Literature Review Research Tools
The foundation of a research paper is great organization with the right resources. To create a good foundation for my research papers, I use a few different resources: Coggle, the PsycINFO database, and RefWorks. These resources have contributed to my success in my undergraduate classes and will be even more important later down the road when I’m doing larger research projects in graduate school. You may have heard of some of these resources, but I hope to share with you some functions that you might not have known about, so you’ll know why you should be using them for your future research papers.
Manually organizing all of your ideas can be tricky, but this is why Coggle was invented! Coggle is a free, easy-to-use program that lets you plan and organize your research ideas by using concept-mapping techniques. I used to find research assignments to be really stressful because I didn’t know how to start, but with Coggle, I can get started organizing my thoughts right away. This saves me so much time and stress.
The PsycINFO database is another useful tool that you might be familiar with. When I want to look up the latest research or know more about a certain topic, PsycINFO is my go-to. PsycINFO allows you to share articles with others and save articles for future reading. These functions make working in groups easier, as well as keeping you organized. PsycINFO also lets you set up alerts for new articles in your research area. You can set these up as daily, weekly, or monthly email alerts. Even if you’re not actively searching, you’re updated on the latest research with PsycINFO.
RefWorks helps you organize the articles you reference. There’s nothing worse than writing something in your research paper but not remembering where you got that information. In order to save time and avoid frustration, you can use RefWorks to save your references as you go. It will even put the citations and reference list in APA format. The journal articles can be stored in many different folders which allows you to use references from one paper on another, saving you the time of finding the reference all over again.
Writing research papers can be stressful and intimidating, especially if you don’t know where to start. These three resources have made the writing process much less stressful for me, because they make me more organized and efficient. I hope these resources will be just as helpful to you.
Cayla is a senior at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. She is a psychology major with a minor in criminal justice. She has been a member of the Interactive Measurement Group since Spring 2016. Cayla plans to obtain a PhD in Forensic Psychology. After graduate school, she sees herself working alongside law enforcement agencies and offering therapy, assessments, and expert testimonies to female inmates.