Whichever aspect of psychology you are studying, the library has books, journals and databases to suit your needs.
Welcome to our guide to resources for Psychology. As the Learning and Research Librarian for Psychology and Life Sciences, I am here to support you in your learning and assignments.
Lawrence Dean, Learning & Research Librarian for Psychology and Life Sciences
You can use LibrarySearch to search for the books you need. Just type in a few words from the title plus the surname of the author(s) into the search box. If you get stuck – please ask!
You will find most of the psychology book collection at classmark 150 through to 159, on the first floor at Augustine House.
Remember to check the different areas housing the 7-day loan (open shelves) and 4-week loans (moving shelves).
Remember also that books may be available as e-books as well as in print format and the details for these may appear separately in LibrarySearch. For example, the following book has several print copies at Augustine House as well as an e-book copy:
Martin, G. N. (2010). Psychology (4th ed.). Harlow: Allyn & Bacon.
We use the Dewey Decimal System to classify the books so it’s easier to find them.
You can download an e-book or read online. If you have a flaky internet connection or limited data, you might wish to download, but bear in mind this is not a permanent download, as like all library books we are only loaning it to you. E-book downloads last one to two days. That doesn’t mean you can’t download them again at a later date and of course you can read online as often as you like.
Navigating the online page
The structure of a print book is replicated in the library e-books. There is a navigation pane which allows you to skim the chapter headings and make strategic decisions about how much of the book you need to read. The value of providing hyperlinks is it allows you to read the book in a non-sequential way. The downside of adding hyperlinks to a print book is that print books are designed to be read sequentially and by hopping around the text, the thread of an argument can be lost. However, books have always been designed to be read in chunks anyway, so don’t let this put you off.
Part-time, distance learning or postgraduate students in Psychology should also be aware of SCONUL Access, a scheme which allows many university library users to borrow or use books and journals at other libraries closer to home which belong to the scheme. It is a co-operative venture between most of the higher education libraries of the UK and Ireland. Find out about the Sconul Access scheme.
You can browse printed copies of journals on the second floor of Augustine House in the Silent Zone (west wing) – they are shelved in alphabetical order of the title of the journal. These are for use in the library only. However, most journals are also available online.
You can see which journals are available online by using LibrarySearch. Make sure you log in first! (You will need your university username and password).Try entering the title of a journal into the search box or using the “Find e-journals by title” link.
You can also browse e-journals by subject, using Browzine. This software allows you to read a journal like an e-book, so you can look through the whole journal rather than just individual articles. There is an app so you can use it easily on your phone or other mobile device.
You can find individual journal articles to read online by doing a quick search in LibrarySearch. Try searching for a key word or phrase connected with your research topic, e.g. “cognitive behavioural therapy”. See our quick guide for more information.
The Directory of Open Access Journals includes journals such as the European Journal of Counselling Psychology. Open access journals are usually scholarly, but the difference is, the publishers of these journals believe in making their research freely accessible to anyone with an internet connection. This means that you (or your institution) don’t have to have a subscription to the journal to be able to read the articles they publish.
There are lots of databases that contain articles about psychology, and they are all available via LibrarySearch – just click on the “Find databases” link in the left-hand menu and you will see an alphabetical list. Browse the list until you find the one you want. The most useful databases for your subject include:
ASSIA (Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts): ASSIA is aimed at practitioners, researchers and students in the caring professions. It is focused on a core of around 500 key English language scholarly journals covering aspects of health and social care from a broadly social scientific perspective, including psychology, sociology, economics, politics, race relations and education.
MEDLINE: Produced by the United States National Library of Medicine, MEDLINE is a key database for the international medical and biomedical literature. It is particularly useful for clinical and applied psychology.
PsycARTICLES: A full text article service for a wide range of journals published by the American Psychological Association and other psychology publishers. See a typical search for a psychology topic in this short PowerPoint, Using PsycARTICLES to find full-text articles on Psychology. (Open the Animations drop-down menu, click on Slide Show and then click on From Beginning.)
PsycINFO: The key database for the professional and academic literature in psychology and related disciplines. Produced by the American Psychological Association it covers the literature from the 1800s to the present, from more than 2,500 journal titles and is particularly useful for mental health related topics.
ScienceDirect: Searches across 2,500 peer-reviewed titles – or over 9.5 million articles. This is a good source for journal articles on the topics of neuroscience, clinical and behavioural psychology.
Scopus: Scopus is the largest abstract and citation database containing both peer-reviewed research literature and quality web sources. With over 22,000 titles from more than 5,000 international publishers, Scopus offers researchers a quick, easy and comprehensive resource to support their research needs in the fields of science, technology, medicine, social sciences, and arts and humanities.
Social Policy and Practice: An important source of evidence-based social science and applied psychology research articles. In particular the database is useful for information about government policies and their impact on society. This includes topics such as the care and employment of those with mental health problems.
Web of Science (WoS): A multi-disciplinary service, where you can search for articles from over 18,000 journals in the social sciences and arts and humanities fields as well as the sciences.
Kanopy is a great video-streaming service which includes a number of documentaries. Plus, we have access to Box of Broadcasts (BoB) which archives British TV and radio broadcasts. A great feature is that you can take clips of programmes and put them in your presentations or analyse the transcripts.
There are a lot of brilliant websites that may be relevant to your studies, but there are also many that are not, so it is essential to evaluate the material carefully to decide whether they are scholarly enough.
The following websites are a good starting point:
Recommended websites:
British Psychological Society (BPS) History of Psychology Centre – a collection of resources on the history of psychology in Britain, including the catalogue of the BPS archive collections.
British Psychological Society (BPS) Research Digest – Published since 2005, the aim is to showcase psychological science, while also critically examining its methods. At least one new psychology study is considered each week.
Current Research in Social Psychology (CRISP) – a peer reviewed electronic journal giving free access to research articles in major areas of social psychology.
MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit – a leading research centre investigating aspects of human cognition including memory, emotion and language. You can search their extensive publications list online.
Psych Web – a collection of resources for students and teachers of psychology. The site provides links to the full text of a couple of introductory psychology textbooks as well as other academic resources.
PsychNet-UK – an independent web site intended to serve as a one stop portal for mental health professionals or those interested in mental health practices. Contains links to other useful websites, online journals and continuing education.
Psychreg – a website intended to provide information to all in the fields of psychology, mental health and wellbeing. It includes podcasts, an open access online journal and blogposts.
