One of the key databases for Psychology is APA PsycInfo. It searches a large range of psychology sources, particularly academic journals. This means you are focusing your searching within literature ascertaining to your discipline, making the results more likely to be relevant.
Depending on your area of research, Ebsco, the host of this database, also provide access to a number of other databases that you can search together at the same time. Simply select 'Choose Databases' at the top of Psycinfo to have the choice of Academic Search Complete (useful for social sciences and education related subjects) and PsycArticles (full-text psychology database).
APA PsycArticles is a database of full-text articles from just over 120 journals published by the American Psychological Association, the Canadian Psychological Association, Hogrefe Publishing Group and APA's Educational Publishing Foundation.
Contains full text articles from over 5,800 journals, covering many subjects, including anthropology, politics, political science, psychology, psychiatry, sociology and social work. Coverage includes 450 magazines for news, current awareness and examples of professional practice.
Provides access to 13 Nature branded journals and Oncogene, covering subjects across the life, physical and applied sciences and, most recently, clinical medicine. Content encompasses daily news, expert opinion, practical methodology, and high impact research and reviews.
Split your topic into keywords: To find better and fewer results, think about your keywords. Make sure they accurately describe what you are looking for, and add more keywords to make your search more specific.
Think of alternative keywords: For example, 'elderly' could also be referred to as 'aging' or 'mature'. Or, think of the bigger picture. For example, instead of searching for 'boys' or 'girls', try searching for 'gender'.
Search for phrases in "double quotation marks": For example, "cognitive behavioural therapy". This will search for the phrase as a whole, instead of the individual words.
Select a data range: For example, you may only want literature published since 2010. Most databases have the option to select dates.
For more help see our Finding resources guide, or contact your Librarian.