Sociology 739
Writing a Graduate Research Paper using APA Style

• APA Writing Style
• APA Documentation Style
• ASA Documentation Style
• Best Resources for Finding Articles
• Electronic Journals
• Theses and Dissertations
• Web Resources
• Full-text Reference Resources
• Library Catalog (Books, government publications, videos, course reserves)

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

• APA Documentation. University of Wisconsin, Madison.
• APA Style Essentials. Douglas Degelman. Vanguard University of Southern California.
• APA Research Style Crib Sheet. Russ Dewey (Emeritus) – Georgia Southern University
• Psychology With Style
  • A Hypertext Writing Guide for the 5th edition of the APA Manual. M. Plonsky, University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point
• Style Wizard: APA Style
  • Fill in a form to create an APA citation. A good tool for learning the basics.
• Citation Machine
  • Pick the type of material you need to cite and fill in the form to create a reference.
• Style Guides for Graduate Research Papers and Theses: APA Style
• Official University of Nevada Reno Thesis and Dissertation Information
  • Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Preparation Guidelines (PDF)
    Paper Thesis and Dissertation Preparation Guidelines (PDF)
    UNR Graduate School Publications/Forms

ASA Documentation Style

• Quick Style Guide. American Sociological Association
• ASA Format. Library, California State University, Los Angeles.
• ASA Style. Library, Buffalo State University
• Dr. Abel Scribe's Guide to ASA Style and Format
  • Download and unzip your own copy of Writer's Guide to ASA.

Best Resources for Finding Articles

• Information Resources for Sociology
  • Links to the best indexes to the scholarly literature of sociology, electronic journals, and Web resources.
• Information Resources for Psychology
  • Links to the best indexes to the scholarly literature of psychology, electronic journals, and Web resources.

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

• Electronic Journals: General information, Quick Title Search, subject and alphabetical lists
  • Use the search box for fast access to specific electronic journals. Selected subject lists provide an overview of what is available.
• Sociology Journals
• Psychology Journals
• Many indexes and databases have direct links to full-text articles, but some do not. The majority of our databases include Find It! or SFX buttons that lead to a menu of access options for articles and books. Look for these buttons in search results:    or 
• If you need to locate a specific article try our Citation Finder. If that doesn't work for you, look up the journal title (not the article title) in the library catalog or Quick Search for Titles. If UNR does not have access to the journal, request an Interlibrary Loan. Journal articles are now delivered on the Web whenever possible!

• 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

• Google Scholar. Good for interdisciplinary topics, and to supplement your research in PsycINFO.
• Social Psychology Network
• Scholarly Psychology Resources: Social Psychology. Part of PsychWeb, a comprensive site. Russell Dewey, Georgia Southern University.
• Social Cognition Paper Archive. University of Indiana.
• Selected Web Resources for Sociology

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.