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Psychology Research Guide: Getting Started

Your Assignment

Peer-Reviewed (Scholarly) Psychology Article  

Many times, a psychology assignment will ask for a peer-reviewed, or scholarly, article.  This means that the article must be from a scholarly journal.  When we talk about peer-reviewed, it means that other scholars in the field have read the article and determined the information to be correct.  

If you have questions about your assignment, talk to your instructor.  They are the best resource when it comes to what they are looking for when it comes to your assignment.

Tips and Tricks for Searching

Here are some tips to make sure you get a psychology research article when using the library's search tool, Discovery:

  • Add "study" to a search box and change the dropdown menu to AB-Abstract so that the databases pull articles that mention "study" in the abstract.
  • Add "method" in one search box and "result" in another search box to get articles that have Methods and Results sections.
  • Add "participant" in another search box to ensure you get actual research studies, not literature reviews.
  • Add "psych*" in a search box and change the drop down menu to SO-Journal Title/Source so the databases retrieve articles from journals that have a form of psych in the title.  For example: Psychiatric Quarterly, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Psychological Assessment, etc.
  • Click the box that says Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals to ensure that your results are scholarly articles.

For an in-depth demonstration of these tips and why they are helpful, check out the video to the right.

Library Resources Required

You are required to use library resources to find a peer-reviewed psychology article. So what does your instructor mean by this? Your instructor wants you to use library databases to find reliable and up-to-date information about your topic. For help using these databases, visit the library or reach out to a librarian via chat, text, or email. To learn more about peer-reviewed (scholarly) sources, go to the Scholarly vs. Popular Sources page.
 

How to Find a Research Study

Find Books

You have access to millions of titles through Locate, our library catalog, and MOBIUS OpenRS, the statewide catalog. Students often find recently published titles about their topics or use slightly older titles as additional resources. Remember to search for books early -- if you request books from another library, they can take a week or so to arrive at our campuses. 

To learn more about using Locate to find books available at the library, watch this video. 

To learn more about requesting books with the MOBIUS OpenRS catalog, watch this video.