Library: Autism Spectrum Disorder: Home

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Welcome! This guide will serve as a starting point for Shippensburg University students wishing to conduct research on various aspects of the national debate over autism.You will find background sources that introduce you to your topic and keep you up-to-date with links to news articles, research websites, books, journal articles, and research reports concerning autism.

You will also find suggested search terms, selected key publications, books & e-books, research organizations and advocacy groups, data sources and links to general and specialized databases for further research.

Search Terms

Main Term(s): autism
Related Terms: hyperlexia, pathological demand avoidance syndrome
Broader Terms: autism spectrum disorders, developmental disabilities
Narrower Terms: Asperger's syndrome, autism in children, autism in adolescence, autism in adults

Background

Background Sources

Additional Sources

Restraints (ProPublica)
In-depth investigative reports into the ways in which many schools dangerously restrain students - especially special needs students.

Books & Reference Books

Reference Books & Ebooks

Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Reference Handbook by Raphael Bernier; Jennifer Gerdts
Call Number: EBL E-book
Publication Date: 2010
Autism describes a complex developmental disability that interferes with social interaction and communication. This text provides a comprehensive explanation of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). It also discusses the historical and cultural influences of ASD and explores the controversial aspects of autism.
Vaccination Controversies: A Reference Handbook by David E. Newton
Call Number: EBL E-book
Publication Date: 2013
Why is there such an active and ongoing resistance to mandatory vaccination? This book examines why vaccination as a public health measure continues to be highly controversial.
Gale Encyclopedia of Mental Health by Gale
Call Number: Gale Virtual Reference Library
Publication Date: 2012
Autism is a complex developmental disorder distinguished by difficulties with social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication, and behavioral problems. Read the disease/disorder overview on pages 157-162.
Psychologists' Desk Reference by Gerald P. Koocher (Editor); John C. Norcross (Editor); Beverly A. Greene (Editor)
Call Number: RC467.2 .P78 2013
Publication Date: 2013
Fully revised and expanded, this third edition of the Psychologists' Desk Reference includes several new chapters on emerging topics in psychology and incorporates updates from top clinicians and program directors in the field. Chapter 84 address autism spectrum disorders.
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders DSM-5 by American Psychiatric Association Staff; Carolyn Kernberger
Call Number: RC455.2.C4 D536 2013 (At Reserve Desk
Publication Date: 2013
This new edition of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5®), used by clinicians and researchers to diagnose and classify mental disorders, is the product of more than 10 years of effort by hundreds of international experts in all aspects of mental health.

Books & Ebooks

Rethinking Autism: Variation and Complexity by Lynn Waterhouse
Call Number: EBL E-book
Publication Date: 2012
The media, scientific researchers, and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual all refer to "autism" as if it were a single disorder or a single disorder over a spectrum. However, autism is unlike any single disorder in a variety of ways. Rethinking Autism reviews the scientific research on causes, symptomology, course, and treatment done to date.and draws the potentially shocking conclusion that "autism" does not exist as a single disorder.
Autism: The Scientific Truth about Preventing, Diagnosing, and Treating Autism Spectrum Disorders-- and What Parents Can Do Now by Robert Melillo
Call Number: RJ506.A9 M45 2013
Publication Date: 2012
In this candid, research-based, practical book. Dr. Melillo presents proven, drug-free strategies that parents can employ to help prevent, detect, and address the autism epidemic for themselves and their families. Dr. Melillo explains what the latest scientific research tells us about the role of geneTic, environmental, and lifestyle factors, dispelling myths. In addition, he presents early warning signs, a prevention plan for parents-to-be, and an intervention program for babies and young children.
Diagnosing Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Lifespan Perspective by Donald P. Gallo
Call Number: EBL E-book
ISBN: 9780470682333
Publication Date: 2010
Diagnosing Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Lifespan Perspective is the first book of its kind to provide authoritative information for medical and mental health professionals on how to properly evaluate and diagnose autism spectrum disorders in individuals of all ages.
Developing College Skills in Students with Autism and Asperger's Syndrome by Sarita Freedman; Tony Attwood (Foreword by)
Call Number: KLN E-book
Publication Date: 2010
Going to college can be a daunting prospect for any young person, but for teenagers on the autism spectrum this is especially true. This book describes the unique needs that ASD students entering further or higher education are likely to have.
Autism Spectrum Disorders in Adolescents and Adults by Matt Tincani (Editor); Andy Bondy (Editor)
Call Number: EBL E-book
Publication Date: 2014
Bringing together leading experts, this book presents effective practices for helping people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) to thrive in adulthood. As individuals with ASD mature, their needs change as well.
The Myth of Autism: Medicalising Men's and Boys' Social and Emotional Competence by Sami Timimi; Neil Gardner; Brian McCabe
Call Number: RC553.A88 T56 2011
Publication Date: 2010
This unique text re-examines, deconstructs, and critiques modern mainstream theory and practice in relation to autism. The authors track changes in the conceptualisation of autism in the West from a rare disorder affecting a small number of individuals with moderate to severe learning difficulties to becoming a broad continuum mainly diagnosed in males deemed to have poor social or emotional competence.
Women and Girls with Autism Spectrum Disorder by Sarah Hendrickx; Judith Gould (Foreword by)
Call Number: KLN E-book
Publication Date: 2015
The difference that being female makes to the diagnosis, life and experiences of a person with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has largely gone unresearched and unreported until recently. In this book Sarah Hendrickx has collected both academic research and personal stories about girls and women on the autism spectrum to present a picture of their feelings, thoughts and experiences at each stage of their lives.
Vaccine: The Debate in Modern America by Mark A. Largent
Publication Date: 2012
Since 1990, the number of mandated vaccines has increased dramatically. Today, a fully vaccinated child will have received nearly three dozen vaccinations between birth and age six. Along with the increase in number has come a growing wave of concern among parents about the unintended side effects of vaccines. In Vaccine, Mark A. Largent explains the history of the debate and identifies issues that parents, pediatricians, politicians, and public health officials must address.
Vaccinophobia and Vaccine Controversies of the 21st Century by Archana Chatterjee (Editor)
Call Number: EBL E-book
Publication Date: 2013
Once hailed as a medical miracle, vaccination has come under attack from multiple fronts, including occasionally from within medicine. And while the rates of adverse reactions remain low, suggestions that vaccines can cause serious illness (and even death) are inspiring parents to refuse routine immunizations for their children--ironically, exposing them and others to potentially serious illness.

