Getting Started with Your Research
Whatever you do, DON'T SKIP THIS STEP! It is particularly important for students new to a field, but everyone would benefit from spending a little time getting some solid background information. To do this well, you need to come into the library and use some reference books. Yes! BOOKS! The best sources for this type of information at the scholarly level is really only available in reference books. Trust me! Just an hour or so spent here will save you a lot of grief later on. Guaranteed!
So, come into the Reference Room of the Interim Library and consult these fine reference materials.
Read one substantial article on your topic in one of the most recent of these books, and you will:
- be hearing from some real authorities (be sure to note the authors of the articles!).
- obtain one, or more, succinct summaries of your topic (useful for narrowing, if necessary, or in the introduction!).
- identify key players (could be the authors of these articles or names mentioned within) .
- identify the core works (your instructor will be impressed if you find these on your own!).
- pick up some jargon unique to the topic (very useful for the computer searching you will be doing later on!)
Read a few articles on your topic in several of these books over significant time periods, like 5 years ago and 10 years ago, and/or from different sub-disciplines in psychology (e.g. gender studies, neuropsychology, cognitive psychology), and you will:
- see how your topic evolved over time;
- see how a topic can be viewed from different perspectives/angles;
- see how different scholars vary in presenting the same overview (there is debate in the scholarly community!).
| These are the GIANTS, the classic sets everyone should meet. | These represent scholarly perspectives from different sub-disciplines in Psychology. | These are most useful for quick definitions names, very brief synopses. |
| Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology and Behavioral Science BF31 .E52 2001 (Print & Internet) This is a real 4-volume master work. Two earlier editions (1984/1994) are nearby and can make very enlightening comparative reading. Encyclopedia of Psychology BF31 .E52 2000 Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science BF 311 .E53 2003 This 4-volume set is a monumental compendium of articles by international scholars describing this field. Entries are coded for 3 levels of readers, introductory to advanced. Encyclopedia of Human Behavior BF31 .E5 1994 Another 4-volume scholarly collection. For maximum value, use it in conjunction with the Encyclopedia of Psychology for any aspect of human behavior. Handbook of Child Psychology (forthcoming) This excellent 4-volume handbook covers the following topical areas:
BF121 .H1955 2003 This very scholarly 12-volume set covers the entire spectrum of psychology in 12 different areas:
RC334 .I57 This is a real classic in the field, filled with articles by landmark authors. Mental Measurements Yearbook (MMY) Z5814 .P8 B932 This masterful and highly respected work is an authoritative source of references and reviews on tests of all sorts. The latest edition is the 16th (2005). A separate user guide is shelved next to it. Treatments of Psychiatric Disorders RC480 .T69 2001 This is THE major encyclopedia on mental illness. The 4th edition (2007) is on order. The DSM-IV-TR (RC 455.2 .C4 D536 2000) is shelved nearby for further information on mental illnesses. | Compendium of Neuropsychological Tests RC386.6 .N48 S67 1998 2006 edition on order??? Encyclopedia of Adolescence HQ796 .E58 1991 Encyclopedia of Aging HQ1061 .E53 2001 (Internet) Encyclopedia of Behavior Modification and Cognitive Behavior Therapy RC489 .B4 E485 2005 Encyclopedia of Bioethics QH332 .E52 2004 (Internet) Encyclopedia of Creativity BF408 . E53 1999 Encyclopedia of Homosexuality HQ76.25 .E53 1990 Encyclopedia of the Human Brain QP376 .E586 2002 Encyclopedia of Human Emotions BF531 .E55 1999 Encyclopedia of Human Intelligence BF431 .E59 1994 Encyclopedia of Mental Health RC437 .E66 1998 Encyclopedia of Occultism & Parapsychology BF1407 .E52 2001 (Print & Internet) Encyclopedia of Psychotherapy RC475.7 .E55 2002 Encyclopedia of Women and Gender HQ1115 .E52 2001 Handbook of Educational Psychology Folio LB 1051 .H2354 2006 International Encyclopedia of Marriage and Family HQ9 .E52 2003 (Print & Internet) Learning and Memory BF318 .E53 2004 (Internet) International Encyclopedia of Sexuality HQ21 .I68 1997 Portraits of Pioneers in Psychology BF109 .A1 P67 1991 - Volume 2 (1996) Volume 3 (1998) Women in Psychology BF109 .A1 W65 1990 | Blackwell Dictionary of Cognitive Psychology BF311 .B535 1990 Dictionary of Animal Behaviour QL750.3 .M34 2006 (Internet) Dictionary of Behavioral Assessment Techniques BF176.5 .D53 1988 Dictionary of Biological Psychology QP360 .D52 2001 Dictionary of Dream Interpretation BF175.5 .D74 S36 1997 Dictionary of Family Psychology & Family Therapy RC488.5 .D525 1993 Dictionary of Hypnotism BF1411 .E82 1991 Dictionary of Psychological Testing, Assessment & Treatment BF176 .S78 1995 Dictionary of Psychology BF31 .C65 2006 (Internet) Encyclopedia of Brain & Brain Disorders QP376 .T87 2002 Encyclopedia of Child Abuse HV6626.5 .C57 2001 Encyclopedia of Depression RC537 .R63 2001 Encyclopedia of Obesity and Eating Disorders RC552 .E18 C37 2000 Encyclopedia of Phobias, Fears and Anxieties RC535 .D63 2000 Encyclopedia of Sleep & Sleep Disorders RC547 .Y34 2001 Encyclopedia of Schizophrenia and Other Psychotic Disorders RC514 .N63 2000 Gale Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders RC437 .G35 2003 (Internet) Gale Encyclopedia of Neurological Disorders RC334 .G34 2005 (Internet) International Dictionary of Psychoanalysis RC501.4 .D4313 2005 (Internet) Psychiatric Dictionary editions from 1960-2004 RC437 .H5 |
Grad School in Your Future?
