Appendix B Main Menu

Main Menu for Appendix B of Research Design Explained (5th Ed.)

Appendix B: Searching the Literature

Search basics

APA's introduction to library research.
An article that lists the skills that comprise library literacy and that offers suggestions on how to develop students' library literacy
APA's primer on Boolean logic (One-page guide to teach students how to use "and," "or," and "not" in their searches)
Using the Psychological Thesaurus Concise, yet detailed, explanation of how to use the Psychological Thesaurus

Online searches

Online searches: Tutorials and handouts

Online search basics from APA
Annie Trapp's tutorial on Internet information skills for psychologists
Megan E. Bradley's tutorial on conduct effective on-line searches.
PsycInfo
- An introduction toPsycINFO
- Annotated example of a PsycInfo search
- A detailed "how to" guide for searching PsycInfo (contains information useful for doing any electronic search)
Social Sciences Citation Index

Online searches: Links to articles

Browse online journals
Browse and search on-line journals.
ERIC: Educational Resources Information Center(has summaries of many psychological research reports)

Getting journal articles

Understanding the differences between a scholarly journal and a magazine
- Explanation of differences
- Table of the differences
APA journals links students to a list of APA journals. Students can click on a journal and get the table of contents of that journal and a description of the journal.
Find the names of journals that cover their topic

Helping students after they have found research articles

Understanding journal articles
- Dr. Megan E. Bradley's quick tips for understanding the parts of a journal article
- Bertram Malle's short, but useful, handout on on reading a journal article
Taking notes and avoiding plagiarism

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