Having good research papers can make or break a university essay. Therefore I will summarise the top tips and search engines to find the most juicy informative and valid reseraches.
Research papers should ideally always be
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Peer-reviewed i.e. papers in journal articles that have been reviewed for their validity, correct methods and relevance.
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Within the last 5 years. It is ideal to find recent papers to reference as psychology is an ever-changing science with new developments every year.
Search engines:
- your university online library ( different access for every university)
- Google ScholarTM https://scholar.google.co.uk/, is the most used search engine as this will redirect you to many others.
- Science Direct: http://www.sciencedirect.com/
- Scopus: http://www.scopus.com/
- PsycArticles (Ovid): www.apa.org/pubs/databases/psycarticles/
- PsycInfo: http://www.apa.org/pubs/databases/psycinfo/
→ Many sites will ask you to purchase or log in to access the article, Remember your university will most likely have already purchased relevant ones so log in with your university email or check in the online library first, There is a very broad variety of free/ prepurchased research papers out there so avoid spending money on this.
How to use the search engines:
Every search engine works differently however the main basics that make finding research papers are:
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Set your toggle to research published within the last 5 years
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Search for your topic title as a whole but then also break it down
—> i.e. How self-esteem mediates parenting, postpartum depressed mothers: Self-esteem and depression, postpartum depression and parenting, parenting and self-esteem etc … -
Use synonyms or descriptive words for the titles you are looking after
—> i.e. Parenting: secure attachment
—> i.e Self-esteem: internal working schema -
Use references inside research papers wisely, when finding a good bit of text in a research paper don’t just copy the reference into your table. Follow the lead through as that will probably take you to more useful resources or findings in that topic
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Read more than the abstract. Many great points get missed out in the abstract, scroll deeper into their discussion, findings, background research and even methods to find that top marks evidence.