The JSR Website Review Companion Page

Raymond J. Noonan, Ph.D.

In November 2001, a new feature began in the Journal of Sex Research (JSR): a review of Web sites of interest to sexuality researchers and others written by Raymond J. Noonan, Ph.D. At this site, you will find a convenient annotated listing of URLs cited in those articles, which will appear regularly in future issues. This companion page will also offer updates where possible, as the information on the Web is always subject to change. For example, since we went to press, the Kinsey Institute now has a new domain name, and they have moved some of the pages reviewed! Those changes are reflected here. For the original published review, see: Noonan, R. J. (2001, November). Web resources for sex researchers: The state of the art, now and in the future [book reviews (Web reviews)]. Journal of Sex Research, 38(4), 348-351.

 

Alphabetical Listing

(Following this list of URLs are the annotated listings in order of appearance in the review.)

http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/

http://odwin.ucsd.edu/idata/

http://www.aasect.org/jset.cfm

http://www.agi-usa.org/

http://www.apa.org/psycinfo/

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html

http://www.ejhs.org/

http://www.findarticles.com/

http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/

http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/GSS/

http://www.indiana.edu/~kinsey/ is now:
     http://www.kinseyinstitute.org/

http://www.indiana.edu/~kinsey/datarchives.html is now:
     http://www.kinseyinstitute.org/resources/datarchives.html

http://www.indiana.edu/~kinsey/SSRC/sexrealn.html is now:
     http://www.kinseyinstitute.org/resources/sexrealn.html

http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/stats.html

http://www.medscape.com/

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed

http://www.searchenginewatch.com/

http://www.SexQuest.com/

http://www.SexQuest.com/IES4/

http://www.SexQuest.com/SexQuest.html

http://www.sexscience.org/annual_review.htm

http://www.sexscience.org/jsr.htm

http://www.sexualhealth.com/

http://www.sexuality.org/

http://www.sexuality.org/l/sex/jsexrall.html

http://www.siecus.org/links/links.html

http://www.siecus.org/pubs/srpt/srpt0000.html

http://www.uidaho.edu/special-collections/Other.Repositories.html

http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/

 

Annotated Listing

Search Engine Watch (http://www.searchenginewatch.com/). It can be an arduous and time-consuming task doing a raw search of sexuality topics, given the diverse meanings associated with generic words like sex and its derivatives. But if you want to search the Web using a search engine, at this site you can find links to all of the major search engines, as well as a host of minor specialty ones, with comparative reviews and tips for better searching. AltaVista (http://www.altavista.com/) and Google (http://www.google.com/) are my usual preferred search portals when I want to go that route. Otherwise, it’s often more useful starting at the Web sites covered in my review.

Institutions and Mega-Sites

Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS) (http://www.siecus.org/links/links.html). The SIECUS links page provides a pathway to information of value both to the professional researcher and to students and the lay public. Ranging from activism to teen issues to religion to foundations and government and other organizations and statistics, this site is a must-visit. They also offer selected articles from the SIECUS Report (see below), as well as their well-known annotated bibliographies and fact sheets.

The Kinsey Institute (http://www.kinseyinstitute.org/). The Kinsey Institute maintains what may be the largest special collection of archives and holdings of scientific, historical, artistic, or literary interest, and other artifacts related to human sexuality. The Library offers an online catalog of many of its holdings, which are non-circulating, but does not index its art or archival collections, although abstracts of some of them are available at the Kinsey site. They also provide a listing of database archives—some online, but most not—with links to information about their availability, as well as summaries of their various research projects (see below). Also available here are other documents about the field of sexology, such as Diane di Mauro’s 1995 Executive Summary of the Sexuality Research Assessment Project of the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) (http://www.kinseyinstitute.org/resources/sexrealn.html), which addresses the need, barriers, and recommendations for sex research.

University of Idaho Library’s Repositories of Primary Sources (http://www.uidaho.edu/special-collections/Other.Repositories.html). Here you can find links to more than 4,600 organizations with holdings of manuscripts, archives, and other primary data sources internationally, many of which are beginning to provide online access to some holdings. Some of them are likely to contain valuable sexuality data buried in their archives.

U.S. Library of Congress’s Services for Researchers (http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/). The Library of Congress has listings that include countless sexuality titles in various print and audiovisual formats. They also provide direct searches of numerous university library catalogs, although access to some resources, like online access to journals and databases, is typically restricted to students and faculty of the institution.

