What basic sources do you use for your research paper?
What are some sites that I can go to when researching data in general (not including my university library)? What are good sources of information besides books? I have taken down the names of some basic news sites as well as a few magazine sites that specialize in what I major in (psychology). I would also like to hear from those who use poll sites or studies. The case studies I’ve found want rental fees which I simply cannot afford! Thanks.
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The Roper Poll center has all kinds of poll data. The General Social Survey does, as well. I would start looking at the Internet Crossroads. They have organized all kinds of data sources by broad topics. If your university is a subscriber to ICPSR and if you are will to analyze data on your own, then go there. You get access to thousands of data sets there.
If your college library is like mine, you may have free access to a service like Lexis Nexis or Gale Academic OneFile that serve as large repositories of professional journals and news sources for various topics. Failing that, I find that Google helps a lot, as long as I have good search terms and can whittle down the results to reputable sources.
As @laureth says, you should have great access to professional psychology journal articles in databases through your university’s library. These should probably be your main source for current research and you will very likely be able to access them from home using a password or student ID.
@nikipedia Can you access the articles you find in Google Scholar by clicking on them from there, or do you have to then find that specific article in JSTOR or whatever with your id/password and access it that way? Is Google Scholar just good for finding what’s out there, but not actually accessing it?
@Aethelflaed, if you have a subscription, you can access them directly through google scholar. When I’m off campus I have to VPN in though.
I have found Gallup.com is a place for data. Does anyone have an opinion on this site? I’ve read that they have been studying “human nature and behavior for more than 75 years.” Hope this helps for those also looking.
@espearite Gallup Polls are pretty widely known and fairly trusted. They do focus on politics (economic issues, social issues, etc), so not so much on the effects of having a schizophrenic mother on children or whatever.
I think you might have more luck going with broad searches – Google Scholar, Lexis Nexis, JSTOR, Academic Search Premire, Google in general, etc – and then finding out if anyone did a study you’re looking for, and if it was someone (like Gallup) that you trust. It’s more of a top-down approach than seeing if each possible place that did a study actually did a study on it that you can use. Try to cast a wide net, and then narrow it down from there, instead of starting off narrow and having to widen your search.
Do libraries still obtain psychology journals in hard copy? Do they still maintain Psychological Abstracts?
The last time I researched a topic in psychology, I dug through Psychological Abstracts (beginning with the index) and read the abstracts on topics related to my subject. That enabled me to narrow my request list down to specific issues of journals that I then obtained from the periodicals librarian. I thought it was a great system. How is the same thing accomplished now?
google scholar is pretty useful.
@Jeruba Some hard copies of journals are maintained but for the most part there are specific psychology databases that have replaced indices such as Psych Abstracts . You can search them topically; some contain abstracts of articles and some full text, depending on the licensing agreements with the journal
People are gonna hate me, but my main two sources are Google books and wikipedia! I don’t use the actual wiki article, but when I find some relevant information, I find the resource that the editor used and run with that!
@espearite, if you were unaware of the sites mentioned by @laureth, it would be a good idea to find out who the librarian for psychology is at your university, and make an appointment to sit down with them to talk about what resources are available to you and how to access them on and off campus. An hour with that person will ultimately save you an incalculable amount of wasted time and effort.
@Schroedes13 : I have been trying to get a hold of resources this way, too, and it’s been really helpful. Thank you.
@ dappled_leaves: I will follow your advice the best way I can.
@ Everyone, Thank you all for your suggestions.
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