The library has two excellent reference books to help you sort through your options:| Graduate Study in Psychology BF77 .G73 2007 | Insider's Guide to Graduate Programs in Clinical and Counseling Psychology RC467.7 .I57 2004-2005 |
Writing Style & Citation Guides
There is really only one true guide to the APA style, and you will find it among the reference books. The quality of APA style guides on the Internet vary and only provide a small sample of what the book contains.| Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th edition BF76.7 .P83 2001 |
| Citation Guides & Style Manuals (Santa Clara University) |
| APA Style Resources, part of Psych Web, a useful page for students of Psychology. |
Or, check out one of these for broader help with writing that psychology research paper:
| Psychology with Style is a hypertext guide to writing research reports for students and instructors of experimental and research methods courses. This guide was created by Dr. M. Plonsky, a Psychology professor at the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point. His advice may not agree with the ideas of your own professor, so use it with some caution! |
| A Guide to Grammar and Usage for Psychology and Related Fields BF76.8 .B44 1993 | Writing in Psychology: A Student Guide BF76.7 .R67 1998 |
Best Databases for Psychology Research
PsycINFO is THE database for psychology research. As a student here, you have access to the full database, all the way back to 1887! It will provide you with citations and abstracts of articles from thousands of psychology journals from all over the world. It also indexes books, chapters in books, and dissertations in psychology. Some articles are available in fulltext. Connect to PsycINFO from the Psychology Databases page.
PsycArticles is a fulltext database produced by the American Psychological Association (APA). The core of the database are the APA's journals. A dozen or so other journals are included. You can see the full list here. Most APA journals now go back to Volume 1, Issue 1. While you can search this database by itself for articles on a topic, it is not designed to do that very well. You are better off doing a subject search in PsycINFO. PsycINFO links to the fulltext articles in PsycArticles. Connect to PsycArticles from the Psychology Databases page.
Biological Abstracts is THE giant research database in the field of biology. Coverage is back to 1980. If you are researching anything to do with animal behavior, psychobiology, neuropsychology, the brain, or pharmacology, you need to use this database as well as PsycINFO. Connect to Biological Abstracts from the Biology Databases page.
Social Sciences Citation Index(SSCI) and Science Citation Index(SCI) Expanded together cover psychology in a very broad sense. The library has SCI back to 1993 as an electronic database and SSCI back to 1994 electronically. In their paper forms we have SCI back to 1978 and SSCI to 1976. Although you can search a topic or subject in here, it is not very efficient. The power of these two databases is in their unique CITATION INDEX. This is an index of everything in the references/bibliographies of the articles in the thousands of very highly regarded scholarly journals indexed in SCI and SSCI. So, for example, if you are doing research in a very narrow area and you have a really important work in that area, you could find out which journal articles in the database cited that work in their own references/bibliography. For more on this, follow the instructions in our online guide, Cited Reference Searching on Social Sciences Citation Index and Science Citation Index in Six Thoughtful Steps. Connect to SSCI from the Psychology Databases page.
Medline is the gigantic medical database from the National Library of Medicine. For most psychology research, this represents more than you need/want to know about the medical literature. However, if you are having trouble finding material detailed enough in PsycINFO on a medicine or health related topic, you may need to tackle this. Connect to Medline from the Psychology Databases page.
I've done my database searches and I have a list of books and articles I want. How do I put my hands on them?
Look up the titles of books in OSCAR to see if we have the book you need. Be sure to note the CIRCULATION STATUS, whether or not the book is checked out. A date in the STATUS box means it is checked out and due on that day. If it says AVAILABLE, then the book is not checked out. Most library books are currently stored in the Automated Retrieval System (ARS) so you will need to request them. If you do not find your book in OSCAR, click on the Search LINK+ button on the right side of your screen. This allows you to search and request books from other libraries in California and Nevada. These books should arrive within a few days.