Key Publications

Research Organizations

Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative
International Society for Autism Research
Wendy Klag Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities (Bloomberg School of Public Hedalth - Johns Hopkins Univeristy)
Links to Other Websites (Centers for Disease Control)
Use this section of the CDC Autism website to find an extensive list of advocacy and research organizations.

U.S. Government Agencies

Autism Spectrum Disorder (Center for Disease Control)
This is a fundamental starting point for research on autism. It includes both popular level information as well as expert summaries of research findings as well and links to sources of original research and data.
Autism Spectrum Disorder (National Institute of Mental Health)

Advocacy Organizations

Autism Society
Originally founded by parents, this organization supports autistic children and their families, and includes all facets of research, advocacy and treatment plans as part of their mission.
Autism Speaks
Autistic Self Advocacy Network
Links to Other Websites (Centers for Disease Control)
Use this section of the CDC Autism website to find an extensive list of advocacy and research organizations.

Data Sources

National Database for Autism Research (National Institutes of Health)
Community Reports Archive from the Autism and Developmental Disability (ADDM) Network (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
Autism Spectrum Disorder (Center for Disease Control)
This is a fundamental starting point for research on autism. It includes both popular level information as well as expert summaries of research findings as well and links to sources of original research and data.

Databases

General

Ship Discovery Search This link opens in a new window
This library database serves as a search engine to search most library databases at the same time, including magazine and journal databases, e-book collections, and the library catalog. News databases are not included in a comprehensive way. Supplement this with direct searching of ProQuest Newstand and Lexis Nexis Academic. Search results default to items that the library owns, either in online or print format. Remove the "Available in Library Collection" limiter to retrieve items available through interlibrary loan.
Access on-campus or off-campus with your ShipID
Academic Search Ultimate This link opens in a new window
Academic Search Complete is our most important general database. covering all subject areas. It is useful for research in all classes, as it includes 26+ million newspaper, magazine, and journal articles, with 50% of these immediately available in full-text.
Access from on campus or off campus with Ship ID.
Contents indexed in Ship Library Discovery Search.
ProQuest Global Newsstream This link opens in a new window
One of the most comprehensive news databases in the world, ProQuest Global Newstream includes access to over 3000 news sources, including 2,200 newspapers, as well as blogs, podcasts, websites and news wire feeds worldwide.
Development note - alt link use stats: (91 total hits, 33 since 7/2012 -- 10 /2012)

Library Guide to Current News Sources
This mobile-friendly guide provide excellent access to the best high-quality new sources.

Westlaw This link opens in a new window
This library database is one of the world's largest full-text databases, including very extensive news, legal, and business information. Along with ProQuest Newstand, it is our primary source of news information.
Access from on campus or off campus with Ship ID.

Science News

Specialized

Education Source This link opens in a new window
This extensive index of education literature indexes some 3 million articles in academic journals, and includes extensive entries for magazine and news articles as well.
Access from on campus or off campus with Ship ID.
Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition This link opens in a new window
Covers medical disciplines and information regarding prescription drugs, herbal remedies, and nutritional supplements.
Contains 650 full text journals and abstracts and indexing for more than 850 journals and the Lexi-PAL Drug Guide
Access from on campus or off campus with Ship ID
PsycINFO 1887-Current (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
A comprehensive index to the literature of psychology and related fields, including entries for journal articles, books, dissertations, and other research materials. It indexes some 4.5 million sources, 40% of which are available in electronic or print full-text in our library.
Access from on campus or off campus with Ship ID.
MEDLINE Complete This link opens in a new window
This database, produced by the National Library of Medicine, provides indexing for the world's comprehensive life sciences and biomedical literature. It includes abstracts for 33+ million articles in 5,600+ journals currently published worldwide and provides direct links to 14+ million full-text articles.
Access from on campus or off campus with Ship ID.

