Psychology

Most books are written by one or more authors responsible for the whole book. However, some books have individually authored chapters. These books will also have one or more editors. Be aware of different reference criteria for the two types of books.

Books aiming to present an overview on a specific topic or subject area, are often edited books, with “Handbook of…” in the title. For more information, go to “Reference works and reviews”

 The library discovery tool Oria identifies all books available to us, both ebooks and physical books.

 Ebook platforms can be searched directly for additional search functionality:

• PsycBOOKS These are books published by the American Psychological Association. Search terms will identify book chapters as well as books. This database also has many older, classic titles.
• ProQuest Ebook Central Here we have access to books from many publishers. Your search terms will be matched against words in title and full text. This can be especially useful when searching for narrow topics.

Most journal articles present primary studies or focused theoretical contributions. However some articles are more extensive review articles. For more information, go to "Reference works and reviews"

You can use Oria to search for journal articles, but the advanced search capabilities are somewhat limited. For a thorough search, it is advisable to use specialized databases. Many such databases are available - check our database list.

Important databases

The following databases contain key information about journal articles and other academic publications. You follow links to full text or the library ordering service.

• PsycINFO (on the Ovid platform) is the most extensive database for psychological literature (indexing more than 2300 journals). It contains information about journal articles, books, book chapters, doctoral theses and more. 
• MEDLINE is a central database for medical and health literature (indexing more than 5500 journals).
  • MEDLINE (on the Ovid platform):  This is a platform with advanced searching capabilities, especially useful for systematic searches.
  • PubMed (Medline): a free platform, that also includes extra publications from PubMed Central.
• Web of Science is one of the two world's largest interdisciplinary databases (indexing more than 24 000 journals).

Search engines

• Google Scholar is probably the largest search tool for academic literature. Your search terms will be matched against words in title and full text. Searches can be limited to title, but it`s not possible to limit to title & abstract, which is part of the default setting in most databases.
  • Pros: Easy to do a quick search or find a specific article; good coverage of non-English publications (which are often poorly covered by other databases).
  • Cons: Not suited for advanced searching, or to get a full overview of what is published on a topic. Results can be noisy. And although it aims to be limited to scientific literature, this is not always the case.
  • Recommendation: Use another database as your primary tool for comprehensive and systematic searches, and supplement with Google Scholar when appropriate.
  • Search tips for Google Scholar.

• PubPsych is a free information retrieval system for psychological resources with a European focus. It offers a selection of resources from a growing number of databases. Advanced Search has the same search interface and possibilities as does Advanced Search in Google Scholar.

Norwegian journal articles

These are often missing from international databases but should be searchable in Oria or Google Scholar. You can also search for articles in NORART, which has advanced searching, or check in Idunn, where you can browse journals published by Universitetsforlaget.

Some reference works, encyclopedias and dictionaries are published as books. For these, you can try searching in Oria, or go directly to a relevant platform. Suggested sources:

• Oria - Use the "Material type" filter to see encyclopedias and dictionaries.
• A dictionary of psychology - Oxford Reference (short descriptions and definitions of terms and concepts)
• International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences (longer articles on various subject areas)
• Oxford Handbooks - in-depth, quality, scholarly research reviews. Browse by subject or use the search function. Psychology (e.g. Acculturation and Health, Social Psychology and Social Justice) and Sociology. These can also be found in Oria. If we don't have access to an electronic copy, check for it in Oria - some are only available as physical books.

You can search for reviews as you would for journal articles. Most databases have a filter for the results list, where you can choose "review articles". See relevant databases listed in the section above ("Journal Articles").

Epistemonikos is a valuable resource specialized in systematic reviews. It identifies reviews from many databases, including Cochrane, Medline/Pubmed and PsycInfo.

Norwegian reports can be found in Oria, as it indexes documents from most Norwegian institutional archives. You will also find a number of international reports in Oria.

Google and Google Scholar can also be valuable sources for identifying reports in Norwegian and other languages.

However, if there is a particularly relevant organisation you need reports from, we recommend checking directly on their website also - many websites have a section called "documents", "publications" or "reports", e.g:

• Government.no
• Helsedirektoratet.no (The Norwegian Directorate of Health)
• NOVA (Norwegian Social Research)
• NIPH (Norwegian Institute of Public Health)
• SSB.no (Statistics Norway)

You can find Norwegian master thesis and PhD dissertations in Oria. You can use "Material type" in advanced search to limit your search to master theses or dissertations.

If you want to find theses from UiB, you can search directly in BORA (Bergen Open Research Archive). 

Some international works may be found by Oria, but we advise additional searches. For example, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses.

The library can offer access to many physical books as well as e-books, covering qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis, which you can search for in Oria and loan from the library.

You also have access to Sage Research Online, an online platform with a large collection of methodological literature.

Encyclopedia of Clinical Psychology  
A 5-volume resource from the publisher Wiley, including more than 500 articles.
Covering: Classification/Diagnosis and Assessment, Historical, Philosophical and Conceptual Issues, Legal Issues, Methodological Issues, Professional Issues, Psychological Disorders of Treatment and Prevention.
This electronic version of the encyclopedia offers advanced searching possibilities.  

Encyclopedia of Psychotherapy  
A collection of review articles presenting a large selection of various types of psychotherapy. 

Faglig veileder for barne- og ungdomspsykiatri / Veileder i BUP  
Guidelines from Norsk barne- og ungdomspsykiatrisk forening, 3. utgave. (Norwegian only) 

Epistemonikos  
An international, multilingual database containing with information on a large number of systematic reviews on topics related to physical and mental health.

INSUM 
Systematic reviews on effects of interventions improving the mental health and welfare of children and adolescents. INSUM is developed by RBUP (Regional Center for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Eastern and Southern Norway).

helsebiblioteket.no (The Norwegian Electronic Health Library)
This is a publicly funded online knowledge service for healthcare professionals and students in Norway. The library provides free access to point-of-care tools, guidelines, systematic reviews and a wide variety of other full-text resources. 

ICD-10  
International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 10th Revision. 

ICD-11  
International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 11th Revision (not yet available in Norwegian).