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Counseling & Human Services Research Guide

Research and Practitioner-Oriented Resources for Counseling Students

Start Here for Counseling Research!

Not sure where to begin with your Counseling research? Start here!

When in doubt, APA PsycInfo is a good database to try first.

PICO

Have you formulated a PICO question?

PICO is a recognized format for developing a clinical research question. This question is often used as the basis for a literature search/review, and if needed, a research study design. It is part of a larger framework associated with evidence based practice (EBP) in health-related fields.

National Institutes of Health/National Library of Medicine search according to PICO input page

PICO is an acronym that stands for:

P = Patient/Problem [Condition] or Population

I = Intervention or Exposure

C = Compare to or Control

O = Outcome

 

 

 

 

 

Notes:

  • You do not need to enter words in all four PICO search boxes.
  • You can enter two words with AND in the first search box. Example Autism AND teens. Autism is the Problem/Condition and teens is the population. 

Databases for Counseling Research

ACA Counseling Journals

Journals Published by the American Counseling Association & Affiliated Units

School Counseling Journals

Scholarly Peer Review

Why Does My Professor Require Peer Reviewed Sources?

Peer review is the rigorous process scholarly resources go through to become published. Most often when we talk about peer review, we are talking about journal articles going through the process, but some books do also. Peer review typically involves review boards of experts in a topic or discipline who read and evaluate submitted articles/materials to determine if they meet the standards for publication. This review involves more than just looking at the article's format, rather also examining thoroughness of the literature review, soundness of methodology, accuracy of results, and logic behind conclusions that are drawn. Often articles are returned to the authors for revisions before final publication.  

  • For a clever video explanation of peer review, see NC State University Library's Peer Review in 3 Minutes (video)
  • Remember that when using many library article databases, during your search you can limit your results to only Peer reviewed (Scholarly) articles by simply checking a box.

screenshot showing checkbox to indicate scholarly (peer reviewed) articles in a search