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Choosing a research topic can be challenging. Knowing where to look for ideas can be helpful. Reference materials are a good starting point. They often give a good overview of the subject area, present relevant background information on your topic as well as provide relevant keywords for searching databases. Reference materials include dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks, bibliographies.
- The Cambridge handbook of forensic psychology
e-book - Encyclopedia of forensic science
HV8073 .B425 - Forensic science: An illustrated dictionary
HV8073 .B677 2004 - The Oxford handbook of criminology
HV6025 .O87 2007 - Fundamentals of forensic practice: mental health and criminal law
e-book - Forensic psychology
e-book
Suggested psychology reference materials:
- APA Dictionary of Psychology
BF31 .A63 2007 - The Corsini encyclopedia of psychology and behavioral science
e-book (volumes 1-4) - Encyclopedia of Psychology
e-book - Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology
e-book - International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences
e-book - The Social Science Encyclopedia
e-book - Encyclopedia of Crime & Justice
e-book
Forensic psychology textbooks could also be helpful when selecting a research topic.
Here are a few recommended titles:
- Forensic Criminology
HV8073 .P47 2010 - Forensic science : an introduction to scientific and investigative techniques.
HV8073 .F67 2005 - Current perspectives in forensic psychology and criminal behaviour.
HV6080 .C87 2008 - Forensic psychology.
RA1148 .P69 2009 - Forensic Psychology: a very short introduction
RA1148 .C36 2010 - Forensic psychology and law
e-book - Forensic psychology: the use of behavioral science in civil and criminal justice
RA1148.F73 2007 - Handbook of eyewitness psychology (2 volumes)
KF9672.H36
APA (American Psychological Association) also offers useful resources:
- Glossary of Psychological Terms
- APA search page (use : forensic psychology in Index Terms)
Academic journal articles are written by experts in the field and provide current information on specific topics. For a detailed outline of journal searching, consult the two page handout Looking for journal articles.
Journal databases
Journal databases are tools that allow users to search for journal articles on a particular topic.These database also use keyword (with Boolean operators) and subject searching methods.
The following are some recommended CU library journal databases with forensic science content:
- Criminal Justice Abstracts provides comprehensive indexing of over 400 major journals in criminology and related disciplines, books, and access to reports from government and nongovernmental agencies. Contains summaries of international journal articles, books, governmental and non-governmental reports, dissertations, and unpublished papers on criminology and related disciplines. Topics include: crime trends, prevention projects, corrections, juvenile delinquency, police, courts, offenders, victims, and sentencing.
- Index to Canadian Legal Literature contains citations to journal articles, law reports, books, book reviews, theses, essay collections and Canadiana Forthcoming Books.
- LexisNexis Academic is a full-text database that provides access to legal, news, business, health, and reference information. It contains full text federal, state & international legal materials: Federal code, U.S. Constitution & court rules, Federal regulations, agency opinions & US, Attorney General Opinions, federal and state case law and legal articles and U.S. and international newspapers, magazines, newsletters & journals.
- PsycINFO indexes scholarly literature in subject areas such as : crime, crime prevention, criminal behavior, victimology, psychosexual behavior, applied psychology. Indexed materials from 1887 to date) are selected from more than 1,300 journals published in 50 countries and 28 languages.
- National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS) Abstracts contains summaries of more than 170,000 criminal justice publications, including U.S. Federal, State, and local government reports, books, research reports, journal articles, and unpublished research. Subject areas include corrections, courts, drugs and crime, law enforcement, juvenile justice, crime statistics, and victims of crime. The time period covered is from the early 1970's to the present. Some full-text documents are available online in this database, with links provided to the full documents.
- Science Direct has the full-text of over 2,000 Elsevier journals in physical sciences, engineering, life sciences, health sciences and social sciences. Also available as part of the E-journals@
- Scholars Portal collection NOTE: This resource contains Forensic Science International from 1995.
- Scopus is the largest abstract and citation database of research literature and quality web sources. It has the broadest coverage available of scientific, technical, medical and social sciences literature. Full details of coverage are available.
- Sociological Abstracts provides citations with abstracts to journal articles, books, book reviews, and conference papers on sociology and social planning and policy. Topics include methodology, history, and technology of sociology; social psychology; group interactions; management and complex organizations; mass phenomena; social change; rural and urban sociology; sociology of religion, arts, education, science ; social welfare; community development; planning and forecasting; studies in poverty and violence; clinical sociology.
- Web of Science is part of the larger ISI Web of Knowledge. Consists of the 3 main citation databases:
- Science Citation Index (1900--)
- Social Sciences Citation Index (1956--)
- Arts & Humanities Citation Index (1975-)
- Westlaw Canada is a full text source for Canadian law resources. Includes the Canadian Abridgement and Canadian Encyclopedic Digest; cases (reported and unreported), commentary, legislations, journal articles covering the areas of general law, family law and criminal law.
The Writing Services is a service, offered by Carleton University’s Centre for Student Academic Support (CSAS), that is dedicated to supporting students’ academic writing. The WTS is located on the 4th floor in the Library.
The Library’s Cite Your Sources web page provides a list of tools and guidance on how to properly reference sources that were used to write term papers.
Citation management tools let you create, manage, and format bibliographies and papers in a wide variety of styles (APA, MLA,…)
For research and writing guides, search the library search tool Omni – try a subject search using:
Report writing -- Handbooks, manuals, etc.
Some recommended writing guides :
The brief Penguin handbook
PE1408 .F24 2008
1 copy on reserve (RSV)
1 copy at the Reference Desk
The criminal justice student writer's manual
HV9950 .C7432 2008
Making sense: A student’s guide to research and writing: psychology and the life sciences
BF76.7 .N67 2005
