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PSYC 221: Find Sources

Search Tools for PSYC 221

Academic articles, sometimes also called journal articles or scholarly articles, are relatively short publications that academic researchers use to communicate new findings and ideas to other scholars. Articles are compiled in scholarly journals, which are essentially academic magazines that come out on a schedule. Many journal articles are peer-reviewed, which means they've gone through a formal review process before being published. 

When & Why to Use Articles:

  • You need information based on research and expertise.
  • You need detailed information that focuses on a narrow topic.
  • You need to find peer-reviewed material or ensure that the information you find is accurate.

Search for Articles for PSYC 221:

  • Health Source: Nursing/Academic
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    Best Bet
    Scholarly and professional articles on pediatric nursing, critical care, mental health, nursing management, nutrition, and medical law.
  • PsycARTICLES
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    Best Bet
    Scholarly journal articles on psychology published by the American Psychological Association and the Canadian Psychological Association.
  • PsycINFO
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    Best Bet
    Indexing of scholarly literature from journal articles, book chapters, books, dissertations, and technical reports in behavioral sciences and mental health fields from 1887 to the present.
  • Biological Science Collection
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    Articles, abstracts, and citations for research in biomedicine, biotechnology, zoology and ecology, and aspects of agriculture and veterinary science.
  • CINAHL Complete
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    Nursing and allied health journals including scholarly journal articles, dissertations, magazines, pamphlets, evidence-based care sheets, books, and research instruments.
  • Education Collection
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    Journal articles, books, book chapters, dissertations, working papers, and more. Includes ERIC, the U.S. Department of Education's index for education research.
  • ERIC (Education Resource Information Center)
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    Journal articles, books, research papers, non-journal literature, and other materials from the U.S. Department of Education's index for education research. Includes full-text of the ERIC Digest series.
  • Health Source: Consumer
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    Consumer health magazines, pamphlets, and reference books covering nutrition, exercise, medical self-care, drugs and alcohol, mental health, and more.
  • JSTOR
    • E-Book
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    Journals across arts, humanities, social sciences, and sciences. Most journals are digitized back to the first issue, but recent content is usually not accessible for 3 to 5 years. Also contains Artstor and other image collections.
  • MEDLINE
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    Produced by the U.S. National Library of Medicine, contains citations, indexing, and abstracts of biomedical literature. Covers literature in the fields of medicine, nursing, dentistry, and allied health, dating from 1946 to present.
  • Nursing Reference Center Plus
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    Evidence-based point-of-care resource for nurses, nurse administrators, nursing students, and nursing faculty. Key features are access to nursing care plans, drug information, disease information, nurse management and leadership topics, nursing skills checklists, video demonstrations of nursing practices, and more.
  • PubMed
    • Open Access

    Largest index of biomedical literature, including peer-reviewed articles in medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, health care systems, pre-clinical sciences, and mental and allied health.

  • SAGE Journals Online
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    Full-text access to SAGE journal subscriptions in fields of science, technology, medicine, social sciences, business, and humanities.
  • Social Science Premium Collection
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    Journal articles, magazines, books, and newspapers across the social sciences, including politics, sociology, anthropology, criminology, linguistics, library science, and education.

Scholarly books are nonfiction books usually based on academic research done by the author or authors. They can contain multiple chapters on different aspects of a particular topic, or they can focus entirely on one concept or idea.

When & Why to Use Scholarly Books:

  • You need to understand a complex topic. Books are generally easier to read than journal articles.
  • You need very in-depth analysis of a topic.
  • You need a broad understanding of one or more topics.
  • You need a summary of existing research on a topic.

Search for Books and E-Books for PSYC 221:

  • Health Source: Nursing/Academic
    • Login Required
    Best Bet
    Scholarly and professional articles on pediatric nursing, critical care, mental health, nursing management, nutrition, and medical law.
  • DSM-5 Library
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    Full-text access to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition, as well other supporting publications on diagnosis of mental health issues.
  • Health Source: Consumer
    • Login Required
    Consumer health magazines, pamphlets, and reference books covering nutrition, exercise, medical self-care, drugs and alcohol, mental health, and more.
  • JSTOR
    • E-Book
    • Login Required
    Journals across arts, humanities, social sciences, and sciences. Most journals are digitized back to the first issue, but recent content is usually not accessible for 3 to 5 years. Also contains Artstor and other image collections.
  • Mental Measurements Yearbook with Tests in Print
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    Information on and reviews of thousands of psychological testing instruments. Includes indexing of all commercially available English-language tests currently in print.
  • Psychological Experiments Online
    • Login Required
    • Video
    Multimedia collection that pairs audio and video recordings of experiments in psychology with primary source documents.
  • Social Science Premium Collection
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    Journal articles, magazines, books, and newspapers across the social sciences, including politics, sociology, anthropology, criminology, linguistics, library science, and education.

