USMA Library Homepage: Behavioral Science and Leadership: PL361

PL361 Resources

Your literature review is an important part of your research. Without it, you cannot make informed decisions on your research.

What is a Literature Review?

Guidance & Literature Review Examples:

NC State University

UC Santa Cruz

University of Wisconsin – Madison

There are multiple places that you can search for information. Here are some recommendations:

Scout

Scout is the library catalog and is the best place to begin your research. You can either click here or type your keywords into the box at the top of this page to start your search.

General Databases

There are a variety of databases that include a wide range of subjects. These are a great place to continue your research. You may find that some of the results are the same that you found through Scout, but this isn't the case with every database. In addition, some of the thesaurus tools and keyword suggestions make using these databases very useful.

Academic Search Premier

A multidisciplinary database which provides full-text for over 4,650 scholarly publications, more than 3,600 of them peer-reviewed. Includes topics in the social sciences, humanities, general science, education and most areas of academic study. Abstracts and indexing provided for 8,200 journals in the collection. Coverage is from 1965 to the present.

EBSCOhost

Provides access to a wide range of databases, many with full text. Chose a database or search all

ProQ uest

Provides access to a wide range of databases, many with full text.

Specialized Databases

Once you've searched the general databases, there are several subject-specific databases that would be useful to search. These databases will provide more specialized resources that would be helpful to your research.

PsycArticles
Full text of American Psychological Association journals.
PsycBooks
Full text of American Psychological Association books.
PsycCritiques
Book reviews of scholarly and professional books in psychology and critiques of popular films and trade books from a psychological perspective. As of Dec. 2017
the full PsycCRITIQUES archived database is now available to the public through the Center for the History of Psychology at the University of Akron.
PsycInfo
Citations and abstracts, some with links to full text, for psychological literature dating from 1887 onward.
PsycTests
This database is an extensive collection of items associated with psychological measures, scales, surveys, and other instruments essential to the research needs of professionals, students, and educators across the behavioral and social sciences.

Tutorials

These tutorials will give you some of the basic tools and techniques you'll need in order to conduct your research:

Tutorial: Choosing and Using Keywords
This tutorial will walk students through the process of selecting, refining, and expanding their collection of search keywords in order to locate the most relevant information to their research topic
Tutorial: Search Techniques, Part 1
Use this tutorial to familiarize students with strategic searching. Students will learn the purpose and uses of natural language and Boolean operators to broaden and narrow the scope of their search.
Tutorial: Search Techniques, Part 2
Students will learn strategic search approaches to navigate scholarly databases. Use this tutorial to introduce advanced search techniques for broadening and narrowing the scope of a search.

Boolean Operators

Advanced Techniques

Primary and Secondary Resources

Video: Primary and Secondary Research

This video illustrates the differences between primary (original) research (with a focus on methods used in sciences and social sciences) and secondary research, and the ethical considerations associated with each.

Video: Primary Sources

This video will introduce students to the purpose and characteristics of primary sources in order to help them identify the most appropriate type of source for their research needs.

Video: Secondary Sources

This video will introduce students to the purpose and characteristics of secondary sources in order to help them identify the most appropriate type of source for their research needs.

Scholarly Articles

While the USMA Library has access to many resources, there may be times that a book or article you are looking for is not available locally. In those cases, it's time to turn to Interlibrary Loan.

Click here for citation help. Scout also has citation tools built into the search results.

Tutorial: APA Citations 7th Edition
Students will be able to identify the required elements of APA 7th edition citation style in order to properly format in-text and reference list citations in their assignments. The tutorial includes several "check your understanding" questions with drag and drop exercises where students can format citations of different source types properly.

APA Style: Purdue OWL
Purdue's OWL includes a comprehensive overview and examples of how to cite APA

Other Resources

Who's Citing Whom and Who's Citing What by Martin Davies and Dr Angelito Calma

Jennifer Chess

Contact:

Office: JH 229
Phone: 845.938.4891

jennifer.chess@westpoint.edu
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