PSY3440: Middle Childhood & PSY3790: Children's Learning: Finding Articles

The Library has a wide range of online databases that can be used for research on topics related to Psychology.  

Below is a complete list of Psychology-related databases for you to explore:

Even though there are numerous Psychology-related databases shown on the left, the following are a good starting point for research in this class.  

They offer articles in both Education and Psychology, and should provide enough articles to support your research.

If your topic covers more than one subject, as it does in this case (Education and Psychology) you'll want to search more than one database to get the full picture.

Not finding what you're after?  Maybe you need to look at your search terms again, or try searching in other databases! 

When in doubt, talk to a librarian for assistance.

ERIC is one of our Education databases, and can be found through the Articles & Databases tab on the Library homepage.

While there are two different interfaces (EBSCOHost and ProQuest), both provide access to the same materials... just in slightly different ways.

Through ERIC you can find articles and documents (pamphlets, reports, etc.) on Education-related topics.

Most often, your professors will want you to use only scholarly/peer-reviewed articles, though, so it's important to know how to limit your results.

1. Log into the ERIC database.
   
   
2. Under the Search Options sections, look for the Limit your results area.
   
   
3. You'll see a number of ways that you can limit your search, but start by checking the box marked Peer Reviewed.
   
   
4. Next, find the section labeled Journal or Document, and choose Journal Articles (EJ).
   
   
5. Enter your search terms, and begin searching!

By doing these things, you can be confident that the information you find comes from scholarly/peer-reviewed articles.

If you accidentally forget to apply these limits before searching, you can usually tell if you're looking at a journal article by checking the citation.

If you see an EJ number at the end (see above), then you're probably looking at a journal article.  Be sure to check the Publication Type (in the full citation) just to be sure.  If the number begins with ED, then you have found a document.

When conducting research, you will usually be asked to find Scholarly Articles, or artices from a Scholarly Journal, rather than popular sources (like magazines and newspapers).

Not sure what the difference is between scholarly and popular?  Check out this short tutorial: Scholarly v. Popular

How can you tell if you've found a scholarly article?

Some of our databases allow you to limit your results to Scholarly or Peer-Reviewed (possibly Refereed) articles.  In some cases, this isn’t so clear.  You can either check with your professor or a librarian, or you can search for the journal name in Ulrichsweb (under Articles & Databases, on the Library homepage). 

Once you’ve found the name of the journal you’re looking for, look for a small referee’s shirt icon (), to the left of the title.  This indicates that there is scholarly (peer-reviewed, refereed…) value to the articles in this title.