Psychology

Familiarize yourself with the jargon and narrow down your topic

• Look for scholarly sources on the topic: Course reserves (including textbooks), required readings, Encylopedias, Dictionaries and Handbooks are a great way to familiarize yourself with a topic.
• Once you identify a topic and find some preliminary information, you need to locate more "peer-reviewed" or "scholarly" information from refereed journals (check your instructor's notes in your assignments)

Finding articles using databases 

• Search using key concepts and keywords in databases like Summon, Google Scholar and PsycINFO databases
• Use the "Find Articles" tab of this guide to find journal articles on your topic

Read the sources located in the preliminary research to determine

• what research questions have been generated from the topic
• from what perspective you may approach this topic

• Use Boolean Operators AND, OR, NOT to combine search terms
• Use Quotes to search as a phrase, parenthesis to combine synonyms or related terms, and use limits for dates, gender, primary sources, etc.
• Contact your subject librarian for more help with starting your research and locating articles