PSYC 11761 General Psychology with Dr. A Kulics: Home

1. Choose a reference cited in the text in one of your book chapters and find the complete reference in the references section of the textbook. The article must be a primary research resource from a research journal (no books, book chapters or review articles). Obtain a copy of the article through the library. The library staff will assist you. Discuss your choice with the instructor to verify appropriateness.

2. Read the article and prepare a 3-5 page double-spaced typewritten review and critique of the article. A research article will contain four (4) sections: "Introduction", "Methods", "Results", and "Discussion". You may address the following:
   a. Introduction. Why did the author(s) do this research? What question were they attempting to answer?
   b. Methods: What techniques, equipment, research tools did they use? What did they measure (i.e., what were the dependent variable(s)) and how did they do their measurements?
   c. Results: What results did they obtain? How did they summarize them (i.e., what tables, graphs did they use?) to make them understood?
   d. Discussion: What were their conclusions? What did they say that these results mean?
   e. Most importantly, do these conclusions support the statement in the text upon which this research was based?

3. Submit both the report and the article on which it is based by the deadline.

Finding the article:
Search the textbook for several articles that you are interested in. Ask yourself if there was a certain lecture or topic discussed in class that really interested you. Look in that chapter or section of the textbook or search the Reference section at the back of the book. The articles here are alphabetical by authors last name and not by topic.

Selecting several articles will give you a greater chance of getting a Research Article. You may be able to tell from the article title if it is Primary Research, however, often it is not obvious. The length of the article is also an indicator since articles of 1-3 pages are often written for regular journals or magazines.

If you are searching from home make sure that you have the VPN running on your computer.

When you have selected several articles go to the Library's web-page  and look for the link to the Journal Finder.

The Journal Finder:

You can search for your article in one of several ways:
1. You can search for the Journal Title by typing it's title in the first section "Title begins with." If the journal is available electronically you will be able to link to the journal through a specific database.

2. You can search using the "Citation Linker." Using the Citation linker allows you to type the complete article citation into a form and then linking directly to the article if it is available.

3. If your article reference from the textbook includes a DOI or PubMed number (usually listed at the end of the citation) you can type it in the box "Search by DOI or PubMed ID." If the article is available it will link directly to the article. 

You can access KentLINK, OhioLINK, and the Research Databases from any computer with access to the World Wide Web.  Due to licensing restrictions, you will be required to authenticate yourself as a valid University user to access some resources. 

KSU Proxy allows you to connect to the campus network as if you were on campus.  When prompted you will simply need to enter your Flashline username and password. Refer to the Off Campus Access section of the Library home page.

You can also access resources with OhioLink Authentication. When accessing a database, resource or requesting materials you will be asked for your University affiliation. After selecting Kent State University you will be asked for your name and banner ID #. If requesting a physical library item don't forget to select the "pick-up" location. This is your preferred campus library. OhioLink Authentication generally logs you on for a 2 hour period of time.