Sociology 739
Writing a Graduate Research Paper using APA Style
APA Writing Style
Madigan, R., Johnson, S., & Linton, P. (1995).
The language of psychology : APA style as epistemology. American Psychologist, 50(6), 428-436
Bem, D. J. (1987). Writing the empirical journal
article. In M. P. Zanna & J. M. Darley (Eds.), The complete academic: A practical guide for the beginning
social scientist (171-201). New York: Random House.
Bem, D. J. (1995). Writing a review article for
Psychological Bulletin. Psychological Bulletin, 118(2),
172-177. Good information about writing review articles for any psychology journal.
Degelman, D. (2004). Literature search essentials. Retrieved Aug. 24, 2006, from Vanguard University
of Southern California: http://www.vanguard.edu/faculty/ddegelman/index.aspx?doc_id=3380.
APA Documentation Style

ASA Documentation Style
Best Resources for Finding Articles
Essential indexes
-
PsycINFO indexes the international literature of psychology, including articles, book chapters,
book reviews, conference proceedings, and dissertations.
- This important resource appears on both the Sociology and Psychology guides. The search screen offers
many options to refine your search, such as the Peer Reviewed checkbox, and drop-down boxes for
various limits, such as Age Groups, Population, and Form/Content Type.
Sample search:
parental occupation AND college
Check Peer Reviewed
Scroll down to the Population menu, CLICK Human, then CTRL-CLICK Females (CTRL-CLICK
lets you select multiple options)
In search results, find this article:
Agreement of adolescent educational expectations with perceived maternal and paternal educational goals
Click the title to see the citation, abstract of the article, and assigned subjects.
Click the Find It! button to see a link to the full text of the article.
-
Sociological Abstracts indexes the international literature of sociology.
- Try the search: parental influence and college
Click the title of any article to view the citation and abstract.
Click the Find It! button for links to full-text articles and/or the Library catalog.
-
SAGE Full Text Collections

Search one or any combination of peer-reviewed journal collections in communication studies, criminology,
education, politics and international relations, psychology, and sociology. Full-text access to 75 journals.
Coverage varies, with some titles going back to 1982.
Electronic Journals
- Library Catalog
- Contains records for journals the library owns in print format, and links to thousands of electronic
journals.
- The library catalog does not contain records for journal articles; you must use an
index or database to identify relevant articles. Some databases have links to full-text articles, some
have Find It! or SFX buttons, and others provide only
citations or abstracts.
A comprehensive search for a specific journal should include both the library catalog and the
alphabetical list of electronic journals because some journals are not available in electronic format.
Theses and Dissertations
-
Dissertation
Abstracts
- Includes masters theses as well as doctoral dissertations. 1861- present. Dissertation abstracts
available 1980- present; Master's theses abstracts, 1988- present. To limit your search to UNR dissertations
and theses, select School (sc) as one of your search fields (from the "Choose a field" drop-down
box), then type 0139 in the search box. For example, this search finds about 27 citations:
- jury (Index Terms (keywords)
AND
0139 (School Name/Code)
- Use the Preview function to see the first 24 pages of any thesis or dissertation. To download
a free copy of any UNR thesis, you must click ORDER A COPY. The cost will be shown as $0.00.
You may request an Interlibrary Loan for other dissertations or order online with your credit card.
- University of Nevada, Reno Thesis
Search (Library Catalog)
- The UNR Library has a microfilm collection of all UNR theses, retains a copy in the Special Collections
Department, and sometimes has an additional circulating copy. The "Thesis Search" works for all
but the most recent additions (until brief catalog records are replaced with complete, standard descriptions)
Web Resources
Full-Text Reference Resources
- Oxford English Dictionary
- Complete text of the 20-volume Second Edition OED. Quarterly updates of the in-progress third edition.
Entries include etymology, usage quotes, and date charts.
- Britannica Online
- Online version of the complete encyclopedia with more than 75,000 entries, links to related Internet
sites, and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.
- Webster's Third
New International Dictionary, Unabridged
- A dictionary of the current vocabulary of standard written and spoken English language, from 1755-1996,
containing 450,000 vocabulary entries.
- Associations Unlimited
- Directory of more than 154,000 detailed listings for international, national, state, and regional
organizations. IRS information for more than 300,00 nonprofit organizations.
- More resources from the Library's Web Reference
Shelf.