Full-Text Psychology Journal Articles

If you are a psychology student or taking any sort of social science class, then you will need to be able to read and understand the articles found in scientific research journals. Such articles describe different psychology studies on a wide range of subjects. As you are writing papers or conducting your own research, these journals can provide helpful sources and background information.

Finding full-text psychology journals online can be difficult, especially for people with limited access to academic libraries or online databases. Fortunately, there are a number of psychology, social science, and medical journals that offer free full-text articles.

Full-text journals may be especially useful for students living in rural areas or studying via distance education. The below journals offer access to a selection of full-text articles online.

Full-Text Psychology Journals

You might consider starting your search with journals that offer full-text, electronic versions of their content. Whether these journals offer the material you need for your research depends on the topic you are researching and the specific guidelines of your assignment.

• Addictive Behaviors: Offers a sample issue of the journal online. The sample issue contains full-text articles in both HTML and PDF format. There are also open-source articles available in other issues.
• American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse: Focuses on a wide range of topics, including clinical, pharmacological, administrative, and social aspects of substance abuse
• Archives of Internal Medicine: Offers free full-text articles to registered users 12 months after publication; published by the American Medical Association and covers a wide range of topics related to internal medicine; free registration is required
• British Journal of Psychiatry: Focuses on clinical aspects of mental health; full-text articles are available from January 2000 and articles become available one year after publication.
  
• Evolutionary Psychology: Offers full-text articles and reviews on history, research, and theoretical work in evolutionary psychology
• Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology: Features full-text articles focused on psychotherapy, prevention, assessment, and treatment of childhood conditions such as developmental disorders, depression, and anxiety
• Journal of Abnormal Psychology: Selected articles on topics in abnormal psychology; published by the American Psychological Association
• Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis: Current and past research on applied behavior analysis; also offers a free sample issue
• Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied: Offers a selection of full-text journal articles on topics in experimental psychology
• Journal of General Psychology: Offers full-text articles on a variety of topics in psychology. A great reference for psychology students
• Journal of Neuroscience: Offers full-text journal articles in their archive starting in 1981; full-text access is available for articles six months after publication
• Learning and Memory: Focuses on the neurobiology of learning and memory and offers access to articles one year after publication
• PLOS One: Peer-reviewed open access articles published by the Public Library of science covering research in medicine and scientific disciplines including psychology
  

How to Find Free Full-Text Articles

In addition to looking at journals that specifically provide access to full-text articles free of charge, it can be helpful to know how to locate full-text versions of articles on your own. You might also consider signing up for workshops or courses offered by your school that help teach students how to search for academic resources.

Many journals offer full-text, electronic editions of their articles in HTML or PDF format. You can search for these versions of the articles using the following strategies and sources:

PubMed Central

PubMed Central is the digital archive of the United States National Library of Medicine. Many of these articles are available in full-text format. You can search for articles by topic, author, and journal title. You can also search on PubMed to find citations and abstracts for many different articles.

The Cochrane Library

The Cochrane Library also offers full-text versions of research articles. You can browse by topic, look through special collections, or use the search tool to find articles relevant to your research.

Springer Link

SpringerLink offers access to journal articles and other resources. While not all of the content on the site is available in full-text form, some articles are accessible in either HTML form or as a PDF download.

CogPrints

CogPrints is an archive that features journal articles on a number of topic areas, including many in psychology. Find articles on behavioral analysis, clinical psychology, psychobiology, social psychology, and more.

Google Search

If you know the title of the article you are searching for, you can often find a full-text version by searching the full title of the article. Some article authors may post the full content on their personal websites as downloadable PDFs, or the article might be available in other formats on other academic sites or journal databases.

A Word From Verywell

Knowing where to locate journal articles can be helpful, but having the skills to search for them on your own can be invaluable. If you are still struggling to locate sources online, consider visiting your school's library for more information, tips, and resources.