Research Guides: Counseling: Articles & Databases

Which databases should I use?

Having trouble knowing where to begin? All databases relating to Counseling can be found on this library page. But feel free to start with one of these "Best Bets":

PsycINFO (APA) This link opens in a new window
PsycInfo includes scholarly materials, case studies, tests, dissertations, assessments and more. Topics include general psychology and specialized, basic, applied, clinical and theoretical research in psychology and also psychological aspects of related disciplines like medicine, psychiatry, nursing, sociology, education, pharmacology, physiology, linguistics, anthropology, business and law.
Education Source This link opens in a new window
Education Source is the world's largest full-text research database designed for education students, professionals and policymakers. It provides full text, indexing and abstracts for thousands of education journals, books and education-related conference papers. Coverage spans all levels of education and includes educational specialties such as multilingual education, health education and testing.
PTSDpubs This link opens in a new window
An electronic index to the worldwide literature on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental-health consequences of exposure to traumatic events.
Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Unified search of Arts & Humanities, Science, and Social Sciences Citation Indexes. Indexes and abstracts more than 10,000 major scholarly journals. Provides the number of times cited and links to those articles, as well as full bibliographies. Mobile: new interface optimized for mobile users.
Taylor and Francis Journals This link opens in a new window
Taylor & Francis Complete includes the Social Science and Humanities Library of 680 online journals from Routledge, the pioneering social science and humanities publisher, and Psychology Press, AND the Science and Technology Library of 450 online journals . The T & F Complete Library encompasses: Arts & Humanities; Behavioral Science; Business, Management & Economics; Mathematics; Education; Geography, Planning, Urban & Environment; Chemistry; Media, Cultural & Communications Studies; Statistics; Politics, Engineering; Sciences; Technology; International Relations & Area Studies; Social Sciences; and Strategic, Defence & Security Studies.
Dissertations and Theses This link opens in a new window
Includes citations for dissertations ranging from 1861 to those accepted last semester; those published from 1980 forward include 350-word abstracts. Includes full text online for dissertations issued 1997-to the present. Citations for master's theses from 1988 forward include 150-word abstracts. Titles represent authors from North America and Europe, with over a million titles in full text.

Broader Search Options

Want to broaden your search beyond education sources? Library Search searches the library catalog and hundreds of databases:

Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Google Scholar is a tool that attempts to find scholarly articles and books from across the web.

Sometimes it will have a link to the full text of an article. If not, copy and paste the title into Library Search to see if you can get it from the SMC Library.

Keyword Tips

When searching in databases, use keywords that capture the essential ideas of your research topic. Narrowing down your topic into specific key concepts will help retrieve relevant sources. Here are some keywords tips:

A search like 'The impact of gender on people's salary' will retrieve fewer results because the database will look at all the words as separate concepts. Instead, break your topics into the key concepts: gender AND salary
Brainstorm keywords with similar meanings to concepts. For example, salary could also be wages, page, income, or earnings.
Search for all of these terms together separated by OR. For example, pay OR wages OR income OR earnings tells the database to find all of these terms in your search results.
Please note: using AND between keywords limits or narrows your search while using OR expands or broadens your search. Using NOT also limits or narrows your search.