Research Skills & Tips:

MC Library has access to streaming videos and audio, as well as DVDs and CDs. Different types of video and audio include documentaries, educational videos, mainstream movies, radio interviews, and podcasts. Additionally, users have access to a variety of images that can be used in their research.

When & Why to Use Videos or Media:

  • You need to include an expert's point of view, and a documentary or podcast on your topic includes an interview.
  • You're doing a presentation and need to include a visual or audio element.
  • You need to learn a concept that is best understood visually.

Search for Videos and Media for PSYC 221:

  • Psychological Experiments Online
    • Login Required
    • Video
    Multimedia collection that pairs audio and video recordings of experiments in psychology with primary source documents.
  • Symptom Media Film Library
    • Login Required
    • Video
    Behavioral health education and training film library with over 300 mental health simulations, including DSM 5 and ICD guided films and assessment tools.

When & Why to Use Newspapers & Magazines:

  • You need in-depth coverage and analysis of events.
  • You need up-to-date information on current events, trends, and developments.
  • You need insights into historical events, attitudes, and perspectives from a particular time period.

Search for Newspaper & Magazine Articles for PSYC 221:

A database is essentially a compilation of resources on a particular topic or field of study. Some databases cover multiple topics, and these are called multidisciplinary databases.

When & Why to Use Multidisciplinary Databases:

  • You're unsure of which database to choose for your research.
  • Your research encompasses several different topics.
  • You're just getting started with learning how to use databases for research -- multidisciplinary databases are often easier for beginners to navigate.

Search Multidisciplinary Databases:

  • Academic Search Complete
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    Best Bet
    Find peer-reviewed journals, full text periodicals, reports, and books across multiple subjects.
  • Academic OneFile (Gale)
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    New

    Contains peer-reviewed, full-text articles in the physical sciences, technology, medicine, social sciences, the arts, theology, literature and other subjects.

  • Academic Video Online
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    • Video
    Multidisciplinary video collection, which includes documentaries, interviews, feature films, performances, news programs, and more.
  • Britannica Academic
    • E-Book
    • Login Required
    Articles from Encyclopaedia Britannica and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary and Thesaurus. Includes maps, photos, illustrations, videos, multimedia clips, and the Britannica Yearbooks dating back to 1993.
  • Credo Reference
    • E-Book
    • Login Required
    Articles from reference sources such as encyclopedias and dictionaries on a variety of topics. Also includes tutorials on research basics.
  • Docuseek2 Collection
    • Login Required
    • Video
    Collection of documentary films focusing on contemporary issues in a variety of disciplines, including environmental sciences, political and social sciences, history, health, psychology, and more.
  • Ebook Central (ProQuest)
    • E-Book
    • Login Required
    Scholarly e-books from various publishers across all academic disciplines.
  • eBook Collection (ABC-CLIO)
    • E-Book
    • Login Required
    Academic and reference e-books from ABC-CLIO Greenwood, Praeger, and Libraries Unlimited. Includes searchable full-text books.
  • eBook Collection (EBSCOhost)
    • E-Book
    • Login Required
    Includes reference works, scholarly monographs, literature, and other fiction. E-books can be read online in your web browser or can be checked out and downloaded for offline reading. Checking out and downloading a book requires creating a MyEBSCO account and installing Adobe Digital Editions.
  • eBooks (Gale)
    • E-Book
    • Login Required
    Collection of encyclopedias and specialized reference sources for multidisciplinary research.
  • Films on Demand
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    • Video

    Educational, multidisciplinary streaming videos on a wide range of subjects from academic to life-skills content. Particularly strong in the social sciences and humanities.

  • Flipster
    • Login Required
    Access popular magazines via the web or your mobile device. Download the Flipster app to your iOS or Android device. Next, choose Montgomery College Rockville Library through the Find My Library search tool. Then, browse and read in the app.
  • JSTOR
    • E-Book
    • Login Required
    Journals across arts, humanities, social sciences, and sciences. Most journals are digitized back to the first issue, but recent content is usually not accessible for 3 to 5 years. Also contains Artstor and other image collections.
  • Kanopy
    • Login Required
    • Video
    Collection of streaming videos in all genres, from documentaries to feature films to training videos.
  • MasterFILE Premier
    • Login Required
    Journals, magazines, reference books, and primary source documents across disciplines. Includes image collections and country reports.
  • Opposing Viewpoints (Gale in Context)
    • Login Required
    Provides information and discussion about current social issues and topics in the news and includes arguments from different viewpoints. Contains full-text articles, opinion pieces from reference sources, magazine and newspaper articles, pamphlets, transcripts, statistics, and links to selected websites.
  • Oxford Reference Online Premium
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    Contains dictionary, language reference, and subject reference works published by Oxford University Press.
  • Oxford Scholarship Online
    • E-Book
    • Login Required
    Scholarly e-books published by Oxford University Press covering a wide range of subjects.
  • Primary Sources Collection (ProQuest)
    • E-Book
    • Login Required
    • Video
    Access primary source collections, including Early English Books, 20th century newspapers, documents from the civil rights movement, US government records, film scripts, and much more!
  • Project Muse
    • Login Required
    Full-text access to scholarly journals and e-books in the arts and humanities, social sciences, and mathematics.
  • RaptorSearch
    Find items located physically at the library along with most content that MC Library subscribes to online. Results may include articles from scholarly journals, books, e-books, videos, newspaper articles, and more.
  • SAGE Journals Online
    • Login Required
    Full-text access to SAGE journal subscriptions in fields of science, technology, medicine, social sciences, business, and humanities.
  • SIRS Issues Researcher
    • Login Required

