Ways of Approaching Reference Collections: Using Reference Collections Effectively

Context / Background and Summary Information: Subject encyclopedias contain concise essays on specific topics that may be hard to find elsewhere or that screen massive quantities of publications (i.e., Shakespeare) and summarize the current thinking, and present the most useful titles. Historical and topical survey articles set a clear and understandable context for further research work. Useful for undergraduates or for specialists looking for authoritative information outside their own discipline.

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Topic Discovery: Reference encyclopedias are an excellent source of research paper topics on a given subject.

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Access to "Best Titles" and More Sources: Scholarly encyclopedia article authors select and cite books and articles useful for further reading and research on a topic.

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Generating Synonyms: Article titles, article essays, and index entries are a good source of synonyms for subject searching and of alternative forms of proper names (wars, persons, geography) that may produce more relevant search results than your initial search word choices.

By Subdiscipline
Developmental Child - Adolescent - Adult	Experimental	Educational
Social	Clinical	Physiological/ Neurological

 

By Mental Function
Intelligence	Memory	Learning	Sleep	Phobias

 

By Type of Training [main LC Classification] Typical degrees granted
Psychology or Counseling Psychology [BF] PhD or MS	Psychiatry [RC] MD + additional training	Psychoanalysis [RC] any post-baccalaureate degree + specialized training	Social Work [HV] MSW

Multi-disciplinary Encyclopedias: International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences. (Elsevier)

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Encyclopedias of the Discipline: The Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology. (Wiley)

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Sub-disciplinary Encyclopedias: Encyclopedia of Social Psychology. (Sage)

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Dictionaries of Terminology: Dictionary of Psychology. (Oxford)

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Dictionaries of Big Ideas: Dictionary of Theories, Laws, and Concepts in Psychology. (Greenwood, print only: Olin Reference)

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Biographical Dictionaries: Biographical Dictionary of Psychology. (Routledge, print: Olin Reference) [also American National Biography, Dictionary of National Biography]

Research Guides: Psychology: A Research Guide -- List of all guides.

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Databases: Databases browse. [under the Social Sciences section, click Psychology]

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Encyclopedias Online: Use Subject Encyclopedias to Understand Your Topic.

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Online Reference Collections: Oxford Reference.