IB Docs (2) Team
Finding relevant sources
One of the most important aspects of your research is where you find your information. It is important that you use research that is published in peer-reviewed journals. Try to avoid using news sources or "generic" sites such as Web MD or Medscape.
When writing definitions, use sources like online psychological dictionaries, rather than your textbook or revision sites.
And remember, the IB requires that all sources have a date of publication. Without it, you should think twice about using the site!
The following sources are good for finding EE topics to investigate. The sites include references to peer-reviewed literature which could be cited in extended essays.
The BPS Research Journal provides brief accounts of psychological research from The British Psychological Society
Generally Thinking is a blog that has several links to research articles.
Mindhacks. A site with a description of many interesting research studies in psychology and references as well.
The Psychologist is an excellent online magazine with a lot of recent research. You can also search their archives.
Science daily provides brief accounts of research in many areas of interest for psychology, but mostly in relation to the biological level of analysis.
Google Scholar is a good place to start. And if you are looking for a pdf, include "PDF" in your search.
Find Articles - a generic database that has free online access.
JURN: Like Researchgate, this database links to many full-text articles, including many from Pubmed.
The National Library of Medicine is a good site to use for abnormal psychology and health topics.
Psychology commons: Full-text articles that are divided up based on disciplines within psychology.
Pubmed - a more medical-based database of peer-reviewed research relevant to psychology
Researchgate is a great site in that it has many pdfs that can be downloaded. And if you can't, then you can request that the author send you a copy.
SCIRP Open Access is a database of recently published open access articles from all areas of science.
Semantic Scholar is another online database that has many free peer-reviewed journal articles.
Wiley Online Library is very similar to Science Daily, but fewer articles are available for free.
Thank you to Joyce Miller from the International School of Dhaka for her contribution to this list.
Getwell.org is a commonly used site that is not academic and should be avoided.
Huffington Post is a commonly cited source in Extended Essays, but the information is anecdotal and not academic. Students should avoid using news sources for their EE in psychology.
Inthinking, Themantic, or the OUP textbook. In general, citing from textbooks is not a good idea.
Medscape or Web MD - both of these are generic medical sites and are not highly reliable information.
Psycport is a good site for getting general information about a topic, but most of the links are to mainstream media like the Washington Post, Forbes, or the Huffington Post. Often research is mentioned in the articles, but the student then needs to try to and find the original study.
Simply Psychology is a revision site that students often use to define a term or explain a theory. It would be better for students to use the APA, APS, or BPS sites in order to cite definitions.
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