topics. These papers are circulated prior to publication for comment and discussion. The working paper series began in 1973, and now includes more than 24,000 papers.
  • Open Access Directory (OAD) Data Repositories. This is a list of repositories and databases for open data. Explore the lists under Sociology and Multidisciplinary Repositories.
  • Pew Global Attitudes Project. This ambitious project from the Pew Research Center presents the results of more than 90,000 interviews in 50 countries.
  • Pew Research Center. A US nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. The Center conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, content analysis and other data-driven social science research.
  • Population Reference Bureau. Articles, datasheets, and lesson plans on topics related to the study of population.
  • Population Studies Center (data link list). List of data home pages available on the internet.
  • Poverty Mapping (SEDAC). Geographic distribution of people living in poverty and the conditions of their environment as shown through datasets and maps from the Socioeconomic Data And Applications Center (SEDAC).
  • Public Agenda Online. Polling data on a wide array of topics and issues.
  • ResearchGate: Sociology. A platform to share your research, collaborate with your peers, and get the support you need to advance your career. Visit the Similar Topic Pages on the right panel in Social Sciences > Sociological Theory; Qualitative Research; Sociology; Social Capital; Social Capital; Social Change; Research Methods; Gender Studies.
  • Roper Center for Public Opinion Research. Includes data archives of public opinion information from surveys in the United States, Japan, and Latin America, and information on polling and its uses.
  • Social Psychology Network. One of the largest Internet sites devoted to psychological research and teaching. In these pages, you'll find more than 20,000 links related to psychology.
  • The Sociological Eye. The sociological eye means looking at things for what they are, as best we can given the blinders of interest and ideology, of cliché and ritualized belief. It is not an individual enterprise. Chaining our efforts together as a long-term network of theorists and researchers improves one’s own sociological vision, provided we make the effort. The sociological eye holds up a periscope above the tides of political and intellectual partisanship, spying out the patterns of social life in every direction.
  • Sociological Images. "Sociological Images is used as a source by a wide range of news organizations and are routinely cross-posted at high profile news and opinion sites."
  • This Sociological Life. A blog by sociologist Deborah Lupton, a longstanding and active member of The Australian Sociological Association (TASA).
  • Top 50 Sociology Blogs, Websites & Influencers in 2020. Feedspot has a team of over 25 experts whose goal is to discover and rank popular blogs, podcasts and YouTube channels in several niche categories including Sociology.
  • Social Science Research Network (SSRN). SSRN eLibrary has 2 sections: Abstract database containing abstracts of scholarly working papers; an Electronic Paper collection containing downloadable full text documents. Recipient of several excellence awards.
  • Sociology Central. British sociologist Chris Livesey has made available notes, worksheets, lessons, and myriad other resources for teaching and learning sociology.
  • Sociology of Religion. A nice introduction to this subfield from the Hartford Institute for Religion Research.
  • Society for the Study of Social Problems (SSSP). "An interdisciplinary community of scholars, practitioners, advocates, and students interested in the application of critical, scientific, and humanistic perspectives to the study of vital social problems."
  • SocioSite. SocioSite is designed to get access to information and resources which are relevant for sociologists and other social scientists. It has been designed from a global point of view — it gives access to the world wide scene of social sciences. The intention is to provide a comprehensive listing of all sociology resources on the internet. The enormity and constantly changing nature of the internet makes it impossible to develop a definitive and comprehensive listing. That’s why the SocioSite will always be «under construction».
  • SocioWeb. An independently compiled page with a categorized collection of sociology related sites such as "Giants of Sociology", sociology associations and university depts., surveys and statistics. Has a search function.
  • World Happiness Report. The World Happiness Report is a landmark survey of the state of global happiness that ranks 156 countries by how happy their citizens perceive themselves to be.
  • World Values Survey (WVS). An ongoing academic project by social scientists to assess the state of sociocultural, moral, religious, and political values of different cultures around the world.
  • U.S. Census Bureau. Data tables and maps presenting census data, plus materials to help teachers use census information.

Grey Literature

Grey literature exists outside of and is uncontrolled by the usual academic and commercial publishers. It includes conference proceedings, occasional and working papers, policy papers and briefs, hearings, reports, and more.

  • Apolitical. Case studies, analysis, news and opinions about innovation in government, used by public servants in 140+ countries. Available to students as a global weekly roundup of government innovation and leadership across all policy areas such as health, economic opportunity, gender, and digital. Navigate to the website or contact your librarian to subscribe.
  • Find Policy. Search for topics in leading policy research organizations.
  • Harvard Dataverse Network. A rapidly growing collection of social science research data, used by many authors and journals to host their replication data.
  • IssueLab. IssueLab gathers, indexes, and shares the collective intelligence of the social sector... [providing] free access to thousands of case studies, evaluations, white papers, and issue briefs addressing some of the world's most pressing social problems." From the Foundation Center. 
  • PolicyArchive. A digital archive of global, non-partisan public policy research. It makes use of the power, efficiency, and economy of modern Internet technology to collect and disseminate summaries and full texts, videos, reports, briefs, and multimedia material of think tank, university, government, and foundation-funded policy research. 
  • NBER (National Bureau of Economic Research). Current and historical; NBER is a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization dedicated to promoting a greater understanding of how the economy works. Provides data sets about macroeconomics, industry, international trade, individual income and expenditure data, etc.
  • Qualitative Data Repository. Project hosted at Syracuse University that curates and hosts data from qualitative social science projects. In addition, the site provides detailed guidance, written specifically for social science researchers collecting qualitative data, on key topics such as data management, research involving human participants, and teaching with qualitative data.