Research Guides: Psychology: Finding Articles

Getting Full Text Articles

If you do not see a full text article link look for the button in order to:

Access online full text (when available)
See if the journal is available in print (library catalog)
Request a pdf of the article if full text is not available online (Interlibrary loan)

If you have the citation for the article you are trying to access, search the Journal List to check if the library subscribes to your specific article.

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Searching for Articles in Psychology

You may be asked to "write a literature review," "find an academic journal article," or "locate an empirical research article." These tasks all require searching academic databases to locate scholarly articles.

How do I find an article in Psychology?
This handout demonstrates how to find a scholarly article using Cook OneSearch, PsycINFO, and the journal list.
Finding an empirical article from a specific journal
Learn to locate and identify empirical research articles from a known journal. Useful for the research pool "Research Report" assignment.

Psychology & Specialty Databases

These databases help you locate scholarly information in Psychology. The best database depends on your topic or research question. You may want to search in more than one database.

APA PsycInfo This link opens in a new window
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PsycINFO is the largest resource devoted to peer-reviewed literature in behavioral science and mental health.
For help searching PsycINFO, check out this Quick Reference Guide from the APA (PDF) or sign up for free webinar training.
Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection This link opens in a new window
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You should start for PsycINFO, but this collection may be a good second place to search for topics in emotional and behavioral characteristics, psychiatry & psychology, mental processes, anthropology, and observational & experimental methods.
PubMed This link opens in a new window
Useful for topics related to clinical psychology, biopsychology, or other medical-related areas.
PTSD Pubs This link opens in a new window
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Citations to literature on post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental-health related traumatic events.
Criminal Justice Database This link opens in a new window
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May be useful for criminal justice-related topics (such as topics in forensic psychology, psychology and the law, etc.)
Education Research Complete This link opens in a new window
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Education database useful for topics related to learning or educational psychology.

Multidisciplinary Databases

If a Psychology-specific database does not work for your topic, you may want to try one of these alternate resources.

Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Google Scholar allows you to search for scholarly and grey literature from a wide variety of academic publishers, professional societies, repositories and universities. Find journal articles, theses, books, technical reports and preprints on the web.
Scopus This link opens in a new window
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Use Scopus to locate articles in areas like cognitive or biopsychology, or check to see if other articles have cited an article you already found.
Academic Search Ultimate This link opens in a new window
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Multidisciplinary subject coverage, including social sciences, humanities, education, computer sciences, engineering, physics, chemistry, language & linguistics, arts & literature, medicine, and ethnic studies.

Need to find something else?

If your research applies to areas outside of Psychology (such as Education, Exercise Science, Biology, etc.) you may want to review the Research Guides for those areas to find additional databases.

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Psychology