Psychology Research Guide

The major purpose of class assignments is to write a paper based on your search of published literature. The purpose of the research guide is to introduce you to the process of literature search and familiarize you with a variety of sources available for you.

Select a topic that is of interest to you. If in doubt, talk to your instructor regarding a chosen topic. You might want to seek help from reference librarians who are knowledgeable about search strategies necessary for locating needed information.

Books
Journal Articles (Search Databases)
Journals (Browse E-Journals)
Internet Resources

Prof. Inna Shpilko

Bibliographer for Psychology

Psychology Research Guide

For home use of e-books, databases, e-journals, and course reserves the Proxy Service must be used—see Connect from Home for instructions.

Books

As an initial step of your research, gather background information of your topic in general and/or specialized encyclopedias or dictionaries. These reference sources provide useful overviews of a topic and may include in their bibliographies resources you can further use in your paper. Then, search the online catalog, CUNY+ or other catalogs, to locate relevant books.

Encyclopedias and Dictionaries

APA Dictionary of Psychology (Ref. BF31 .A65 2007)
Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology and Behavioral Science (Ref. BF31 .E52 2001, 4 vols.)
Encyclopedia of Applied Psychology (Ref. BF636 .E52 2004, 3 vols.)
Encyclopedia of Educational Psychology (Ref. LB1050.9 .E63 2008, 2 vols.)
Encyclopedia of Health & Behavior (Ref. R726.5 .E53 2004, 2 vols.)
Encyclopedia of Human Behavior (Ref. BF31 .E5 1994, 4 vols.)
Encyclopedia of Industrial and Organizational Psychology (Ref. HF5548.8 .E498 2007, 2 vols.)
Encyclopedia of Memory and Memory Disorders (Ref. BF371 .N55 2001)
Encyclopedia of Psychology (Ref. BF31 .E52 2000, 8 vols.)
Encyclopedia of School Psychology (Ref. LB1027.55 .E523 2005)

Handbooks, Manuals, etc.

Comprehensive Handbook of Psychological Assessment (Ref. BF176 .C654 2004, 4 vols.)
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-IV, 4^th ed. (Ref. RC455.2.C4 D54 1994)
Handbook of Perception and Action (Ref. BF311 .E59113 1995, 3 vols.)
Handbook of Psychophysiology (Ref. QP360 .P7515 2007)
Psychologists' Desk Reference (Ref. RC467.2 .P78 2005)
Research Methods in Psychology (Ref. BF76.5 .E44 2006, 8th edition)
Steven's Handbook of Experimental Psychology, 3^rd ed. (Ref. BF 181 .H336 2001, 4 vols)
Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms, 9^th ed. (Ref. Z695.1 .P7 T48 2001)

APA Style (Citing Guides)

Concise Rules of APA Style (Ref. BF76.7 .C66 2005)
Pocket Guide to APA Style (BF76.7 .P47 2004)
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5^th ed. (Ref. BF76.7 .P83 2001)

Find Books

CUNY+ Catalog: Search for books and other materials at the Queens College Libraries, as well as other CUNY libraries.
Other Library Catalogs: Search the library catalogs of regional libraries such as the Queens Library, Brooklyn Public Library, New York University, Columbia University, etc.
WorldCat: Search for books in the national catalog for the United States and Canada. This database includes holdings from libraries in other parts of the world, primarily European or English-speaking.

Journal Articles (Search Databases)

Search online databases or periodical indexes to identify journal articles you want to read. A journal article is written by a scholar or an expert, and provides a detailed analysis of a topic. Sometimes, searching one database is not enough. Search multiple databases to obtain the most comprehensive information. You can find bibliographic citations to books and journal articles, as well as full text of some documents.

Most of the databases listed below are available for Queens College faculty and students through the library subscriptions and could be found on the QC Libraries Home page.

Academic Search Premier: Comprehensive source for scholarly journals in all academic disciplines. More than 8,000 publications are indexed, and full text is provided for 4500. Most are peer-reviewed. Searchable cited reference sources are provided for selected titles.
Annual Reviews of Psychology: Provides definitive critical reviews of the scientific and social scientific research literature of 34 disciplines.
ERIC (Educational Resource Information Center): Education, educational technology.
Gale Virtual Reference Library: Cross-searchable database of over 300 recent reference titles. Contains many multivolume encyclopedias in a variety of subject areas from business to education to medicine.
JSTOR: 500+ core journals in the arts, humanities, social sciences, and sciences. Cover-to-cover full-text from a journal's first issue until about five years ago.
MEDLINE (EBSCO): Citations from Index Medicus, International Nursing Index, Index to Dental Literature, HISTLINE, SPACELINE, PREMEDLINE, AIDSLINE, BIOETHICSLINE, HealthSTAR, covering medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, health.
MEDLINE/PubMed: Free access to biomedical information. Citations from Index Medicus, International Nursing Index, Index to Dental Literature, HISTLINE, SPACELINE, PREMEDLINE, AIDSLINE, BIOETHICSLINE, HealthSTAR, covering medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, health.
Mental Measurements Yearbook: Psychology, education.
PsycArticles: Peer-reviewed journal articles and book reviews in psychology from 63 journals. Fifty are published by the American Psychological Association (APA), and thirteen from allied organizations.
PsycINFO: Citations and summaries of scholarly journal articles, book chapters, books, and dissertations, in the field of psychology and related disciplines, such as psychiatry, pharmacology, nursing. Covers psychological aspects of the social sciences.
Sage Health Sciences: Full-text articles from 26 journals for topics such as autism, aging, child psychology, clinical psychiatry, health care, nursing, and public health.
Sage Psychology: Full-text articles from 34 peer-reviewed journals, for topics such as family studies, language acquisition, learning disabilities, neuropsychology, and personality.
Science Direct (Elsevier): Articles from over 900 journals in science, technology, and medicine.
Social Sciences Citation Index: Access to current and retrospective bibliographic information, author abstracts, and cited references from the leading scholarly science and technical journals in more than 150 disciplines.
Sociological Abstracts: International literature in all topics of sociology including criminology, demography, family, and social welfare. Abstracts to journal articles, book chapters, dissertations, and conference papers, and citations to book reviews.
Web of Science: Web portal to the citation indexes for the arts & humanities, social sciences, and sciences.
Wiley Interscience: Biology, Chemistry, Geology, Physics, Psychology.

Journals (Browse E-Journals)

This is a list of some psychology-related electronic journals. Use Find E-Journals on the QC Libraries Home page to find more online journals available through the Library.

Internet Resources

In addition, you might consider searching the Internet/World Wide Web to locate valuable information in your field of study published by the federal government or government agencies, professional societies, academic institutions or research centers. Always evaluate the quality of information you identify and retrieve.

Government Resources

Associations, Societies & Organizations

American Counseling Association
American Psychological Association (APA)
American School Counselor Association
Association for Psychological Science
Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology
Society for Personality and Social Psychology
The Gateway to Post Traumatic Stress Disorders (National Center for PTSD, Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, Gift From Within, National Center for Victims of Crime)