    Explore current global social issues, offering analysis, pro/con articles, government documents, primary sources, and news and multimedia content. Topics include business and economics, world culture and politics, civil rights, social issues, health, and more.

Search for Sources

The MC Library has access to different kinds of search tools: 

  • RaptorSearch searches across most of the information that you can access through the MC Library. Find books, e-books, streaming audio and video, and DVDs and CDs, as well as articles and other electronic resources from databases available through the library.
  • Databases are collections of articles, videos, images, or other types of sources. Some databases cover only one research area, like psychology or English. Other databases cover multiple research areas and are called multidisciplinary databases. Some databases are based on source type, like photographs or videos, instead of research area.

Use the tabs in the Search Tools box on this page to find suggested search tools to use for a variety of types of sources. 

MC students, faculty, and staff can access all of our search tools and online resources from on- or off-campus.

Research Skills & Tips:

Unlike Google, library databases can't understand an entire sentence. You'll need to break your topic down into the most important ideas: the keywords. Keywords are individual words or short phrases that represent the main ideas in your topic, thesis, or research question. 

Example Question: What are effective treatments for attention-deficity/hyperactivity disorder? 

Keywords: treatments, effective, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

After you've identified your main ideas and some keywords to start with, think of additional search terms for each concept. These can be synonyms, related ideas, broader terms, or narrower terms. Since a database will match only what you type, using different terms for similar ideas can help you find more articles. 

Example Search Terms: 

  • treatments: therapies, mitigations, interventions
  • effective: successful, efficacious, positive
  • attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder:  ADHD, hyperactivity, impulsivity, inattention

Click on the research issue you're having below to see tips for addressing it:

I'm Not Finding Enough Sources

I'm Finding Too Many Sources

I'm Finding Irrelevant Sources

None of These Tips Solved My Research Issue


Not Finding Enough Sources

  • Type the word OR between related search terms to get results containing either term. Put the related search terms in parentheses.
    • Example: ADHD and effective and (treatment or therapy)
    Diagram shows treatment & therapy highlighted
  • Use a truncation character (often the asterisk, *, but it can vary by search tool), which is a symbol added to the root of a word to tell the search tool that you want all forms of that word. 
    • Example: elect* will search for elect, election, elector, electoral, electorate, electing, etc.
  • Use a wildcard character (often the hash sign, #, but it can vary by search tool), which is a symbol that replaces any character in a word.
    • Example: wom#n will search for woman or women.

Finding Too Many Sources

  • Type the word AND between the main ideas in your search to get results containing all ideas.
    • Examples: "attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder" and therapy; ADHD and effective and treatment
    Overlap btwn ADHD & treatment is highlighted

Finding Irrelevant Sources

  • Type the word NOT before a search term that you do not want your search results to contain.
    • Example: election not "united states"
    Diagram shows social media & internet highlighted
  • Type quotation marks around a specific phrase to get search results that contain only that exact phrase.
    • Example: "social media"
  • Use the search tool's filters to target search results that will meet your needs. You'll find filters on the search results screen. The exact location and filtering options varies by search tool.
    • Example: use a publication date filter to find sources published in the last five years.
    • Example: use a source type filter to find only articles or only videos.

If the options above did not help you find useful results, you may want to:

  • change your search terms,
  • select a different search tool,
  • make your topic broader or narrower, or
  • get research help from a librarian.

Research Skills & Tips:

After you've selected your search tool, identified keywords, and fixed research issues, it's time to choose your sources. It is common to get more search results than you will use, so you must evaluate the sources you find to choose the best ones for your research.

Start by scanning the search results to locate sources that fit your research question or need. The search results page will include information about each source, such as the title, year, and abstract, to help you determine its relevance.

Once you've found a source you'd like to use, evaluate its credibility by considering the evidence, source, context, audience, purpose, and execution of the source. Learn more on the Evaluate Information and Fake News guide linked below.


Research Skills & Tips:

Find Sources

"Find Sources." Magnifying Glass.

This page will help you choose where and how to search for your sources. As you search, use the tips on this page to help you evaluate each source you find.

Journals by Title

If you want to locate a particular journal, magazine, or newspaper, instead of an individual article, use the Journals by Title feature in RaptorSearch. Search by publication title, such as Newsweek or Psychological Bulletin, or get a list of all journals on your topic by browsing through the journal categories.