Brief Wikipedia-like overviews can:
But Wikipedia isn't a reliable source of information, so you don't want to use it in the bibliography of an academic paper.
Luckily the Library has thousands of scholarly, online encyclopedias & dictionaries where you can probably find a write up on your general topic.
Watch this short snip from our Background Information video to learn how to limit your Summon Library search results to these Reference Sources.
These are psychology association and medical websites with write ups on different Psychology topics. Though these summaries are meant for the general public (and are not academic or peer-reviewed), professional associations are usually considered a high quality, reliable source of information because members are experts in the field.
Books can often provide the detailed background and overview information about your topic that you won't be able to find in encyclopedias (too short) or journal articles (too focused on very specific research questions or ideas).
You can find both print and ebooks (as well as videos and reports) using the library catalogue box below.
Never searched the library catalogue? You may want to watch this short video.
From our Ask Us page you can:
Library employees are monitoring the queues above and will respond to you as soon as possible.
The Summon (search box below) a quick way to search most of the Library's collection at once.
The video will give you a quick how-to intro to Summon, or read the hot spots on this Summon screenshot for brief tips & tricks before getting started.
Not finding what you need in Summon? You may need to search in a different place or change your search strategy. Click on the grey tabs to check other guide pages for additional databases, information and resources.
New to database searching? Databases don't respond well to natural language (sentences or questions). This pdf can help you translate your assignment topic into a database search strategy.
