Counseling Psychology Research Resources

There’s a lot of relevant material out there about psychology topics that’s not published in scholarly articles or books. This literature is often called "gray literature."

Information might be collected by:

• government agencies
• non-profits
• think tanks
• professional associations
• private research organizations

The types of information they produce might be published as:

• reports
• white papers (a type of report)
• fact sheets
• press release
• online articles or blog posts
• or other documents.

Using a search engine like Google is one way discover these materials. Google’s advanced search menu has a number of options you can use to refine your results. You can also use the following search tips:

• Put exact phrases you want to search in quotes
  • “ ” works like glue to keep words and phrases together in your search. This trick works in library databases too!
  • Example: “posttraumatic stress disorder”
  • Example: "cognitive behavioral therapy"
     

• Put a minus sign before words you don’t want in your results
  • Example: -anxiety (if you’re not interested in results about anxiety)
  • Example: -CBT (if you’re getting overwhelmed by results focusing on this treatment approach)
     
• Limit your results to a specific domain, like .edu, .org, or .gov
  • Example: community mental health site:.gov (will give you results from government agency websites only at both the state and national levels)
     
• Restrict your search to .pdf or .doc files (these file types are often used to distribute reports)
  • Example: opioid harm reduction filetype:pdf (will give you just results that are PDFs)
     

• Use Boolean logic to build your searches
  • You can use Boolean logic to build searches in both search engines and in library databases. See the Library Search Tips page of this guide for more information.

• Add keywords related to the type of information you're interested in
  • Example: ("high school" OR secondary) AND arts funding AND site:.gov
  • Example: ("high school" OR secondary) AND "food insecurity" AND (report OR "white paper" OR "fact sheet")

You might also consider trying other search engines beyond Google, as they often give different results. Many search engines change the results you see based on your previous searches, browsing history, sponsored content, and other factors. To avoid this, you can try a search engine like DuckDuckGo, which doesn't track your search history.

The APA has help and examples for citing websites, government reports, and other information you find online through their website, APA Style.

Citing webpages and websites:
•   Webpage on a Website
•   Whole Website

Citing reports:

• Report by a Government Agency
• Report with Individual Authors
• Brochure
• Fact Sheet
• Press Release
• White Paper