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Psychology: Finding Journal Articles

A guide for psychology students to help them find relevant resources for their studies

Journal articles

 

Journal articles are one way in which you can find in-depth analysis on particular issues.

You can find some journal articles by using the Library catalogue, but we recommend you look in a discipline specific database.

Picking databases and database coverage

 

Health databases will contain different collections of articles, depending on specialty or topic. Below you will find a guide to database coverage which will help you choose where to search. 

Now that you know where you want to search, the videos and guides below will show you how to search!

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Tips:

  • Think of different synonyms for your keywords. Databases have no special algorithm behind them- that means you only get what you ask for. So if you search just for 'childhood' you will miss out on articles where researchers have used the term 'children' or 'child'.

  • Use boolean operators like AND and OR to tell the database exactly what you'd like it to find e.g. (child OR childhood) AND (obesity OR bmi) will find articles which mention child obesity, child BMI, childhood obesity, childhood BMI.

  • Use double quotation marks (" ") to keep phrases together, otherwise the database will find any occurrence of each of those words, e.g.  "lifestyle factors" vs ... healthy lifestyle.

  • Refine by 'peer reviewed'- this means that the article has been checked by a panel of experts before being published and ensures that you are relying on authoritative information.