Psychology Research Basics

Face it; it's easy and familiar to many people.  Also, the Web is a great resource for research because it's so vast; you can find primary documents, news stories, research papers, pictures, movies, sound, government reports, and more.  For research you would use the Web to:

• Research cutting-edge topics
• Read current news and information
• Link to Library information & resources
• Discover information about companies
• Find information from all levels of government
• Read expert and popular opinions

• Most information on the Web does not go through any sort of review process
• You must be the editor of all the Web resources you choose to use
• Anyone can publish anything on the Web
• Not all information you find on the Web is free
• Information on the Web is not comprehensive
• Most information on the Web is not permanent

You should care about this because you want to use the best resources you can to answer your research questions and learn about your topic.

Learn to choose your Web resources wisely in this video by Prentiss Price-Evans.

You don't want to wade through millions of Web pages. By using a few tricks, you can focus your searches relatively easily to those authoritative, reliable sources you want to use.

• Use key search terms - Use the same search terms you used successfully to find books and articles.
• Know your search tool - Use advanced search features to control your search. For example you can limit your search in Google to just search government or educational Web sites by limiting to a specific domain. Learn more at Google for Researchers.
• Use search tools you can trust - Google Scholar indexes scholarly literature on the Web.

You can search Google Scholar below: