O'Malley Library: Psychology: Resources for Research Methods

Reading Like a Scholar! (PSYC 214, 314)

How to read empirical articles
-- Easy-to-follow tips on how to read a peer-reviewed empirical research article (scholarly)
-- Prepared by the Writing Center, University of Connecticut (UConn)

How to read a research article and evaluate the research
-- Easy-to-follow tips on how to read a peer-reviewed scholarly article
-- Easy-to-follow guide on how to evaluate the information you find in a scholarly, peer-reviewed article

Resources for Research Methods (PSYC 214, 314)

Flowchart of statistical analyses
Plagiarism: Slide tutorial
-- Tutorial on how to avoid inadvertent plagiarism
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Harvard Graduate School of Education. (2011, February 24). Principles of paraphrasing: How to avoid inadvertent plagiarism in three easy modules. In "Harvard Graduate School of Education." Retrieved October 28, 2018, from https://lib.manhattan.edu/ld.php?content_id=44346907

Citing sources matters
-- Video and text explanation on citing sources appropriately
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Duke University Libraries. (2018). Citing sources matters. In "Research Support: Avoiding Plagiarism." Retrieved October 28, 2018, from https://library.duke.edu/research/plagiarism
Recognizing and avoiding plagiarism
Online tutorial on how to discern and prevent plagiarizing inadvertently
-- Introduction
-- Principles
-- Logistics
-- Exercises
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Cornell University School of Arts and Sciences. (2005). Recognizing and avoiding plagiarism. In "Cornell University School of Arts and Sciences." Retrieved October 28, 2018, from https://plagiarism.arts.cornell.edu/tutorial/index.cfm

Writing about psychology (PSYC 214, 314)

Sentence prompts for presenting information and data from authoritative sources
-- Sentence prompts on how to present information in a psychology research paper.
-- These help to transition from one idea to the next.
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Birkenstein, C., & Graff, G. (2018). They Say / I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing (4th ed.). New York, NY: W.W. Norton.
Writing about pyschology research
-- Based on ideas from Dana S. Dunn
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Dunn, D. S. (2011). A Short Guide to Writing about Psychology (3rd ed., pp. 13-50). Boston, MA: Longman.
Brief guide to writing the psychology research paper
A brief guide on psychology papers
-- Challenges of writing psychology papers
-- Types of psychology papers
-- Goal of the research summary or literature review
-- Empirical paper or research proposal
-- Psychologists' use of evidence
-- Sources used by psychologists
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Harvard College Writing Center. (2008). Writing Center brief guide series: A brief guide to writing the psychology paper. In "Brief Guides to Writing in the Disciplines." Retrieved October 27, 2018, from https://writingcenter.fas.harvard.edu/pages/brief guides-writing-disciplines

Writing about statistics in your psychology paper (PSYC 214, 314)

Statistics
-- The Writing Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill provides a brief guide on how to write about statistics in a research paper.
-- Explaining statistics accurately and precisely will help
-- Strengthen arguments
-- Read statistics for optimal comprehension
-- Provides prompts regarding questions you should ask yourself while reading and note-taking
-- Explains reading and writing challenges
-- Clarifies terminology: mean (arithmetic meaning), median, and mode
-- Applying statistics to the point/argument you are presenting
-- Avoiding misrepresentations
-- Writing clearly and accurately about statistics
-- Linking these explanations to the statistics
-- Summarizing and writing the discussion

Questions to ask and answer about statistics in the psychology research paper
Statistics: Critical reading and note-taking guide
-- Provides key questions about statistics
-- Helps you to discern accurate information about statistics needed to strengthen arguments in the psychology research paper
-- Supports developing critical reading, critical thinking, and critical writing skills
-- Helps you focus on accurately and clearly writing about statistics, connecting the discussion on statistics to the research question and supporting arguments

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The Writing Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. (2018). Statistics. In The Writing Center: Tips & Tools. Retrieved October 28, 2018, from https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-andtools/statistics/

Reading Academic Articles

Reading scholarly articles is challenging. Follow these tips as you peruse your articles.

Examine the structure and format of the article.
Most scholarly, peer-reviewed articles have the same or similar structure.
Many contain data and findings.

-- Abstract (summary of the whole article

-- Introduction (why they did the research)
-- Methodology (how they did the research)
-- Results (what happened; identify the findings)
-- Discussion (what the results mean)
-- Conclusion (what they learned)
-- References (whose research they read)

Read the abstract and conclusion first, as these have the main points.

Read the discussion next. This will give you a longer report on the findings and their implications.

At this point, if you're sure the article has what you need, start at the beginning and read the whole thing through, taking notes as you go.

Taking Notes on Scholarly Articles