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HomeResearch

In this section

• Research Office
• Responsible Conduct of Research and Scholarship
• Research Resources
• Administrative Resources
• Research Opportunity Search Engines
• About Us

Additional Research Resources

• Selected Current Projects at SSW
• Curtis Center
• Faculty Interests
• Doctoral Student Interests

Research

The UM School of Social Work is a leader in social work education and research, having received a #1 and #2 ranking from U.S. News and World Report for the past decade and a half. The research activities of the faculty are focused on virtually every area of human services and social welfare, including child welfare, family services, juvenile and criminal justice systems, poverty and income maintenance, health and health disparities, gerontology, mental health, alcohol and drug abuse, social welfare administration, and community planning and organizing. The School has a strong record of externally funded research and training grants. Current funding agencies include the National Institute on Drug Abuse , National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute on Aging, the National Institute of Child Health & Development, the U.S. Department of Justice, the Skillman Foundation, the John A. Hartford Foundation, and numerous other national, state, and local agencies and foundations.

Doctoral Program

UM's Doctoral Program in Social Work and Social Science is the preeminent social work doctoral program in the country and the only interdisciplinary program of its kind. The program grants a joint Ph.D. in Social Work and one of the other social science disciplines (Anthropology, Economics, Political Science, Psychology or Sociology). The Program is designed so that students gain expertise in knowledge development and research in social work and are also trained as social scientists. Program graduates hold numerous leadership positions in research institutes and centers and as professors in schools of social work and social science departments throughout the U.S. and abroad.

Computer and Library Resources

The School has its own on-site computer laboratory and computer-aided instruction classroom that provides easy access to numerous microcomputers. This equipment is connected to the U-M Computer Center, whose hardware, statistical packages and training facilities are rated among the best in the world. In addition, UM's Information Technology Division (ITD) operates 15 campus computing sites where faculty, staff and students may use microcomputers. More than 1,400 computers are freely available for use at these sites. Most UM departments, colleges and schools also operate their own specialized computer labs for their students.

• Online Access to Library Collections -- MIRLYN, one of the principal gateways to accessing the Library's print and electronic collections, contains over 36 million citations in catalogs and indexes to printed books, journals and journal articles, newspapers, microfilm, and government documents, as well as access to online databases and other electronic content. MIRLYN also offers access to the online catalogs of a number of other libraries, including "Big Ten" universities.
• Reference Resources and Bibliographic Tools -- The Library offers a growing collection of popular reference tools including dictionaries, encyclopedias, almanacs, telephone directories, and nearly 100 bibliographic databases to assist in identifying journals, newspapers, and a variety of other materials.
• E-Journals and Newspapers -- Over 15,000 electronic journals are available, including core titles in most areas of study, "full runs" of key titles in a number of disciplines, and the most current research in science and medicine. The growing collection of newspapers includes most major American papers and many international papers.
• Images -- This eclectic collection of over 100,000 images includes some of the best-known paintings, sculptures, and artifacts from around the world as well as from the U-M Museum of Art and other campus museums. In addition to viewing these high quality images, a reader has the ability to zoom in on particular aspects of an image and compare images side-by-side.
• Monographs and Other Text Resources -- Access to thousands of historical and literary texts is available. Making of America (MoA), perhaps the largest publicly available digital library on the Internet, contains 3 million pages from books and journals published in America between 1850 and 1900. Electronic Text Services (ETS) offers a wide variety of text resources such as poetry databases, the entire works of Shakespeare, multiple versions of the Bible, and hundreds of books, including "great works" in prose and fiction. The Humanities Text Initiative, a part of ETS, offers resources that are publicly available over the Internet.
• Preserving the Human Record -- The Library is actively engaged in converting rare and fragile materials to digital format. These efforts offer greater options and opportunities for access as well as help preserve rapidly deteriorating collections for generations to come.