Scholarly or academic articles contain original research on a narrow topic. They are usually peer-reviewed and are published in scholarly journals. To find articles on your topic, use keywords to search in one of the databases listed below.
If the article you want isn't available in full text you can request it for free through Interlibrary Loan.
Databases Specific to Psychology:
Databases Specific to Other Related Subjects (Education):
General, Multi-Subject Databases:
Scanning and skimming are essential when reading scholarly articles, especially at the beginning stages of your research or when you have a lot of material in front of you.
Many scholarly articles are organized to help you scan and skim efficiently. The next time you need to read a scholarly article, use the following chart as a guide:
| Read / skim in this order: | While asking yourself: |
|---|---|
| 1. Abstract | What is the article about? Is it relevant to your research? |
| 2. Introduction | What is the main research question? |
| 3. Discussion / Results | What are the key findings or answers to the research question? |
| 4. Methods | How was research or analysis conducted? |
| 5. Conclusion | What are the key conclusions? What might be some implications for future research? |
To learn more about the different sections of an article, view this interactive graphic.
Scholarly books are much longer than articles and they provide more depth and context. You can find physical books or e-books in our catalog below. Try searching by subject, keyword, author, or title. After you search select "Books" on the left side of the page to limit your results to only books.
Any time you use another's work in your research, you need to cite the source with both in-text and reference list citations. American Psychological Association (APA) style is the citation style most commonly used for research in the social sciences. To learn how to cite in APA style, visit the resource linked below.
Refworks is a citation management tool that allows you to directly import articles and other sources, annotate them, and create reference lists. To access Refworks, please follow the following steps:
For help using Refworks, reach out to your librarian, shown on the left side of this page.
