Psychology Lecture: Scientific Papers & Peer Review

Flashcards covering key concepts from lectures on time management, scientific papers, Google Scholar, types of research, and the peer review process.

Journal Articles

The main way scientific findings are communicated, typically peer-reviewed publications.

Peer-Reviewed Publications

Research articles that have been evaluated by other experts in the field before publication to ensure quality.

Google Scholar

A search engine for scholarly literature, offering features like library links, searching by topic/author/title, and PDF access.

Library link (Google Scholar)

A setting in Google Scholar to connect to institutional library resources for full-text access.

VPN.uleth.ca

A Virtual Private Network service to access university resources when off-campus.

"Cite" (Google Scholar)

A function in Google Scholar to obtain citation information for an article.

"Cited by" (Google Scholar)

A feature in Google Scholar that shows other articles that have referenced a particular publication.

Scholar profiles

Researcher profiles available on Google Scholar that display their publications and citation metrics.

Empirical Paper

A type of scientific paper that presents and analyzes original data.

Review Paper

A type of scientific paper that provides an overview and synthesis of an existing area of research.

Meta-analysis

A type of scientific paper that involves a statistical analysis of the results of multiple independent studies addressing a similar question.

Theory Paper

A type of scientific paper that presents new ideas, frameworks, or conceptual models.

Abstract (of an article)

A concise summary of a scientific article, typically found at the beginning.

Keywords (of an article)

Terms that describe the main topics of an article, used for indexing and searching.

Cultural Representations (in research)

How cultural symbolism (e.g., holidays) can influence psychological or physiological outcomes, such as birth timing, as explored in the Levy et al. (2011) study.

Biocultural Model

An approach in research based on the theory that a methodology integrating biological and cultural domains provides an accurate reflection of their integration in everyday life.

Predatory Journals

Publications that exploit the academic publishing model by charging publication fees without providing legitimate editorial or peer review services.

Peer Review

A process by which a scholarly work is evaluated by a group of experts (peers) in the same field to determine its validity, importance, and originality before publication.

Peer Review Process Steps

Involves initial screening, assignment to an editor, potential rejection, review by multiple reviewers, author revisions, editor assessment, and eventual acceptance.

Benefits of Peer Review

Prevents publication of bad science, fosters a marketplace of ideas, allows feedback to improve science, ensures quality, and maintains journals' reputations.

Flaws of Peer Review

Includes conservatism, failure to detect flaws, bias (e.g., helping friends, punishing enemies), unhelpful reviews, discrimination (sexism, racism, ageism, prestige-ism), and labor exploitation by for-profit journals.