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Welcome to the NU Library course guide for PSY 480 - Senior Project. Here you will find library tutorials, links to library resources for finding definitions, and resources for getting help from a librarian.
While this guide will provide you with support to complete the research aspects of your assignment, please address all questions regarding content, formatting, and grading to your class instructor.
Remember that your literature review should be organized thematically rather than in alphabetical or chronological order.
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Electronically request and receive articles, book chapters, or other resources when unavailable in full-text from the NU Library.
If you need to narrow a topic from a broad subject to a specific research question or thesis statement, one of the easiest ways is by asking yourself the 5Ws – who, what, where, when, and why.
You don't have to answer all the questions, but should answer enough so that your topic is manageable to research and will fit within your assignment length requirement.
Once you have your topic, if you are having a hard time finding enough information then your topic might be too narrow.
If that’s the case, try:
There are many types of sources that are reliable but not appropriate for a formal literature review. These include book reviews, newspaper or magazine articles, or opinion pieces.
Instead, we want to use scholarly sources for your literature review. They are written by experts in a particular field or discipline and their purpose is to advance the ongoing body of work within their discipline.
These articles might present original research data and findings, or they may take a position on a key question within the field. They can be difficult to read because their intended audience is other experts and academics, but they present the most recent scholarly research on topics.
Note that many scholarly articles are empirical research, meaning they are based on facts, systematic observation, or experiments rather than theory or general philosophical principles. These articles will likely make up the majority of your literature review.
On the other hand, some scholarly articles may not be based on empirical research. One common example of a non-empirical scholarly article is a literature review (and variations such as a meta-analysis or systematic review). Such non-empirical articles are usually easily spotted by descriptions like "A review of the literature" in their titles.
Scholarly articles are oftentimes peer-reviewed or refereed. A peer-reviewed or refereed article has gone through a process where other scholars in the author’s field or discipline critically assess a draft of the article. The evaluations are similar to editing notes, where the author receives detailed and constructive feedback from the peer experts. How can you tell if an article was published in a peer-reviewed journal? It may be labeled in the library database where you found the article. You can also use a tool called UrlichsWeb to double-check.
Please remember that not all scholarly journals go through the peer-review process. However, it is safe to assume that a peer-reviewed journal is also scholarly. In short, “scholarly” means the article was written by an expert for an audience of other experts, researchers, or students. “Peer-reviewed” takes it one step further and means the article was reviewed and critiqued by the author’s peers, who are experts in the same subject area. The vast majority of scholarly articles are peer-reviewed.
Trade publications, such as Psychology Today, are neither academic nor popular; they are resources written for those working in the field and for popular audiences. These publications tend to publish news, statistics, trends, and other information relevant to their industry. Authors can be staff editors, journalists, practitioners or academics in the field. Articles may be short and may not include references(or not nearly as many references as scholarly journal articles). These sources are not appropriate for a literature review.
Finally, there are reference sources. These include handbooks, dictionaries, encyclopedias, and thesauri. These sources are most authoritative sources for locating general or background information, however they do not contain the most recent scholarly research and are often not appropriate for inclusion in a literature review.
Seminal works, sometimes called pivotal or landmark studies, are articles that initially present an idea of great importance or influence within a particular discipline.
Content: Journal article database from the American Psychological Association that indexes over 2,500 journals along with book chapters and dissertations.
Purpose: Provides a single source of vetted, authoritative research for users across the behavioral and social sciences.
Special Features: citations in APA Style®, updated bi-weekly, spans 600 years of content
Content: APA database that offers full-text for journals published by APA, the Canadian Psychological Association, Hogrefe Publishing Group and APA's Educational Publishing Foundation. View the APA PsycArticles Journal History for a complete coverage list.
Purpose: Important database for psychology, counseling, and education students.
Special Features: The database is updated bi-weekly all content is available in PDF and HTML formats.
Content: Strong in psychiatric reference materials, but also including some journals. Includes the DSM Library.
Purpose: Use when researching psychiatry, mental health, and behavioral science topics.
Special Features: Includes the DSM-5 manual
Content: Instructional videos on psychotherapy for diverse populations.
Purpose: Use when seeking reliable, detailed instructions for implementing therapeutic approaches, as well as serving diverse populations and therapeutic issues.
