LibGuides: Psychology: Articles

Scholarly vs Popular Articles

Scholarly journals have collections of articles written by experts in academic or professional fields to keep others interested in that field, up-to-date on the most recent research, findings, and news. These articles are reviewed by a journal editorial board or experts in the specific discipline (peer-reviewed).

Popular Sources are articles, blog posts, and news feeds that are written primarily by journalists to inform the general public about interesting and newsworthy events. These articles may or may not be subject to a review process and should be heavily evaluated before use. Popular articles are not peer-reviewed.

	Scholarly	Popular
Who is the Author?	Researchers, Scholars and Professors	Primarily journalists
Who is the targeted audience?	Students, scholars, and researchers	The general public
What is the purpose of the article?	To advance understanding in a field of study	To inform the public and sell newspapers/magazines
Are there citations?	Always	Not often
Are there ads?	Rarely	Most of the time
Are current events covered?	No - the peer review process takes time	Yes
Examples	Journal of Applied Psychology	Psychology Today

Recommended Databases

PsycINFO This link opens in a new window
Provides indexing and abstracts for over one million articles in 1,700 journals from over 50 countries. This database, provided by the American Psychological Association, also includes abstracts for dissertations, books and book chapters ranging in date from 1887 to the present.
Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection This link opens in a new window
Provides 500 full-text titles which include topics in emotional and behavioral characteristics, psychiatry & psychology, mental processes, anthropology, and observational and experimental methods.
Psychiatry Online This link opens in a new window
Psychiatry Online is a web-based portal that features access to a number of journals, textbooks, practice guidelines, and assessment tools. This site includes access to the DSM-V-TR.
Social Psychology Network This link opens in a new window
One of the largest Internet sites devoted to psychological research and teaching. In these pages, there are more than 15,000 links related to psychology.
Social Sciences Research Network This link opens in a new window
Social Science Research Network (SSRN) is devoted to the rapid worldwide dissemination of social science research and is composed of a number of specialized research networks in each of the social sciences.
SPORTDiscus with Full Text This link opens in a new window
Covers many aspects of sport, including physical fitness, exercise, sports medicine, sports science, physical education, kinesiology, coaching, training, sport administration, facility design & management, physical therapy, nutrition, exercise physiology, sport & exercise psychology, recreation, leisure studies, tourism, occupational health & therapy, and more. Coverage from 1500-present.
Violence & Abuse Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Violence & Abuse Abstracts(tm) includes bibliographic records covering essential areas related to violence and abuse, including family violence, sexual assault, emotional abuse, and other areas of key relevance to the discipline. Coverage from 1995-present.
Family Studies Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Includes over 53,500 bibliographic records covering essential areas related to family studies, including marriage, divorce, family therapy, and other areas of key relevance to the discipline. Coverage from 1979-present.
Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
The world's most valuable and comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary database. Indexes newspapers, magazines, and scholarly journals in all disciplines. Contains a significant amount of full-text. Content available from 1915-present.
JSTOR - Full Text This link opens in a new window
This is a full-text archive of key academic journals in many disciplines, mostly in the humanities, sciences, and social sciences. Being an archive, it does NOT USUALLY have the current issues of these journals. Most journals have a “lag time” of 2-5 years.

Finding Tests in Journal Articles and Books

PsychINFO- Type "appended" in one of the search boxes and select Tests & Measures from the drop-down menu to the right of the search box. This will narrow your search to articles with tests appended. Use additional search boxes to add keywords.
ERIC: Type "tests/questionnaires" in one of the search boxes. and select Publication Type from the drop-down menu to the right of the search box to search for tests. Add keywords via additional search boxes.

Finding the Full-Text of an Article

If the full-text of an article is available via the database, there will be a link labeled "PDF Full Text" or "HTML Full Text"
If the full-text is not available via the database, you will see a button labeled "get it MSU" and be redirected to a new page.
If the article is available via another database, you should see a link
If the article is not available you have the option to
- Request it via Interlibrary Loan
- Search Google Scholar
- Search for it in Print
- Ask a librarian for further assistance

Different Kinds of Research Articles

In social and behavioral sciences databases you will find different kinds of research articles.

Original Research Studies

Original research studies report findings interesting to a particular research area or field. Researchers will report the methods and theories the researcher used to arrive at those findings, including limitations the researcher experiences.

Review Article

Review articles selectively review important studies, methods, and theories, relevant to a particular research area or discipline. A meta-analysis review article analyzes the effectiveness of statistical measures in a particular research area or sub-discipline. Systematic reviews are very popular in the health and medical sciences. These kinds of review articles tell you exactly what kinds of literature and databases were searched in great detail (including defining the search parameters and the types of keywords used).

Book Reviews

Book reviews are also popular in research journals. And you can find experts reviewing monographs, chapter by chapter, with great attention to how the book connects to the current literature in particular research area.

Editorials

Editorials are also included in research journals. These are opinions of prominent researchers, in a particular subfield. They usually comment on the theme of particular journal issue, or call attention to a topic that the author of the editorial has strong opinion about (future direction of a field of inquiry, appropriate research methodology, etc.).

Browse Scholarly Journals in Psychology

Psychology Journals (Browzine)