Research Guides: Psychology: 2: Find Sources

Find Sources

Find Journal articles report the results of research by experts. Sometimes they're also called "peer-reviewed articles," "scholarly articles," or "academic articles." They are often used in academic research.

You should use journal articles because they:

Contain evidence based on research
Are written by experts
Focus on a narrow topic
Provide detailed information
Are probably more accurate because of the peer-review process
Lend credibility to your paper

Find journal articles in these databases:

PsycINFO This link opens in a new window
Index of journal and book literature from the American Psychological Association.
Psychology & Behavioral Sciences This link opens in a new window
This is the world's largest full text psychology database offering full text coverage for nearly 400 journals.
PsychiatryOnline This link opens in a new window
Features the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) as well as several textbooks and journals (including American Journal of Psychiatry, Psychiatric Services, Academic Psychiatry, Neuropsychiatry & Clinical Neurosciences, Psychosomatics, and Psychiatric News).

Books on a shelf Some books include research by experts, and you may want to use them in your research project.

You should use books because they:

Give a broad overview of one or more topics
Explain a complex topic (books are easier to understand than journal articles)
Offer in-depth analysis of a topic
Summarize previous research on a topic

Find books in these databases:

UNC Libraries Catalog
Searches books, eBooks, music, videos, and other items at the Michener and Skinner Libraries.
Prospector
Searches books at other libraries in Colorado and Wyoming. Request books from these libraries and have them delivered to the Michener or Skinner Libraries.

Graph on a paper Statistics can come from different sources, including the federal and state governments and non-profit organizations.

You should use statistics because they help:

Explain how widespread the problem is
Explain how severe the problem is
Convince your readers that the problem needs to be solved

Find statistics in these databases:

Statista This link opens in a new window
Statista is one of the first statistic portals in the world to integrate data on over 80,000 topics from over 18,000 sources onto a single professional platform. Categorized into 21 market sectors, Statista provides direct access to quantitative data on media, business, finance, politics, and a wide variety of other areas of interest or markets. Data can be downloaded and exported for academic use.

National Institute of Mental Health: Statistics
Includes statistics on the prevalence, treatment, and costs of mental illness among the U.S. population.
World Health Organization: Mental Health Atlas
Compiles data provided by countries around the world on mental health policies, legislation, financing, human resources, availability and utilization of services, and data collection systems. Released every three years.

Researcher collects data Tests and measures are often used in research to collect information about people. There are different types of tests and measures, including:

Assessments
Scales
Questionnaires
Surveys
Inventories

If you are conducting an experiment or observation, you may be able to use or adapt an existing test or measure for your own data collection. While some tests and measures are commercial and proprietary (cost money), others are available for free to researchers.

Find tests and measures in these databases:

PsycTESTS This link opens in a new window
PsycTESTS, produced by the American Psychological Association (APA), serves as a repository for a growing selection of psychological tests and measures, including thousands of actual test instruments and test items that are available for immediate download and use in research and teaching.
Health and Psychosocial Instruments This link opens in a new window
Information about measurement instruments in the health and psychosocial sciences.
Mental Measurements Yearbook with Tests in Print This link opens in a new window
Mental Measurements Yearbook contains descriptive information and reviews of commercially available standardized educational, personality, aptitude, neuropsychological, achievement, and intelligence tests. Tests in Print (TIP) serves as a comprehensive bibliography to commercially available tests that are currently in print in the English language. TIP provides information including test purpose, test publisher, in-print status, print, test acronym, intended test population, administration times, publication date(s), and test author(s).

Search Effectively

Yellow, blue, and purple keys Unlike Google, library databases can't understand complete sentences. You'll need to break your topic down into the most important concepts, also called keywords, and use those keywords to search library databases.

Example topic: How does social media impact happiness among teenagers?

Keywords: social media, happiness, teenagers

Brainstorm synonyms:

Sometimes experts use different terms than we use in everyday conversation. It's important to think of synonyms and related terms for your keywords so that you can use different combinations of words to get the best results when searching.

Keyword: teenagers

Synonyms: adolescents, youth

Library databases often have built-in search tools. Try them out!

Peer-Reviewed: Limit your search to journal articles.
Discipline: Limit your search to a particular discipline (such as psychology or education).
Publication Date: Limit your search to sources published during certain years.
Subject Terms: These are like library hashtags. Limit your search to sources about that subject.

Quotation marks Experts often cite each other's work, and that can help you find more sources on your topic!

To find older relevant sources:

Find the list of sources at the end of a relevant source you've found. This may be called "bibliography," "works cited," or "references."
Look for titles in the list that relate to your topic.
Copy and paste relevant titles into a library database.

To find newer relevant sources:

When you find a relevant source in a database, look for a link called "Cited by."
Click this link to see more recent sources that may be related to your topic.