Finding Articles

Finding journals and journal articles available through Milner Library

Milner Library subscribes to several hundred journals that cover the discipline of psychology. Many are available in print in Milner Library. Many more are now available to Illinois State University students, faculty, and staff through subscriptions purchased by the university. In 2005, at the request of students and faculty, Milner Library embarked on a multiple-year program to phase out print subscriptions and to replace them with online access. This initiative is nearly complete. 

Online access to psychology journals is available primarily through university subscriptions of two types. Milner Library subscribes to so-called aggregator databases. These are databases provided by companies that contract with publishers for the right to provide online access to their journals. Examples include Academic Search Complete and Lexis-Nexis.  Milner Library also contracts with publishers for online access to their journal content.

To check availability of a specific journal in print or online . . .
Use the E-Journals link available on most Milner Library web pages. For example, use E-Journals if you want to know whether Milner Library subscribes to the journal Psychological Science either in print or online. The E-Journals search result provides links to online subscription access to the journal and a link to search the Milner Catalog for the location of print copies.

To locate an article when you already have a citation . . .
Use the Citation Linker feature.  Enter information in the four required fields (denoted by red stars).

To locate articles on a topic or by a known author . . .
Search one or more article databases in psychology. The most prominently used psychology databases are listed below.

Psychology journal lists

For a list of the most influential and most used journals in psychology, see Core Journals in Psychology. The list is published annually by the Psychology/Psychiatry Committee, Education and Behavioral Sciences Section, Association of College and Research Libraries. The list is organized alphabetically and by subject. Links to journal websites are provided. Access to journals on the list, either online or in print, may or may not be available via Milner Library.

For a list of psychology journal Web sites, see Electronic Journals and Periodicals in Psychology and Related Fields. The site is compiled and maintained by Dr. John Krantz, Professor of Psychology, Hanover College. Access to articles on these journal Web sites is typically restricted to paid subscribers.

In recent years, academic journals freely available on the Internet have been developed as an alternative to subscription-only journals. This has been especially true in the so-called “hard” sciences like physics and biology. But a few new open-access journals in psychology appear each year. For a list of these journals, see Free Online Psychology Journals, compiled and maintained by Darlene Nichols, Psychology and Sociology Librarian, University of Michigan.

Psychology Indexes and Databases

The following is a list of article indexes and databases related to psychology available to Illinois State University students, faculty, and staff online through the Milner Library website. All are subscription databases except PubMed and PILOTS.  Access these and other databases via the Databases and Article Indexes page on the Milner Library website.

TIPS: When accessing these databases on computers and devices located outside Milner Library, you will be prompted to confirm your association with Illinois State University. Enter your ULID and password at the prompt to do so.

Subscription databases available via Milner Library cannot be accessed using either bookmarked links or vendor websites. If using either, the database sponsor will assume you subscribe to the database as an individual rather than through Illinois State University. Your ULID and password will not work in those cases.

Many so-called article indexes or article databases now cover materials published in other formats including books, book chapters, government documents, and dissertations. Use search limits available in most databases to limit results to articles.

PsycINFO
The first choice database in psychology. Covers journal articles, book reviews, dissertations in psychology and related fields.  Coverage dates from 1806 to present.  Provides citations and abstracts as well as full-text of articles published in American Psychological Association journals. Search Now

Web of Science
An index to articles from peer-reviewed scholarly journals in all disciplines, including more than 450 psychology journals.  Journals included in Web of Science are generally considered among the most prominent and influential in their fields.  Web of Science is also the first-choice source when seeking articles that that have cited other articles.   Search Now

PsycCRITIQUES
Provides reviews of psychology books and films. Sponsored by the American Psychological Association. Search Now

PILOTS (Published International Literature on Traumatic Stress)
“Index to the worldwide literature on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental-health consequences of exposure to traumatic events.” [database]  Produced by the National Center for PTSD, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and freely available.  Search Now

Mental Measurements Yearbook with Tests in Print
Combined online versions of Mental Measurements Yearbook and Tests in Print.  Provides test reviews from the 9th to 17th editions of Mental Measurements Yearbook.  Provides directory information (without reviews) from Tests in Print.   Search Now

Health and Psychosocial Instruments (HaPI)
Provides citations to journal articles about non-commercial test instruments in the health fields, psychosocial sciences, organizational behavior, and library and information science. Sponsored by Behavioral Measurement Database Services, which offers test instrument delivery (tests are free, delivery charges apply) and assistance searching and selecting test instruments (a free service). Search Now

Sociological Abstracts
Indexes articles in more than 1,900 journals, book abstracts and review citations in sociology and related fields. 1963 to present. Updated five times per year. Provides citations, abstracts. Search Now

ERIC
Especially useful for finding articles in educational and school psychology. Covers research documents, journal articles, technical reports, program descriptions and evaluations, and curricular materials in the field of education. 1966 to present. Updated monthly. Provides citations, abstracts, full text of some documents.  Milner Library subscribes to three versions of ERIC.  Citations in all three are the same.  Search screens differ.  Search ERIC (Ovid) Now     Search ERIC (FirstSearch) Now    Search ERIC (EBSCO) Now

PubMed
Especially useful for finding articles in clinical/counseling psychology, biological psychology, and psychiatry. PubMed is a service of the National Library of Medicine that includes over 16 million citations from MEDLINE and other life science journals for biomedical articles back to the 1950s. PubMed includes links to full text articles and other related resources. Search Now

Academic Search Complete
A scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database containing full text for more than 7,100 publications, including over 6,100 peer-reviewed journals. In addition to the full text, this database offers indexing and abstracts for 11,200 journals and other publications including monographs, reports, and conference proceedings. The database features PDF content going back as far as 1887, with the majority of full text titles in native (searchable) PDF format. Search Now