Library Guides: Psychology (Penn State Berks): How Do I Search for Scholarly Articles?

Finding Scholarly, Empirical Journal Articles in PsycInfo

PsycINFO (via ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Search thousands of empirical articles from psychology journals. The standard database for psychology researchers, students, and professionals. Watch the video below to learn how to filter your search for empirical articles.
PsycINFO provides access to international literature in psychology and related disciplines. Unrivaled in its depth of psychological coverage and respected worldwide for its high quality, the database is enriched with literature from an array of disciplines related to psychology such as psychiatry, education, business, medicine, nursing, pharmacology, law, linguistics, and social work. Nearly all records contain nonevaluative summaries, and all records from 1967 to the present are indexed using the Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms.

Click the image above to watch a video about how to find an empirical article in PsycInfo, as taught by Berks Psychology graduate Kiara S. Coakley. Or, download the transcript.

Social Science Databases Related to Psychology

Databases are electronic collections of articles.

Please be sure to checkmark the "peer-reviewed" limiter when searching the databases!!

PsycINFO (via ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
The best database for psychology research! Highly recommended to everyone!
PsycINFO provides access to international literature in psychology and related disciplines. Unrivaled in its depth of psychological coverage and respected worldwide for its high quality, the database is enriched with literature from an array of disciplines related to psychology such as psychiatry, education, business, medicine, nursing, pharmacology, law, linguistics, and social work. Nearly all records contain nonevaluative summaries, and all records from 1967 to the present are indexed using the Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms.
Criminal Justice Abstracts This link opens in a new window
The top database for crime and law topics.
Provides abstracts of articles from the major journals in criminology and related disciplines, as well as books and reports from government and nongovernmental agencies. For each document, an informative summary of the findings, methodology, and conclusions is provided. Topics include crime trends, prevention projects, corrections, juvenile delinquency, police, courts, offenders, victims, and sentencing.
ERIC (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
The main database for educational psychology.
ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center) is the major database for education literature, sponsored by the U.S. Department. of Education. The same database content is available on many platforms.
Communication & Mass Media Complete This link opens in a new window
covers some of the psychological aspects of communication and mass media.
CMMC incorporates CommSearch (formerly produced by the National Communication Association) and Mass Media Articles Index (formerly produced by Penn State) along with numerous other journals to create a research and reference resource of unprecedented scope and depth in the communication and mass media fields.
Sociological Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Good for researching group psychology.
CSA Sociological Abstracts abstracts and indexes the international literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. The database provides abstracts of journal articles and citations to book reviews drawn from over 1,700 serials publications, and also provides abstracts of books, book chapters, dissertations, and conference papers. Records added after 1974 contain in-depth and nonevaluative abstracts of journal articles.
Business Source Premier This link opens in a new window
Awesome for human resource and corporate wellness topics.
An essential article database for business research providing the full text for more than 2,000 periodicals, including about 1,000 scholarly journals. Covers virtually all disciplines in business and economics, including: accounting, economics, econometrics, finance, marketing, management, MIS, QMM and supply chain management.
ProQuest Nursing and Allied Health Journals This link opens in a new window
Search here for community health.
A full text database subset of CINAHL, including only 300 full-text journals that are licensed to ProQuest. Coverage is typically from 1996, with a few titles prior to that date.
Social Services Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Your one-stop shop for social service agency articles.
This database provides bibliographic coverage of current research focused on social work, human services, and related areas, including social welfare, social policy, and community development. Coverage is from 1979 to date.
PsychiatryOnline Premium Package This link opens in a new window
Journal articles and some textbooks on psychiatry topics.
The PsychiatryOnline Premium Collection is a web portal to a group of psychiatric references from American Psychiatric Publishing. The primary resources are the DSM-5™ and The American Journal of Psychiatry, as well as 16 different textbooks and these additional journals: Psychiatric Services, Academic Psychiatry, Journal of Neuropsychiatry & Clinical Neurosciences and Psychiatric News. The platform is completely searchable across all of the content and also offers access to CME credits, current APA Practice guidelines and medication information for patients.
Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
Find court cases and law reviews (scholarly legal journals).
Provides access to a wide range of news, business, legal, and reference information. Covers many news sources for 20 years. Court cases and statutes from all federal and state jurisdictions are included. Most resources can be searched in full text.
Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Easy to search as Google, but finds mainly scholarly materials. Special Note: please double-check what you find to ensure that it is scholarly.
Google Scholar enables you to search specifically for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from all broad areas of research. Use Google Scholar to find articles from a wide variety of academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories and universities, as well as scholarly articles available across the web. Once you set your institutional preferences, links to full-text, if available at Penn State, should appear.

Bonus: Top Psychology Journals

Google Scholar

To access Google Scholar from off-campus, please follow these steps:

1. Click on the "Google Scholar" link below.

2. Click on the "Settings" link at the top of the screen.

3. Select the "Library Links" icon on the left side of the page.

4. Enter Pennsylvania State University and click on the search icon

5. When "Pennsylvania State University" appears, place a check in the box preceding it and click on SAVE.

Tips:

Perform some searches, and click the Get it! @ Penn State link to access full text journal articles.

When you find an excellent article, click on the "Cited By" link to find related articles.

Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
a special part of Google that searches mainly scholarly articles, books, and documents!
Google Scholar enables you to search specifically for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from all broad areas of research. Use Google Scholar to find articles from a wide variety of academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories and universities, as well as scholarly articles available across the web. Once you set your institutional preferences, links to full-text, if available at Penn State, should appear.

Books in LionSearch

LionSearch This link opens in a new window
an integrated search of books, e-books, research articles, newspaper articles, and other publications.

Power Search Tip: Many of the books on psychology at Thun Library are in the "BF" and "R" shelves.

Penn State University Libraries

Psychology (Penn State Berks)

Psychology Librarian

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Finding Scholarly, Empirical Journal Articles in PsycInfo

Social Science Databases Related to Psychology

Google Scholar

Books in LionSearch