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When getting started with your research, it is a good idea to get a general overview of a topic or gather background information. This information can help you decide if the topic really is in line with your thinking, and whether you want to continue researching in that subject area. Background information may include facts, historical figures, timelines, definitions, origins, theories, events, and more.
Reference resources are the most authoritative sources for locating general or background information. Reference resources are generally considered to be encyclopedias, dictionaries, handbooks, and thesauri. You may visit the Find an E-Book page to locate reference resources in the Library. Recommended databases include the following:
Content: Ebook database from the American Psychological Association that includes the most current scholarly and professional titles published by APA, as well as historical and classic works from the behavioral and social sciences.
Purpose: A fundamental resource for any psychology student.
Content: A reference database useful for accessing scholarly definitions, background and contextual information. Subjects covered include art, biography, business, economics, education, history, literature, music, psychology, religion, and science and technology.
Purpose: An excellent starting point for brainstorming a research topic and building out your initial search terms list.
Special Features: Mindmap; related articles; image search
Content: Ebooks with coverage across all academic disciplines. The collection offers a critical mass of more than 150,000 foundational scholarly ebooks with balanced quantity and quality to improve teaching, learning and research workflow and outcomes.
Purpose: Provides access to multidisciplinary ebooks for download or to be read online.
Special Features: Browse by subject option; highlight and take notes in text.
Content: Reference sources, primarily books but also videos and business cases.
Purpose: Use for finding reference sources like encyclopedias and handbooks that provide contextual or explanatory material.
Special Features: Includes Sage Navigator
It is important to keep in mind that these types of resources should be thought of as preliminary or tangential, and may not always be used as cited references in your scholarly work.
For additional information on finding background information, see the following Library FAQs:
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