University of Southern Maine

Introduction | Reference Sources | Indexes & Databases | Internet Resources | Citation Styles

For further research assistance, please contact Maureen Perry (mperry@usm.maine.edu; 753-6546), Social & Behavioral Sciences Liaison at Lewiston-Auburn College Library, University of Southern Maine.

In order to find books, journal titles, videos, government documents and other materials held in the University of Maine System consult URSUS, the online catalog. Because journal article citations are not individually included in URSUS use a discipline-specific index to find this information (see Resources by Subject). To find materials located elsewhere in Maine, check MaineInfonet.

The following is a listing of selected subject headings relating to the social and behavioral sciences. Each subject heading is hotlinked directly to URSUS

Adjustment (psychology)

Applied sociology

Assimilation (sociology)

Attitude (psychology)

Communication

Community

Ethnology

Information Society

Mass society

Social psychology

Social sciences and psychology

To obtain materials not located at your USM campus, but located using URSUS, click on the Request button on the URSUS screen and enter your name and barcode number (found under the barcode on your USM Card, always beginning with 25022....). Your barcode will first need to be activated at the Circulation Desk.

To find books, journal titles, videos, government documents and other materials not available through the University of Maine System or MaineInfoNet, please check Worldcat, which includes bibliographic records for more than 36 million items held at OCLC member libraries throughout the world and is updated daily.

If the item is not available through the University of Maine System (URSUS) or Maine InfoNet you can request it via Interlibrary Loan (Illiad)

The Library of Congress provides a breakdown of the call number classification scheme. To find a listing of psychology call numbers click on any of the subcategories to see more detail.

Reference sources are useful tools to obtain background information and to develop a vocabulary of possible search terms. The following items are print resources available within the University of Southern Maine system.

Encyclopedia of cultural anthropology
GOR & LEW Reference GN307 .E52 1996 

Encyclopedia of human behavior
POR, GOR, & LEW Reference BF31 .E5 1994

Encyclopedia of psychology
POR & GOR Reference BF31 .E52 2000, LEW Reference B31 .E52 1994

Encyclopedia of sociology
GOR Stacks & LEW Reference HM17 E5 1991 

Because of the lengthy publishing cycle for a book, information in a book is not always current. Periodical articles are current sources of information. There are two main types of periodicals: scholarly and popular. Scholarly periodicals are usually referred to as journals. Articles in journals contain reports of primary research; the articles are written by experts in the field and for other researchers/scholars; use terms and language specific to that discipline; may include graphs, charts, etc. related to the topic; most often are peer reviewed via an editorial board; are published by professional organization or society, university, research centers, scholarly presses; and often include a bibliography. Popular periodical articles contain general information; are written using easily understood language that appeals to a varied audience; are usually written by journalists or others who are not experts in the field; do not include citations; has a limited or non-existent editorial review board; and may contain glossy photographs. The Finding Articles tutorial provides more information on how to find articles.

To find scholarly articles it is necessary to consult a discipline-specific electronic or print index/database. The following are electronic indexing sources available to the Unversity of Southern Maine community.

AnthroSource
AnthroSource is an online resource developed by the American Anthropological Association containing complete electronic archive of all AAA journals through 2003,access to a core collection of journals in the field of anthropology as well as current issues of eleven critical peer-reviewed publications.

CogPrints Electronic Archive
Searchable electronic archive of full-text papers in all areas of psychology, neuroscience, and linguistics, as well as computer science, philosophy, biology, medicine, anthropology, and any other areas of the physical, social and mathematical sciences that are pertinent to the study of cognition. Includes pre-prints and reprints from published journal articles, conference proceedings, books, and personal collections.

CQ Researcher
Analysis on a variety of public policy issues. Forty-four single-issue reports yearly. Coverage starts with 1991

ERIC
Date coverage: 1966-present
Indexes and abstracts journal articles and documents on education research and practice. Includes information in the area of educational psychology.

PAIS International
Citations for articles, books, conference proceedings, government documents, book chapters, and statistical directories about public affairs. Coverage starts with 1972; earlier print editions in the library.

Philosopher's Index
Date coverage: 1940-present for U.S. references, 1967-present for non-U.S. references
Provides indexing and abstracts from books and over 270 journals on philosophy and related interdisciplinary fields published in the U.S. and the Western World.

Project MUSE
Coverage from 1993 (varies by journal)
Indexes and provides full-text access to over 220 journals from 37 scholarly publishers. Project MUSE covers the fields of literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies, economics, and many others.

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
Coverage from 1861
Index to dissertations from 1861 to the present, representing the work of authors from over 1,000 North American graduate schools and European universities. Includes the 350-word abstracts written by the author for those dissertations published after 1979. More limited coverage of master's theses from 1962 on (UM theses are not included); citations for those published after 1987 include 150-word abstracts. Database icludes full text of dissertations written at the University of Maine after 1996.

PsycARTICLES
Coverage from 1985
PsycARTICLES™ is a database of full-text articles from 53 psychology journals published by the American Psychological Association, the APA Educational Publishing Foundation, the Canadian Psychological Association, and Hogrefe & Huber.

PsycINFO
Coverage from 1887
Index to the professional and academic literature in psychology and related disciplines, including medicine, psychiatry, nursing, sociology, education, pharmacology, physiology, linguistics, and other areas. Coverage includes references and abstracts to over 1,300 journals in more than 20 languages, and to book chapters and books in the English language. The database includes information from empirical studies, case studies, surveys, bibliographies, literature reviews, discussion articles, conference reports and dissertations.

SCOPUS
Coverage from 1966
SCOPUS provides coverage in the sciences and social sciences through abstracts and cited references from over 14,000 journals and from more than 4000 international publishers. With registration for a personal account, SCOPUS can provide saved search functionality and email alerts.

Sociological Abstracts
Abstracts of articles from sociology and psychology journals. Coverage varies by source

Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
Citations, abstracts, and indexing of international journals of political science, international relations, law and public policy. Coverage starts with 1975.

There is no authority control for the Internet. In choosing Internet resources it is imperative to evaluate the authenticity of the source. Thinking Critically about Discipline-Based World Wide Web Resources (UCLA College Library) provides excellent evaluation criteria. The following selected resources have been chosen because of authenticity and comprehensiveness of coverage.

American Psychological Association

American Psychological Society

American Sociological Association

Social Change (from the Social Science Information Gateway)

Subject Guides: Political Science (USM Libraries)

Subject Guides: Psychology (USM Libraries)

Subject Guides: Public Policy (USM Libraries)

Subject Guides: Women's Studies (USM Libraries)

In using resources it is imperative that they be used ethically and legally. The sources listed here provide assistance in following correct citation methods.

USM has a site license for Endnote, a personal reference database program. The main functions of this program include maintenance of a database of references, downloading references from other databases, using the database to link to references in word-processed document, and generating a bibliography in the correct style for publications. See the Endnote Help for further information.

APA Documentation (University of Wisconsin-Madison Writing Center)

Dissertations and Theses from Start to Finish : Psychology and Related Fields
LEW Reference BF76.5 .C645 1993

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th edion
POR and GOR Reference BF76.7 .P83 2001; LEW Reserve BF76.7 .P83 2001

Online: A Reference Guide to Using Internet Sources

Using American Psychlogical Association (APA) Format (Updated to 5th Edition) (Purdue University Online Writing Lab)

Last update: 09.01.2006 mp