Browse popular sources
You can also browse or search popular publications to find current articles on psychological or human development topics. You can find the following publications at the links below (or through the Library Catalog or Find e-Journals). NOTE: If you go through the web, you maynot be able to get access to the full-text articles off-campus.
Finding Popular Articles
A number of databases (collections of articles) at the library will let you search thousands of news and magazine articles at once. The ones listed below are a few of the most popular.
- ProQuest Research LibraryProQuest Research Library, formerly known as Periodical Abstracts, is a comprehensive database available through the ProQuest online system. It indexes and abstracts general interest magazines and scholarly journals in the social sciences, humanities and sciences. It comprises two components: a core list of periodicals covering about 800 publications, and 15 subject-specific modules that supplement the core list. Modules cover arts, business, children, education, general interest, health, humanities, international studies, law, military, multicultural studies, psychology, sciences, social sciences, and women's interests. Full text of many articles is provided.
- Academic Search PremierThis multi-disciplinary database provides full text for more than 8,500 journals, including full text for more than 4,600 peer-reviewed titles. PDF backfiles to 1975 or further are available for well over one hundred journals, and searchable cited references are provided for more than 1,000 titles.
- Lexis-NexisProvides access to full text resources on topics including current and general news; business and financial information; newspapers; company directories; government and politics; medical and health topics; accounting, auditing, and tax; federal and state laws; legal cases; and regulations. Resources include TV and radio news transcripts.
- FactivaFull-text online service for international news and business information. Covers over 28,000 sources in 23 languages in more than 150 countries. Some company and market research is included. Factiva includes full-text coverage of the Wall Street Journal.
Finding Popular Articles
A number of databases (collections of articles) at the library will let you search thousands of news and magazine articles at once. The ones listed below are a few of the most popular.
- ProQuest Research LibraryProQuest Research Library, formerly known as Periodical Abstracts, is a comprehensive database available through the ProQuest online system. It indexes and abstracts general interest magazines and scholarly journals in the social sciences, humanities and sciences. It comprises two components: a core list of periodicals covering about 800 publications, and 15 subject-specific modules that supplement the core list. Modules cover arts, business, children, education, general interest, health, humanities, international studies, law, military, multicultural studies, psychology, sciences, social sciences, and women's interests. Full text of many articles is provided.
- Academic Search PremierThis multi-disciplinary database provides full text for more than 8,500 journals, including full text for more than 4,600 peer-reviewed titles. PDF backfiles to 1975 or further are available for well over one hundred journals, and searchable cited references are provided for more than 1,000 titles.
- Lexis-NexisProvides access to full text resources on topics including current and general news; business and financial information; newspapers; company directories; government and politics; medical and health topics; accounting, auditing, and tax; federal and state laws; legal cases; and regulations. Resources include TV and radio news transcripts.
- FactivaFull-text online service for international news and business information. Covers over 28,000 sources in 23 languages in more than 150 countries. Some company and market research is included. Factiva includes full-text coverage of the Wall Street Journal.
Searching Databases
In most of these databases you can do a search for your topic in basic or advanced search by keyword to find articles, using AND, OR, or NOT to connect your terms and concepts.
- Write out your topic in a sentence or phrase (make sure you're topic is specific enough)
- Break it into the important concepts
- Be sure to think of as many synonyms or alternate terms as you can
- Connect your concepts with AND and your similar terms with OR (use not to exclude common meanings you don't want)
EXERCISE: Do a search in Proquest Research Library or Academic Search Premier on your topic. Find at least one popular article that mentions recent research on your topic and put the article citation in the comments below.
bear*
AND
hibernat*
Most databases let you use a symbol (*) to indicate words that begin with certain letters (at least three) and have any ending. Therefore, hibernat* will get you hibernate and hibernating and hibernation. Check the Search Tips or Help to find out what the symbol (usually called a truncation or wildcard symbol) is called in your database.
In a lot of databases, if you look at the full record for the article (or the limiting options) you'll also find the subject headings or descriptors that the database uses to classify any articles specifically about that topic and you can use these to re-search by subject to narrow your search.
For example, Bears is a subject or suggested topic in Proquest Research Library
Bears as Subject
AND
Hibernat* in Citation and abstract
You can then choose whether you want scholarly, peer-reviewed articles or articles from popular magazine or newspapers in the tabs at the top. What's the difference between popular and scholarly articles?
Searching Databases
In most of these databases you can do a search for your topic in basic or advanced search by keyword to find articles, using AND, OR, or NOT to connect your terms and concepts.
- Write out your topic in a sentence or phrase (make sure you're topic is specific enough)
- Break it into the important concepts
- Be sure to think of as many synonyms or alternate terms as you can
- Connect your concepts with AND and your similar terms with OR (use not to exclude common meanings you don't want)
EXERCISE: Do a search in Proquest Research Library or Academic Search Premier on your topic. Find at least one popular article that mentions recent research on your topic and put the article citation in the comments below.
bear*
AND
hibernat*
Most databases let you use a symbol (*) to indicate words that begin with certain letters (at least three) and have any ending. Therefore, hibernat* will get you hibernate and hibernating and hibernation. Check the Search Tips or Help to find out what the symbol (usually called a truncation or wildcard symbol) is called in your database.
In a lot of databases, if you look at the full record for the article (or the limiting options) you'll also find the subject headings or descriptors that the database uses to classify any articles specifically about that topic and you can use these to re-search by subject to narrow your search.
For example, Bears is a subject or suggested topic in Proquest Research Library
Bears as Subject
AND
Hibernat* in Citation and abstract
You can then choose whether you want scholarly, peer-reviewed articles or articles from popular magazine or newspapers in the tabs at the top. What's the difference between popular and scholarly articles?
Finding Full-Text Articles not in the Database
You want the full text of articles, right? There are several ways to find them and it depends on what you are looking for.
If you have citations for specific articles: check the Library Catalog to see if we subscribe to the journals that contain the articles. Do a Journal Title search (or a Journal Title Abbreviation search if you're not sure of the full title). The Catalog will show whether or not we have access to the electronic version and/or the print version; if we have neither, you can still request the articles via Interlibrary Loan.