PSY 214 - West - Abnormal Psychology: Find Articles

Your instructor may ask you to use only scholarly resources for your paper.

Scholarly (peer-reviewed) sources include books and articles published in scholarly journals, encyclopedias, and books.  These sources are reviewed by a panel of experts in that particular field, and are often published by a professional association or a university press.  These experts ensure the information published is credible before accepting it for publication.

More information:

• Anatomy of a scholarly article (from NCSU Libraries)
   
• Quick tutorial on reading scientific papers (from Purdue University)

Non-Scholarly sources include websites, magazines, newspapers, and books that undergo no expert review prior to publishing.

Check with your instructor if you plan to use non-scholarly sources and use the CRAAP test to evaluate them.

Since doing research is a little like shopping, you can borrow two simple techniques from the real world for improving your results:

1. Try other Key Words by using synonyms or related terms (in the real world, this is like looking in a different part of the store).  See the "Using Key Words in Your Search" section of the Finding Background Information tab for examples.  Also, sometimes a database will have a Thesaurus link to give you more terms; look for it at the top of the page.
2. Try looking in another database (in the real world, this is like shopping in another store).

Seriously, these two tips go a long way.  Still stumped?  Ask a librarian for help.

Displayed below are possible subject database categories for finding articles on Abnormal Psychology topics.  Be sure to click on the "Go" button:

Or, to search multiple databases at the same time, try the Advanced Search mode in MEGASearch: