Humanities & Social Sciences Resource Guide

Applied Social Sciences Index & Abstracts (ASSIA)

What is it?

ASSIA is a database including literature from the arts, humanities and social sciences, covering health, social services, sociology, psychology, economics, politics, race relations and education. 

ASSIA's coverage is more specific that Web of Science and relates specifically to medicine and healthcare.

Where can I access it?

Access to ASSIA is through the ProQuest search platform.

For onsite access click here

For offsite access click here

Why use it?

ASSIA includes applied social sciences literature that focuses on actual practice in healthcare and caring professions more broadly. It is useful for finding social sciences literature that relates to healthcare. Searching ASSIA is good for finding more streamlined results than broader databases such as Web of Science.

ASSIA is searched through ProQuest, which the Library has produced guides and videos on how to use.

How do I use it?

The Library has produced a LibGuide and a how-to video on searching ProQuest. For further support, please email liaison@sgul.ac.uk.

Limitations and Notes

• ASSIA is a smaller database than Web of Science, for example, and should only be used when searching for applied social sciences literature.
• The ProQuest platform used to search ASSIA is slightly less sophisticated than EBSCO and Ovid, for example.