For journal articles, look up the title of the journal by using the JOURNAL FINDER on the left side of the library home page. Don't make the common, and fatal, mistake of looking up the title of the article. The JOURNAL FINDER will tell you if the library has the fulltext of your article in another database or in a print journal. If the article is in a database, follow the citation information (volume, issue, date) to retrieve your article. For print journals, be sure to read through the OSCAR record carefully to note which volumes and years the library has. Our holdings may not be complete for the journal you need.
If the library does not have your book or journal article, you can request it from another library. Just fill out the appropriate form using Bronco Express. How fast will it arrive?
-
Electronic Delivery - 3 days
If you are lucky, we can get an article electronically. Many recently published articles can be supplied within 1-48 hours. -
Mail Delivery - 7 to 15 days
Books, proceedings, dissertations and some articles not available electronically will come through the mail. LINK+ is definitely faster for books.
- You can go to another library and use/photocopy material there. In our area, Stanford's Green or Lane libraries have the best collections.
Good Websites for Psychology Research
Classics in the History of Psychology is a browsable and searchable guide to the fulltext of classical texts in psychology. It includes an extremely wide range of material from Ancient times to the 20th century and a variety of formats as well, books, articles, and more! This is a monumental effort for which you should thank York University in Toronto.
The Encyclopedia of Psychology is not really like an encyclopedia at all! It is, however, a fabulous database of psychology-related webpages, of real value to psychology students. It was created and is maintained by two psychology professors, William Palya (at Jacksonville State University) and Donald Walter (at U of Wisconsin, Parkside). You can browse through these pages by category/subcategory or search using keywords. The annotations are very useful and the site appears to be kept current.
PsychExperiments "is an on-line cognitive and social psychology laboratory site. .... The site consists of a set of interactive experiments, a cumulative data archive, download utilities for both data and experiment source code, downloadable Excel macros for analyzing data from the experiments, and support materials for those who want to use and/or develop experiments at the site." [About PE]
For journals on the WWW, check out the great list of 2000+ titles at PSYCLINE from Dr. Armin Günther of the University of Augsburg (so, you know it's international!). You can keyword search that massive list using words in the title of a journal. You can scan the list alphabetically or by subject category, like "clinical," "family," or "psychoanalysis." Keep in mind, though, that you aren't going to get many complete articles for free this way. Most journals' web pages provide subscription information, tables of contents, and sometimes, abstracts online. If you change E-journals to "Selected Articles," you will get a broader list that includes all the e-journals plus those journals that provide some fulltext articles online. Sometimes they will give you articles from the current issue, for example, or one article per issue. It is variable.
Social Psychology Network claims to the the "largest social psychology database on the Internet." I wouldn't argue with that claim. Based at Wesleyan University, the Network has links to thousands of social psychology-related resources. It is friendly and easy to use.
Beyond these pages, find other good pages by using a web subject catalog. Here are some that I think are especially useful for academic and professional research:
INFOMINE "is a virtual library of Internet resources relevant to faculty, students, and research staff at the university level. It contains useful Internet resources such as databases, electronic journals, electronic books, bulletin boards, mailing lists, online library card catalogs, articles, directories of researchers, and many other types of information." [About INFANTINE]. The search engine allows you to limit your searches (e.g., author, title, subject, etc.) or to browse using their detailed subject categories.
intute: Psychology "provides access to psychology resources on the Internet. Each resource has been evaluated and categorized using the APA PsycINFO coding scheme. the main focus of coverage is on areas of psychology relevant to the social sciences" [From About Us]. intute: Social Sciences covers related fields. The site offers both advanced search and browsing capabilities.
Librarians' Internet Index
Don't be put off by the initial clutter you see on the screen. It may not be snazzy, but it is efficiently organized, if you take a moment to look closely. Either browse that opening screen to your topic area or click on List of Subjects Used to be led to the best sites on the WWW. All entries are well annotated, so you know where you are going. Includes over 10,000 sites.
SEARCH TIPS: AND default; can use OR, NOT, ( ) also; use * to truncate; use " " around phrases; can select fields to search.
SCIRUS This is THE science search engine. If you want to be sure you are getting REAL science, this is how you want to search the web. It has over 120 million webpages, including abstracts from Medline, free journal articles, information on scientific conferences and meetings, and much, much more. This is an outstanding tool.
Need MORE Help?
Contact Paul Neuhaus at 554-5431 or pneuhaus@scu.edu to make an appointment for individual help in doing research.
Page created by Gail Grades, October 18, 2001.
Page last updated by Paul Neuhaus, December 15, 2007.