Research Guides: Psychology Research Guide: Reference Materials

Why Use Reference Materials?

You can use reference materials (such as encyclopedias, dictionaries, and handbooks) to find:

a quick, reliable overview of your topic
background information
references for your topic
specialized vocabulary or keywords for searching
information on theories or theorists
suggestions for further research

Selected Reference Materials

APA Handbooks in Psychology

APA Handbooks in Psychology are reference books that provide a one-stop shop for both overviews and in-depth analyses of a variety of sub-fields within psychology.

Click here to access a complete list of APA Handbooks in Psychology at Princeton University

Selected Reference Collections

Psychiatry Online (includes DSM-1 through DSM-5 full text) PsychiatryOnline is a powerful web-based portal that features DSM-5™—the most widely used psychiatric reference in the world—and The American Journal of Psychiatry as the cornerstones of an unsurpassed collection of psychiatric references from American Psychiatric Publishing, the most trusted and respected name in psychiatric publishing.
MIT's CogNet Reference Developed by The MIT Press, MIT CogNet is an online location for the brain and cognitive science community’s scientific research and interchange. Since breaking ground in 2000, MIT CogNet has become an essential resource for those interested in cutting-edge primary research across the range of fields concerned with understanding the nature of the human mind.
NEUROSCIENCEnetBASE CRCnetBASE, the award-winning Science, Technology, and Medicine eBook platform from CRC Press, offers a comprehensive eBook collection that delivers more than 12,000 references in over 350 subject areas and more than 40 collections. It features 10 million pages of rich content and authoritative resources, allowing librarians to build eBook collections that best fit their patron’s needs and their institution’s budget. And using the mobile app, CRCnetBASE provides anywhere, anytime access to an increasingly mobile academic community. Annual subscriptions and perpetual access options are available as well as netBASE Select which allows customers to build their own collection.
PsycTHERAPY A database of streaming psychotherapy demonstration videos; users may create playlists, clips, search transcripts of videos, and more
Sage Research Methods Online A cross-disciplinary research methods tool. It provides full access to SAGE books, journal articles, reference materials, and videos about research design, specific methods, conducting research, and writing about research results. Along with many other titles, it includes the full-text of SAGE’s Little Green Books and Little Blue Books.
SpringerLink Psychology Reference

General Reference Collections

Access Science Fully searchable content from McGraw-Hill's Encyclopedia of Science & Technology
Oxford Bibliographies Combining the best features of an annotated bibliography and a high-level encyclopedia, this cutting-edge resource guides researchers to the best available scholarship across a wide variety of subjects.
Oxford Reference Online Oxford Reference is the home of Oxford’s quality reference publishing, bringing together over 2 million entries, many of which are illustrated, into a single cross-searchable resource.
Very Short Introductions The perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly … Launched by Oxford University Press in 1995, Very Short Introductions offer concise introductions to a diverse range of subject areas.
Sage Knowledge SAGE Knowledge is the ultimate social sciences digital library for students, researchers, and faculty. Hosting more than 2,700 titles, it includes an expansive range of SAGE eBook and eReference content, including scholarly monographs, reference works, handbooks, series, professional development titles, and more.
Gale Virtual Reference Library Provides online access to the complete full text of over 100 reference works from Gale, Macmillan, and other publishers.
Oxford Handbooks Online Oxford Handbooks Online (OHO), the home of scholarly research reviews, is an outstanding collection of the best Handbooks in 14 subject areas. The collection of Oxford Handbooks is one of the most prestigious and successful strands of Oxford’s scholarly publishing, containing in-depth, high-level articles by scholars at the top of their field. A recently re-engineered platform and revolutionary changes to the publishing program means, for the first time, all Handbooks will be available online as well as in print and monthly updates introduce articles in advance of print publication and beyond the book, born-digital content ensuring the most current, authoritative coverage anywhere. OHO brings together the world’s leading scholars to discuss research and the latest thinking on a range of major topics. Each Handbook offers thorough introductions to topics and a critical survey of the current state of scholarship in a particular field of study, creating an original conception of the field and setting the agenda for new research. The articles review the key issues and major debates, and provide an original argument for how those debates might evolve