The Society for Human Sexuality (http://www.sexuality.org/). This site originated as a student organization at the University of Washington in Seattle in 1995. Although its focus is on various kinds of social play parties and other events on the West Coast, its online library covers a wide range of topics and lifestyles, including polyamory and swinging, same-sex relationships, sex workers, BDSM and fetishes, sex toys, and safe sex, among many others. As such, the researcher will have access to summaries (often first-person and activist-oriented) about these issues, as well as links to various organizations, both in its home areas and nationally. An outstanding site for students researching human sexuality topics as well as for professional researchers interested in some of the perspectives presented, this Web site is one of the oldest to provide free access to a wealth of sexological information on a wide range of topics.

The Sexual Health Network (http://www.sexualhealth.com/). This site, created by Mitchell Tepper, is another Web site of interest to student researchers as well as to the professional. In addition to articles about women’s and men’s sexual health, including pharmacological issues, sex over 40, infertility, dysfunctions, sexual orientation, and other topics, it provides information on sexuality and disability and illness, wherein its strength lies, as well as links to related resources and books. It also features a panel of experts who write brief articles around questions submitted by users, which provides the venue for addressing many of these issues. As the primary (perhaps only) Web site bringing together many of these issues in some detail, it is highly recommended.

The Archive for Sexology (http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/). Erwin J. Haeberle created this exceptional Web site now housed at the Magnus Hirschfeld Center of Humboldt University in Berlin; it is best used with a high-bandwidth (i.e., cable, DSL, or T1) connection because of its many large files. Its vast storehouse of information includes full-text articles by Haeberle and others, as well as the complete first three volumes of Robert T. Francoeur’s International Encyclopedia of Sexuality (1997) and Vern L. Bullough’s Science in the Bedroom (1994) and Human Sexuality: An Encyclopedia (with Bonnie Bullough, 1994). In addition, the site contains World Health Organization (WHO) reports on sexuality, a critical dictionary of sexuality terms by Haeberle, and other resources.

SexQuest (http://www.SexQuest.com/). This was one of the first, if not the first, such Web site from a sexologist (this author). It included the posting of my master’s thesis on sex surrogate therapy, fulfilling one of the Internet’s original intended uses of providing a communications link among researchers to share information (see Noonan, 1998). In 1996, Ray Noonan’s SexQuest’s Web Index for Sexual Health (http://www.SexQuest.com/SexQuest.html) first appeared as the site’s central feature, its aim being to provide a comprehensive listing for both students and other sex researchers of various sexological and other links, many of them not conveniently available elsewhere, reflecting both my interests and my philosophical stance of promoting balance and discussion of neglected, cutting-edge, or still-relevant-but-out-of-fashion issues and ideas. I strive to put many of the research reports and full-text articles that are strewn across the Web within easy reach of readers in a semi-annotated style by providing direct links to them. I invite authors who have such writings on the Web to forward their links to me via email for inclusion.

Journals and Research Reports

FindArticles.com (http://www.findarticles.com/). This site contains full-text articles from some professional journals and general-interest publications from the recent past, which are searchable and available free to users. Among the journals of interest to sexologists, mostly under the subject heading of “Health & Fitness,” some under “Home & Family,” are The Journal of Sex Research, Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, and others, all accessible by searching their site. One can browse the list of journals and magazines included, although I could not determine whether complete issues were available or just selected articles; a browse feature listing the table of contents of each issue would make the site more useful for selecting articles.

Medscape (http://www.medscape.com/). Medical research reports and abstracts may be found here, with some recent articles available full-text online for free. It also provides access to MEDLINE, a searchable database that allows you to order the article for mail or fax delivery.

PsycINFO Direct (http://www.apa.org/psycinfo/). Published by the American Psychological Association (APA), this is an abstract database of psychological literature from 1887 to the present. Individuals can search the database online for $9.95 per 24-hour period using a credit card, and order the full-text, book, or whatever through various document-delivery services if they do not have access to the original pieces.

The Journal of Sex Research (JSR) (http://www.sexscience.org/jsr.htm). Published by the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality (SSSS), the JSR Web site lists tables of contents for volumes 35 (1998, nos. 2-4), 36 (1999, nos. 1-4), and 37 (2000, nos. 1-4). The Society for Human Sexuality also contains extensive abstracts of JSR from 1989 through 1995 at its site (http://www.sexuality.org/l/sex/jsexrall.html). Also published by SSSS, The Annual Review of Sex Research (http://www.sexscience.org/annual_review.htm) lists tables of contents for volumes 1 through 9 (1990-1999).

The Journal of Sex Education and Therapy (JSET) (http://www.aasect.org/jset.cfm). Published by the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors, and Therapists (AASECT), this site contains tables of contents and abstracts for volumes 23 (1998, nos. 2-4), 24 (1999, nos. 1-4), and 25 (2000, nos. 1-3).

SIECUS Report (http://www.siecus.org/pubs/srpt/srpt0000.html). SIECUS provides up-to-date listings for each six-issue volume from 25 through the current 29 (late 1996-2001), with selected full-text articles.

