Website: PSY 110: Intro Psychology: Articles

Reading a Scientific Paper

How to Read and Understand a Scientific Paper

A quick tutorial on reading and understanding a scientific paper, created and shared by Dr. Jennifer Raff, a research fellow in Anthropology at the University of Texas-Austin.

Best Place to Start

APA PsycInfo This link opens in a new window
The most comprehensive international database of psychology. APA PsycInfo includes relevant materials from related disciplines such as medicine, psychiatry, education, social work, law, criminology, social science, and organizational behavior. It provides indexes to journals, dissertations, book chapters, books, technical reports, and other documents from 1887 to the present. Many journals are available in full-text.
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PsycARTICLES This link opens in a new window
Full text, peer-reviewed scholarly and scientific articles in psychology from nearly 80 journals published by the American Psychological Association and allied organizations. Coverage spans 1894 to present; nearly all APA journals go back to volume 1.
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Psychology & Behavioral Science Collection This link opens in a new window
Full text psychology database covering information concerning topics in emotional and behavioral characteristics, psychiatry & psychology, mental processes, anthropology, and observational & experimental methods.
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ScienceDirect This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text and abstracts to over 2,500 journals published by Elsevier and its affiliates. ScienceDirect includes extensive coverage in science, engineering and medicine, plus many core journals in business, social sciences and humanities.
Springer Journals This link opens in a new window
Provides access to more than 2,000 STEM journals.

More Psychology Databases

Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Designed for college students, this scholarly resource contains indexing and abstracts for more than 13,780 journals, with full-text for more than 9,000 of those titles.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Provides image and full text online access to back issues of selected scholarly journals in several social sciences and humanities disciplines including African-American Studies, Anthropology, Economics, Education, Literature, Philosophy, Political Science, and Sociology. The most current issues (typically from the past three to five years) are not included.
MEDLINE (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
MEDLINE is the National Library of Medicine's premier bibliographic database covering the fields of medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, and the preclinical sciences. This site uses the EBSCOhost search interface.
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PILOTS (Published International Literature on Traumatic Stress) This link opens in a new window
The PILOTS database is an electronic index to the worldwide literature on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental-health consequences of exposure to traumatic events.
PubMed This link opens in a new window
An online database of citations to biomedical and other life science literature, created by the US National Library of Medicine. Its largest component is the MEDLINE bibliographical database. PubMed Central is a digital archive of literature drawn from biomedical and life science journals and linked to the PubMed database.

Popular Psychology Resources

Resources for Finding Mass-Media Articles in Psychology

The following electronic resources are excellent starting points for locating articles published in popular media outlets about scientific research.

Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
Covers a wide range of news, business, legal, medical, and reference information, most available in full text. Includes newspapers, magazines, wire services, federal and state court opinions, federal and state statutes, federal regulations, and SEC filings. Most entries are full-text, some updated daily.
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Top 10 Features
New York Times (Historical) This link opens in a new window
Includes all the articles published since the first issue of the paper in 1851 up to 2018. In addition to news stories, includes editorials, letters to the editor, obituaries, birth and marriage announcements, photos, and advertisements. Recent issues are available on the NexisUni database.
PsycPORT: Psychology Newswire This link opens in a new window
American Psychological Association feed of media reports on topics in psychology.
Scientific American (Nature) This link opens in a new window
Scientific American is a magazine aimed at educating the general public about discoveries and innovations in science and technology. It is now available as an online resource, with full-text access to the previous four years of subscription material. To access the full text of articles more than four years old, print copies of those issues are available in Bound Periodicals and Storage.
Wall Street Journal This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive coverage back to 1984 is available from the world's leading financial newspaper through ProQuest.

Review Articles

Review articles provide an overview of a topic, highlighting the major work and providing many key references.

Annual Review of Psychology This link opens in a new window
Compilation of articles on various aspects of psychology that have been published during the year. Each article includes a bibliography.