Find Your Own Sources

Library Background Databases

CQ Researcher This link opens in a new window
Library database that covers the most important and controversial issues of the day. Contains the full text of CQ Researcher, a weekly publication. Each issue provides a comprehensive overview and background essay, data tables and graphs, chronology, pro-con starter, and list of major research and advocacy groups. Includes extensive lists of sources and hot-linked footnotes throughout.
Access from on campus or off campus with Ship ID.

Quality Web Sources

In-Depth Journalism

ProPublica
ProPublica is a freely available website produced by a major online non-profit news organization dedicated to in-depth investigative reporting about current issues in the public interest. ProPublica features two kinds of reporting: Investigations, which include a series of in-depth articles about a topic (often between 15 and 30 articles - major topics range from dozens to 100+ articles). MuckReads are shorter reports featuring investigative journalism from other news agencies. Major areas of interest include, among others: healthcare and the health industry, fracking, censorship, money and politics, and financial and economic issues.
Reveal: The Center for Investigative Reporting
Reveal is a freely available website and the online media platform for the Center for Investigative Journalism, a major online non-profit news organization, founded in 1977, and dedicated to in-depth investigative reporting about current issues in the public interest. They publish series of investigative reports on a topic (typically between 10 and 20). Major areas of coverage include: criminal justice, the environment, guns, health care, labor and employment, national security, religion, surveillance and privacy, and veterans.
Center for Public Integrity
The Center for Public Integrity is a freely available website produced by a major online non-profit news organization dedicated to in-depth investigative reporting about current issues in the public interest, with a special focus on accountability and fairness, especially in terms of the role and influence of money. Topics featured include politics and elections, national security business, the environment, juvenile justice and health.
National Public Radio (NPR)
NPR is one of the most important freely-available sources of investigative journalism. It includes excellent topical pages but these are not easily browseable on the website. Use the High Quality Web Source Finder search box to locate the topical pages for your issue.
Journalist's Resource
This very high quality web site, located at Harvard's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy and sponsored by leading academic journalism programs, guides journalists and other researchers to find scholarly sources related to many of the most important topics in the news. Whenever the source is not available in full-text, use the discovery layer or library A-Z journal list to get library access to the article or to order it on interlibrary loan.

Newspaper Topic Guides

A number of important national newspapers have topic or issue sections of their website that bring together all the paper's articles on particular topics. The leading example of this is "Times Topics" from the New York Times. Each topic guide/section has a search tool that lets you refine your search.

Unfortunately, these sections are often not easy to browse or locate on the newspaper websites. Use the "High Quality Web Source Finder" search box above to search for your topic. Then choose the Newspaper Topic Guides tab to look for these in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Chicago Tribune. If you should hit a pay wall when browsing these newspapers, simply search for articles from any of these three papers using the ProQuest Newstand library database.

Science News

Congressional Research Service Reports (CRS Reports)

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) is the public policy research division of Congress. It issues detailed research reports on a very wide range of issues. CRS doesn't maintain its own website, but its reports are available through several organizations and libraries.

EveryCRSReport.com
Website that attempts to make all CRS reports easily available to the public. The result of a bi-partisan movement to get Congress to pass a bill requiring open access.
Congressional Research Service Reports (University of North Texas)
The University of North Texas maintains a freely available digital library collection of Congressional Research Service reports, with the goal "to provide integrated, searchable access to many of the full-text CRS reports that have been available at a variety of different web sites since 1990" -- website. Best search tool for finding CRS reports. Update holdings of specific reports through the Federation of American Scientists or through a web search on the name of a report.
Congressional Research Service Reports Archive (Federation of American Scientists)
As a public service, the Federation of American Scientists maintains this free archive of CRS reports.

Web Directories

Public Policy Issues and Groups (Vanderbilt Univ.)
This freely available website produced by the Vanderbilt University Libraries provides an alphabetical topical directory to important websites on some 50 current issues. These guide pages typically include sections for these kinds of web resources: Basic Sites, Government, International, News, Statistics, Interest Groups and Research Centers and Other Educational Sites.

Autism Spectrum Disorder

Home

Search Terms

Background

Background Sources

Additional Sources

Books & Reference Books

Reference Books & Ebooks

Books & Ebooks

Key Publications

Research Organizations

Research Organizations

U.S. Government Agencies

Advocacy Organizations

Data Sources

Databases

General

Science News

Specialized

Find Your Own Sources

Library Background Databases

Quality Web Sources

High Quality Web Source Finder

In-Depth Journalism

Newspaper Topic Guides

Science News

Congressional Research Service Reports (CRS Reports)

Web Directories

Contact the Ezra Lehman Memorial Library