Does Social Work Abstracts Work?:

Abstract
Objective: The current study seeks to provide estimates of the adequacy of journal coverage in the Social Work Abstracts (SWA) database. Method: A total of 23 journals listed in the Journal Citation Reports social work category during the 1997 to 2005 period were selected for study. Issue-level coverage estimates were obtained for SWA and PsycINFO, the comparison database. Results: Both databases provided less than optimal coverage of social work journals, and SWA performed significantly worse than did PsycINFO. Both databases provided better coverage of National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Press journals than non—NASW Press journals. Conclusion: The results provide evidence of substantial deficits in SWA that merit serious concern.