PubMed (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed). PubMed of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) provides journal citations with a medical flavor that are available through this free online service.

The Electronic Journal of Human Sexuality (EJHS) (http://www.ejhs.org/). Published by the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco, EJHS is the first online journal for sexologists, offering peer-reviewed multidisciplinary articles on a variety of topics. Volumes 1 through 4 (with each volume comprising each year’s articles from 1998 through 2001, and new articles appearing periodically in the current volume/year) are available 24 hours a day, and articles are selected through their tables of contents.

Data Reports and Data Sets

The International Encyclopedia of Sexuality on the Web (http://www.SexQuest.com/IES4/). Here you will find updates to entries in Francoeur’s (1997) cross-cultural comparison of 51 countries, The International Encyclopedia of Sexuality (volumes 1 through 3), as well as additional countries that were not included in volume 4 (Francoeur & Noonan, 2001) because of space constraints. The complete first three volumes of the IES can be found at the Archive for Sexology (http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/), as noted above.

U.S. Central Intelligence Agency’s World Factbook 2000 (http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html). The World Factbook 2000 is another valuable resource for international data encompassing over 250 of the world’s states. In addition to geographical, political, economic, communications, and other data as of January 1, 2000, the Factbook contains information specifically of interest to sex researchers, such as age distribution by sex, birthrates, ethnic composition, infant mortality, life expectancy, population growth rates, and other issues, such as the impact of HIV/AIDS, sex ratios, and total fertility rates in each country. The complete publication (approximately 64 megabytes, 69,637 kilobytes) can be downloaded (http://www.cia.gov/cia/download.html) and installed on your hard drive, or you can browse through it online.

University of Michigan’s Statistical Resources on the Web (http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/stats.html); University of California, San Diego’s Data on the Net (http://odwin.ucsd.edu/idata/). In addition to reports of data on the Web, various datasets are available for statistical analysis, either directly online for free or with links to their providers. These two are among the ones I found recommended at several data sites. The Michigan site provides a listing by subject, such as sexual behavior, abortion, sociology, population, and so on, to allow focused links to the data. The UC San Diego site starts with data links to “442 [now 443] sites that have numeric data ready to download,” including many government Web sites such as the U.S. National Technical Information Service (NTIS), and “100 Data Libraries and Data Archives worldwide,” with additional links to searchable catalogs and suppliers of data for a fee.

The Kinsey Institute’s Data Archives (http://www.kinseyinstitute.org/resources/datarchives.html). The Kinsey Institute is also an excellent place to start for an annotated listing of sexuality-specific data archives, which includes a link to an alphabetical list of datasets and surveys related to human sexuality.

General Social Surveys (GSS) (http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/GSS/). Available from 1972 through the present, one can extract and analyze social science data from the GSS online, as well as from other databases through the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) (http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/).

The Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI) (http://www.agi-usa.org/). AGI has some unique datasets available online and free access to a significant amount of their recent journal entries, including Family Planning Perspectives, International Family Planning Perspectives, and The Guttmacher Report on Public Policy. Most articles are available in HTML format (the standard programming language of a typical Web page) and the newer Adobe Acrobat PDF format (which gives you a document virtually identical to the original formatted printed page). The data services are provided through a unique Custom Tablemaker feature that allows you to generate tables from AGI’s international databases, which can show comparisons in sex-related behavior among more than 100 countries.

SexQuest’s Web Index for Sexual Health (http://www.SexQuest.com/SexQuest.html). Provides direct access to this document and other sexuality resources and documents.

References

Bullough, V. L. (1994). Science in the bedroom: A history of sex research. New York: Basic Books.

Bullough, V. L., & Bullough, B. (Eds.). (1994). Human sexuality: An encyclopedia. New York: Garland.

di Mauro, D. (1995). Executive summary. Sexuality research in the United States: An assessment of the social and behavioral sciences. New York: The Social Science Research Council.

Francoeur, R. T. (Ed.). (1997). The international encyclopedia of sexuality (Vols. 1-3). New York: Continuum.

Francoeur, R. T., & Noonan, R. J. (Eds.). (2001). The international encyclopedia of sexuality (Vol. 4). New York: Continuum.

Noonan, R. J. (1998). The psychology of sex: A mirror from the Internet. In J. Gackenbach, (Ed.), Psychology and the Internet: Intrapersonal, interpersonal and transpersonal implications (pp. 143-168). New York: Academic Press.

 

Contact Information

Raymond J. Noonan, Ph.D., Chair, Health and Physical Education Department, Fashion Institute of Technology of the State University of New York, 27th Street and 7th Avenue, AX-13, New York, NY 10001; email: rjnoonan@SexQuest.com.