Comprehensiveness of Social Work Abstracts as a Database for Researchers and Practitioners

Objective: The comprehensiveness of Social Work Abstracts (SWA) as a database was examined. Method: The coverage of articles of Research on Social Work Practice and Social Work Research in SWA from 1995 to 2005 was examined. SWA was compared with other databases on several dimensions. A case study based on the author's publications was conducted. Results: Not all articles published in these two journals were indexed in SWA. The number of social-work-related articles in SWA was lower than those in other databases. Articles relevant to social work and the allied helping professions were omitted in SWA . Conclusions: The comprehensiveness of journal articles indexed in SWA was not high.