PSYCH 101 - General Psychology - Baart: Part 2: Find an Article in a Peer Reviewed Journal

Part 2: Search for an Article in a Peer-Reviewed Journal

Use APA PsycArticles to find an scholarly research article published within the past 10 years. The study needs to include more than 100 participants.

Cite your article in APA format and summarize it in two or three pages. For Part 2 you will need to provide the full article along with your summary.

Set Your Limiters

• Click on the link to APA PsycARTICLES above. If you are off campus, log in with your MyWCC userID and password.)
• In the top search box enter the subject terms to search Do not type whole sentences.
• Under Limit Your Results:
  • check the Full-Text box.
  • check the Peer-Reviewed  box.
  • check Past 10 years under Publication Date
  • highlight EMPIRICAL STUDY in the Methodology box.

In the search boxes, enter keywords for the topic you are interested in searching (see the Use Keywords box below for help). 

• Click Search to see your results.

View Your Results

PsycARTICLES will display your results in a list with newer articles toward the top.

• Browse through the article titles (in blue) to find something that sounds interesting. Below the article title are the citation information and subject terms.

View Abstract

Click on show more at the end of the abstract snippet to view the full abstract

• The Abstract is a summary of what the article is about.
• Read the Abstract to see if it is something you are interested in.

Verify the Number of Participants

Verify that the article is a research study using more than 100 participants:

• Browse the abstract to find how many participants were in the study. (e.g. "..using a sample of 256 acute care nurses..."; "...a community sample of 1,742 adults with type 2 diabetes..." )
• Look for (n=number) where n is the number of participants in the study. (e.g. "...Individuals with a diagnosis of depression (N = 102)...")
• If you do not find this information in the Abstract, check the Methodology section of the article.
• If this information is neither in the Abstract nor the Methodology section, the article is not a study you can use for this assignment.

Access the Full-Text Article

• In your results list, click on the title of an article to get the full record.
• For Part 2 you will need to hand in a copy of the article along with your citation and summary. Use the DOWNLOAD options to download to your device. You can also save the article to your MyEBSCO dashboard if you are not sure if you want to use it. See instructions below.
• Use the email link under Share to send a link to the article record.

Cite Your Source in APA Format

• To get an APA formatted citation, click on the CITE button in the Tools bar > Copy Citation > and use the dropdown to select APA. Use Export Citation to send it to your NoodleTools account. 

When searching the databases for articles, do not type in whole sentences.

e.g. search Depression AND Adolescents

Think of other terms that can be used to describe the event you are researching and try those also: e.g. Depression, Mental Illness, PTSD, Stress; Adolescents, Teens, Youth;

Use the asterisk * to truncate words and widen your search. Adolescen* will search for Adolescent, Adolescents and Adolescence.

Use quotation marks to keep phrases together: e.g. "Mental Illness" 

The EBSCO platform, which covers the majority of the library databases and some of our ebook vendors, allows users to bookmark resources in their MyEBSCO account, making it easier to organize their research while keeping their inboxes clear.

Click on the MyEBSCO icon in the top right corner > SIGN INTO MY EBSCO

Use your WCC credentials to log in.

It will not display your name or ID when you are logged in, but will show "Log out of MyEBSCO" at the bottom

You Dashboard will appear on the left hand column. Your saved items will be under the SAVED icon,

To save a record to your MyEBSCO account, click the bookmark icon by the record.

Results page:

Article record page:

You can save Records (individual sources like articles or ebook links) or Searches. Click on the appropriate tab to view your saved items. The resources will be listed chronologically. Sign into your MyEBSCO account on any device to access your saved items. 

Don't forget to sign out of MyEBSCO when using a shared device.

Set Your Limiters:

It is also helpful to scroll down and check Empirical Study under Methodology to eliminate literature reviews, case studies, and other sources that do not meet the requirements of this assignment.

Click Search to View Your Results

Click on Show More to read the Abstract of any article that looks interesting and verify the number of participants. This assignment requires studies with at least 100 participants.

Sometimes the Abstract will note N= a number. That is the number of participants in the study. If this information is not in the abstract, open the article and look in the Methodology section. 

Click on the article title to access the full-text download options. Or log into your MyEBSCO account to save it to your Dashboard (see the  Save your Article in MyEBSCO box on this page for directions).

Cite your Article in APA format

Click the citation icon (quotation marks) and then select APA under SELECT STYLE for a properly formatted citation. If you have a NoodleTools account, go to Export Citation to export to your NoodleTools project.