Beginning Your Research: Background Resources
Encyclopedias, dictionaries, handbooks, etc. are often a great way to start your research. They can help you understand your research topic, define terms that may appear in scholarly journal articles, and provide statistics related to your research!
Credo Reference helps you start your psychology research with reference materials on personal, interpersonal, and social psychology.
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- How Do I...?Answers for our most frequently asked questions (FAQs).
General Article Resources
These resources provide access to magazine, newspaper and scholarly articles on a variety of topics.
- Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new window General purpose databases of general/popular publications and scholarly journals. Includes information in many areas of academic study including the social sciences, humanities, general sciences, and education.
- ProQuest This link opens in a new window Search a comprehensive file of periodicals for a broad range of subject areas including arts, business, children, education, general interest, health, humanities, international, law, military, multicultural, psychology, sciences, social sciences, and women's interests.
Books & ebooks
Scholarly Resources
These resources provide access to scholarly, peer-reviewed, and academic articles in the field of psychology.
- PsycINFO This link opens in a new window Provides access to international literature in psychology and related disciplines including psychiatry, education, business, medicine, nursing, pharmacology, law, linguistics, and social work.
- JSTOR - Psychology This link opens in a new window
- Wiley Online - Psychology This link opens in a new window
Statistical Resources & Data Sets
- Inter-University Consortium for Political & Social Research ICPSR maintains a data archive of more than 500,000 files of research in the social sciences. It hosts 16 specialized collections of data in education, aging, criminal justice, substance abuse, terrorism, and other fields.
- Pew Research Center Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world. We conduct public opinion polling, demographic research, content analysis and other data-driven social science research.
- Roper Center The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, currently located at Cornell University, is one of the world’s leading archives of social science data, specializing in data from public opinion surveys. The Center’s mission is to collect, preserve, and disseminate public opinion data; to serve as a resource to help improve the practice of survey research; and to broaden the understanding of public opinion through the use of survey data in the United States and abroad.
- Statistical Abstract of the United States This link opens in a new window The Statistical Abstract of the United States is a comprehensive summary of statistics on the social, political, and economic organization of the United States.
Citing Your Sources
Zotero
Zotero helps you collect, manage, & cites sources.
For additional tutorials, visit our Zotero Guide.
