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Research Psychology

This guide is intended to provide an overview of resources and services available to students in our MS in Research Psychology program.

Databases/PsycInfo video tutorial (9:15)

Research Psychology Databases

Additional Resources:

(in alphabetical order)

Search for Articles

Step 1:  Start your search for scholarly articles in an article database such as Academic Search Complete or APA PsycInfo.  

Step 2:  Search for one or more of the terms from your topic, such as human trafficking.

Step 3:  Check the box for Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals on the left under Limit To and update dates if desired.

Step 4:  On the left under Subject: Thesaurus Term, browse and check boxes for terms related to your topic and Update.  

               Or browse the results looking for related subject term that can focus your search.  

             

                Finding a subject term will help you to quickly locate articles that are all about your topic, rather than ones that just mention it.

Step 5: Click the title of the article to skim the abstract and save/email/print articles you find helpful.

              Then search again using new subject terms or keywords you've found.

Search for a specific article

There are two main ways to search for access to a specific article (other than using the "check for full text" link within a database) - searching SPU Primo by journal title or Google Scholar by article title.  For other options to access the full-text, see Finding the Full Text.

Search SPU Primo by journal title:

Step 1: Type in the journal title in the SPU Primo search box and click search.

SPU Primo search for Child Development

Step 2: Scan the result list for the journal.  There may be more than one record if we have access in print or microfilm as well as online.

SPU Primo results for Child Development

Step 3: Click Online Access for full text or click Check Holdings or the journal title to verify that the year of the article you need is available through the database options.  In this case, the most recent year is not available online.

If there is no online access, click on Get It to view print holdings and access the article on the lower level of the library. 

Primo Child Development journal full record

Step 4: Choose a database with access.  Then either browse by issue or search within the publication to find the article you need.

Ebsco results for publication Child Development

Search Google Scholar by article title:

This option can be faster, as long as all the links work correctly.  Make sure you are either searching from on-campus or using the link above so that it links to SPU databases.

Step 1: Copy and paste the article title into the Google Scholar search box and click search.

Google Scholar article search

Step 2: If SPU has access, there will be a link on the right side.  There may be access to the article in other ways as well.

Google Scholar article search results showing Full Text @ SPU link on right

Step 3: After clicking on Full-Text@SPU Library, select any one of the options listed to access the full article.