Research Guides: Psychology: Articles/Databases

What is a Database?

Databases allows you to search for scholarly journal articles, book chapters and conference papers. Some databases include the full text. Some databases are subject specific and some are very general (including all subjects).

Search several databases when beginning your project! There are unique references in each database you search.

See Appropriate Use of Electronic Resources Policy.

Most databases can be accessed from off-campus. Just enter your SMU ID and Password when prompted.

Reading Journal Literature

It can be challenging to read scholarly journal articles. The language is dense - and it can get overwhelming quickly! Watch the following (5 minute!) video to learn the best way to tackle journal articles. You will learn about the best order to read articles, how to identify the main point, and strategies for taking notes.

Key Resources in Psychology

PsycINFO Useful starting point to find academic articles in psychology. Comprehensive index for psychology and behavioral sciences literature, from 1887 to current. Includes links to full text articles.
PsycBOOKS Access full text books published by American Psychological Association (APA) and related publishers.
Google Scholar Search articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites.
PubMed Central Digital archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature including psychology. A free resource from the US National Institutes of Health.
Web of Science Covers high quality journals in psychology and many other subject areas. Useful for checking who has cited a specific article.

All Psychology Databases

Academic Search Ultimate This link opens in a new window
Academic Search Ultimate is a scholarly, multidisciplinary full text database. Access academic journals, magazines, periodicals, reports, books and videos in subject areas such as Anthropology, Ethnic and multicultural studies, General sciences, Geography, Law, Mathematics, Music, Pharmaceutical sciences, Psychology, Religion and philosophy, Science and technology, Women's studies and Zoology. It features PDF content from over 10,000 active full-text journals and magazines and more than 9,000 active full-text peer-reviewed journals. Searching of cited references is provided for more than 5,000 journals.
Ebscohost has a mobile web application at http://m.ebscohost.com/

Annual Review of Psychology
Provides authoritative and analytic reviews of topics in psychology.

Dissertations & Theses Global This link opens in a new window
ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT) Global is the world's most comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses from around the world, offering millions of works from thousands of universities. Each year hundreds of thousands of works are added. Full-text coverage spans from 1743 to the present, with citation coverage dating back to 1637. The database offers full text for most of the dissertations added since 1997 and strong retrospective full-text coverage for older graduate works. It also includes PQDT UK & Ireland content.
ERIC This link opens in a new window
The Educational Resource Information Center (ERIC) provides full text, abstracts or citations of documents and journal articles on education research and practice.

Google Scholar
Search articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites.

JSTOR This link opens in a new window
JSTOR gives access to an archive of the full text articles from scholarly journals, with a moving wall for current articles. Access the complete Arts & Sciences Collections I - X. The Arts & Sciences Collections includes business, economics, history, political science, language & literature, management, mathematics, sociology, statistics and Asian studies.
Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts This link opens in a new window
This database abstracts and indexes the international literature in linguistics and related disciplines in the language sciences. The database covers all aspects of the study of language including phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics. Various fields of linguistics including descriptive, historical, comparative, theoretical and geographical linguistics are covered. The database provides abstracts of journal articles and citations to book reviews drawn from over 1,500 serials publications, and also provides abstracts of books, book chapters, and dissertations.

PsycArticles
Access to more than 60 journals published by American Psychological Association and allied organizations.
PsycBooks
Access full text books published by American Psychological Association (APA) and related publishers.

PsycInfo This link opens in a new window
Useful starting point to find academic articles in psychology. Comprehensive index for psychology and behavioral sciences literature, from 1887 to current. Includes links to full text articles.
Ebscohost has a mobile web application at http://m.ebscohost.com/

Search PsycARTICLES, PsycINFO and PsycBOOKS together.

PsycTESTS
Provides access to published, un-published, and commercially used psychological tests, measurements, and instruments. It offers links to supporting documentation, articles discussing instruments from conception to use, and, in many cases, full or partial access to the tests. PsycTESTS is provided by the American Psychological Association. Please note: 76% of test records contain the actual test or test items; 56% are the full tests.
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If there is no full text for a particular test, note that the Find it @ SMU Libraries button will not work to access the test. Instead, look up the 'Source' from the 'Test Child Records' of the PsycTEST record (using the Libraries main search box) to determine availability through the SMU Libraries.

