PSY 212 Research Methods in Behavioral Sciences: Finding Articles

Whether you want newspaper, magazine, or peer-reviewed articles, it's always a good idea to have a search strategy in mind when you use the databases. 

• What words, terms or phrases represent your topic? Use those terms as search keywords. 
• What type of articles do you need to answer your research question? Newspaper and magazine articles often provide opinions and describe issues. However, for expert information or research studies, you will want to search for scholarly/academic/peer-reviewed articles. The databases will allow you to choose what type of articles will be displayed in your results.
• Make sure that you've selected a Full Text option so that you are guaranteed access to all of your results.
• You can customize your results further depending on your needs. For example, change the dates to return articles from a specific time period, or those written by specific authors.

If you need help with your search, ask a librarian at the information desk or email ask_librarian@northshore.edu.

Having a focused research question will help you chose the right keywords for your search. Start with a broad topic and work your way over to a focused topic and question.

Below are links to some of our many databases with psychology content including newspaper, magazine and scholarly journal articles. If you cannot find what you need, please ask a librarian.

The database has tools built in to help you narrow down your search results. Use the limiters to refine your results and get a more manageable search set.

For this project, start by searching in the subject specific databases such as Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection. If you're not finding enough results, trying using our new SNAP! Search.  You'll find SNAP! Search right on the library homepage.

SNAP! Search searches almost all of our databases at the same time.This should increase the number of search results on your topic. You’ll find journals, books, videos, magazines, and more all in one search but be aware that, since you're searching databases that are specific to your subject, you are more likely to come across material that is not approprate for this assignment and you may have to spend more time going through your results.

Did you find an article you would like to use for your research, but we don't have full text access?

You may request the book be sent to you via our InterLibrary Loan Service.

How to submit a request:

1. Check to make sure the journal and the full text article is not available through another NSCC database. Search Full-Text Finder.

If you locate the full text article, click on the full-text access button to open and read the article. 

2. If the full-text article is not available, fill out the InterLibrary Loan Article Request form.