Guides: Psychology: Find Sources

Forming your Search String

The more complicated your question, the less likely a search engine can understand it. To get the best result, identify keywords and like terms to create a search string.

Example research question: How does video gaming impact interpersonal relationships in teenagers?

Keywords: Video gaming, interpersonal relationships, teenagers

Like terms can include synonyms and also examples of your keywords. If you don't get results from searching your keywords, it doesn't mean that the research doesn't exist. It could mean that the researcher used different language to describe the same topic

Video gaming: Xbox, MMORPG, computer game
Interpersonal relationships: friendship, dating
Teenagers: High schooler, adolescent, young adult

Search strings connect your keywords and like terms together for the best results.

Too many results? Use AND to narrow results

video gaming AND interpersonal relationships AND teenagers

Too few results? Use OR to broaden results

video gaming OR Xbox AND interpersonal relationships OR friendship AND teenagers OR adolescent

students reading in front of periodical display

Also known as peer-reviewed articles, scholarly articles are sources that are:

written by experts in the field
reviewed by other experts in the field (hence the peer-reviewed)
intended for an academic audience

While you can find scholarly articles through general search engines, databases contain a feature where you can narrow your results to only scholarly articles.

Find Subject-Specific Articles:

APA PsycARTICLES This link opens in a new window
Includes more than 200,000 full-text articles published by the American Psychological Association and affiliated journals.
APA PsycINFO This link opens in a new window
World's largest resource devoted to peer-reviewed literature in behavioral science and mental health. Produced by the American Psychological Association, it includes more than 4 million bibliographic records and indexing of more than 2,500 journals.
OneFile: Psychology This link opens in a new window
Provides access to authoritative periodical content supporting research in all fields of psychology— abnormal, biological, cognitive, comparative, developmental, personality, quantitative, social and all areas of applied psychology. Discover relevant information from the thoughts, views, discoveries, and reports found in this comprehensive collection.
Formerly called Psychology Collection

Find Articles in Multidisciplinary Databases:

Academic Search Ultimate This link opens in a new window
Academic Search Ultimate offers access to resources cited in key subject indexes. The combination of academic journals, magazines, periodicals, reports, books and videos meets the needs of scholars in virtually every discipline ranging from astronomy, anthropology, biomedicine, engineering, health, law and literacy to mathematics, pharmacology, women’s studies, zoology and more.
Academic OneFile This link opens in a new window
Provides millions of articles from over 17,000 scholarly journals and other authoritative sources—including thousands of podcasts and transcripts from NPR and CNN as well as videos from BBC Worldwide Learning. Includes extensive coverage in key subject areas such as biology, chemistry, economics, environmental science, history, marketing, political science, and psychology.
Medline This link opens in a new window
Created by the United States National Library of Medicine, MEDLINE is an authoritative bibliographic database containing citations and abstracts for biomedical and health journals used by health care professionals, nurses, clinicians and researchers.
OneFile: Health and Medicine This link opens in a new window
More than 2,500 full-text periodicals, reference books, pamphlets, and hundreds of videos demonstrating medical procedures and live surgeries. Includes nursing and allied health journals, as well as personal health information sources.
Formerly called Health Reference Center Academic
PubMed This link opens in a new window
PubMed comprises more than 30 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites.
For search by Publication Type, see PubMed's subject term guide: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/pubtypes.html

Student thumbing through a book in front of library stacks

Books and eBooks often provide a broader overview and cover more information than a scholarly journal article.

You don't need to read an entire book to use it in your research. Use the index at the back of a book to find the information you need.

To find books and eBooks, you can either:

Search the NOBLE catalog

NOBLE Catalog Search
Search the Jenks Library catalog for books, eBooks, audiobooks, scores, etc.

Browse the stacks for a book related to your topic

If you want to browse the shelves, most related call numbers begin with BF.

BF 1-990 Psychology
BF 1001-1389 Parapsychology
BF 1404-2055 Occult Sciences

Check out the Materials Location Guide for more information on where to find materials in Jenks Library.

APA Style
Explore resources directly from APA about the APA style of citation.
APA
Psych Central
Encyclopedia of Psychology
National Institute of Mental Health
The Personality Project
PsychScholar
A Collection of Web Resources for Psychological Scholars and Budding Psychological Scholars.
Social Psychology Network

If you find an article or book that you can't access, don't pay for it! Instead, submit an Interlibrary Loan request, and you'll receive articles within a few days!

Interlibrary Loan: Article & Book Request
Can't find the article or book you're looking for at Gordon? Fill out the Interlibrary Loan request form and we'll track the article or book down for you!

Are you looking for a specific article, like an article that you found referenced in a bibliography? Search for the journal in Journal Finder, linked below:

Browse Journal Finder
Find individual journals and search within specific publications.