PubMed Central This link opens in a new window
Digital archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature including psychology. A free resource from the US National Institutes of Health.
SAGE Premier This link opens in a new window
Sage Premier includes international, peer-reviewed journals, including high-impact research titles published on behalf of over 350 scholarly and professional societies. Access over 900 journals published by Sage in the areas of business, economics, management, philosophy, political science, psychology, and sociology from 1999. Access over 280 journals with content back to the first volume.
SAGE Research Methods This link opens in a new window
SRM contains materials on research methodology, covering topics on literature review, data analysis, or evaluation. It provides the full text from over 500 titles comprising books, encyclopedias and handbooks, including selected articles and videos. SRM has a visual Methods Map tool to discover relationships and to link up to relevant content. Sage Research Methods Cases includes a collection of case studies of real social research that are designed to help users understand abstract methodological concepts in practice.
Scopus This link opens in a new window
Scopus is an important cross-disciplinary abstract & citation database of research literature. Use Scopus to search for article level citation metrics like total cites or FWCI as well as a list of sources indexed in Scopus and their respective Journal level metrics like Citescore, SJR, and SNIP.

SMU Libraries has access to Scopus API that can be used for text and data mining. More info here.
Social Science Research Network This link opens in a new window
The Social Science Research Network is devoted to the rapid worldwide dissemination of social science research and is composed of a number of specialized research networks in each of the social sciences. The Library subscribes to: Accounting Research Network (ARN), Economics Research Network (ERN), Financial Economics Network (FEN), Legal Scholarships Network (LSN), Management Research Network (MRN), Entrepreneurship Research & Policy Network (ERPN) and Corporate Governance Network (CGN).

Access to subscribed articles are restricted to SMU faculty who have registered with SSRN (see: step-by-step registration).
Social Services Abstracts This link opens in a new window
This database is focused on social work, human services and related areas, including social welfare, social policy, and community development. It abstracts over 1,400 journals including dissertations and citations to book reviews. Use Social Services Abstracts to get relevant articles on topics such as aging, family, cultural change, social welfare.
Sociological Abstracts This link opens in a new window
This database indexes the international literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. It provides abstracts of journal articles and citations to book reviews drawn from over 1,800 journals, and also provides abstracts of books, book chapters, dissertations, and conference papers. Use Sociological Abstracts to find relevant articles for sociology and social sciences, including topics on culture, demography, business and education.
SocINDEX with Full Text This link opens in a new window
SocINDEX with Full Text covers a broad spectrum of sociological studies. The subjects covered include abortion, demography, political sociology, urban sociology, social psychology, sociological history and sociological research. Use SocINDEX to find relevant materials for social research and full text articles from over 350 journals, over 700 books and many conference papers.
Taylor and Francis Social Science & Humanities This link opens in a new window
Search and access journals published by Routledge and Taylor & Francis. The full text of journals of over 1,100 journals in the Social Science and Humanities Collection are available. Subjects covered include in the Economics, Finance, Business & Industry, Area Studies, Behavioural Sciences, Politics, International Relations, Sport and Leisure Management.

Web of Science
Covers high quality journals in psychology and many other subject areas. Useful for checking who has cited a specific article.

Wiley Social Sciences and Humanities This link opens in a new window
Covers a wide range of topics, including Agriculture, Aquaculture & Food Science, Architecture & Planning, Art & Applied Arts, Business, Economics, Finance & Accounting, Chemistry, Computer Science & Information Technology, Earth, Space & Environmental Sciences, Humanities, Law & Criminology, Life Sciences, Mathematics & Statistics, Medicine, Nursing, Dentistry & Healthcare, Physical Sciences & Engineering, Psychology, Social & Behavioral Sciences and Veterinary Medicine.

Tools for PsycINFO

PsycINFO Classification Codes
Use the classification codes to help you target your search. You can restrict retrieval to a specific category.
PsycINFO Field Guides
List of fields used, with explanations and range of values for fields like Age Group.

Search Google Scholar

Google Scholar Tip

If you use Google Scholar to search for articles, you can turn on Find it @ SMU Library to help you get to the full text you have access to subscribed by the Library.

See the instructions.

Citation Databases

Here are the citation databases available to the SMU Community:

Scopus
Web of Science (includes Social Sciences Citation Index)

Citation databases provide a way of locating bibliographic citations for highly cited articles in a field of your interest. The search results contain hyperlinks to help you retrieve the full text if available in the Library's subscribed databases or e-Journals.