Jessie's Research Resources
Disclaimer: these are all things that I've learned through experience, word-of-mouth, or through my research seminar (I was accepted into my school's Psych Departmental Honors Program if that gives me more credibility), but might not be actually true (I'm not even in grad school and I'm already so jaded about academia and the academic publishing industry (#｀-_ゝ-)... My bias is inevitable and palpable). Either way, take everything with a grain of salt, and remember that this was written in 2025. If you're reading this from the future, some of these things might not be applicable anymore.

So you're interested in research...

Hey, that's great!

If you haven't figured out from this whole page being dedicated to research and the research process (and on my artist page no less, lmaoo), but I love it a lot. As much as I love art, I'm also, unfortunately, fundamentally a nerd.

I'll be covering a wide breadth of topics regarding research, so even if you're reading this out of curiousity, hopefully you will be able to follow and come away from this having learned something new. As for those of you who are reading this page because of resources, I will have that as well. Trying to get into research can be a very difficult, confusing, and overwhelming process, especially when you don't have anyone to guide you (this was definitely the case for me, haha), so I hope that this helps.

Since I specialize in psychology, most of these resources will either be from or about psych research and labs, but general research stuff will also be included. I don't know much about research in the humanities, but I bet my advice/resources on (psych) research can still be applicable to research in other disciplines.


So what is research?

Research is the process of gaining new knowledge through various methods. Some of these methods might include making observations, synthesizing ideas together, replicating and expanding on previous research, and collecting/analyzing materials. Through this process, the researcher hopes to "discover" truth or gain an understanding of their topic.

As I've implied previously, research occurs in all disciplines, but I will primarily focus on scientific research and will be talking about research in context of the scientific method.


The scientific method is a cycle. It has structure. It is a set of guidlines.

How do I know if research (and persuing higher education by extension) is for me?

Here are some good reasons:

  • You love the research process; you have the desire to be a researcher/professor/scientist for the sake of the research and/or knowledge itself.
  • You want to be the one producing information and knowledge in a particular field as opposed to just learning about it.
  • You have the self-motivation to spend a vast amount of time and energy on research (!! super important)
  • You have a field/topic/question that you are interested in.
> What you might not know about research

There's a lot you don't know about academia. It was certainly the case for me.

The deeper you go into the academia rabbit-hole, the more you will start to realize just how interconnected everything is. Networking, is everything. Granted, you could make the argument that literally every career is like that, but maybe it was just surprising to me because I'd always assumed that it was a meritocracy (oh dear my American is showing).

> Getting Started
  • Zotero
    • Great open-source tool for managing papers and keeping track of your citations. The automatic citation generator and meta-data retrival is particularly beautiful. I love Zotero a lot if that wasn't clear enough lol.
    • Of course, if downloading software isn't your thing then you could always keep track of your references on paper or through Excel/Google Sheets.
  • Get good at statistics

    • Oh, you wanna go into research? Then you better get good at statistics buddy. That includes programming by the way.

    The nice thing about the modern era is how easily you can find accessible resources online. YouTube tutorials, StackExchange, etc. will be your friend.

    • Basics
    • Advanced Statistics
    • Good statistical and research practices
  • Statistical analysis programming languages
    • R
      • Not to be confused with R-Studio, which is a software that can run R. R is the programming lanaguage.
      • R is free and open-source and super cool and awesome. You can do everything from cleaning up your data to plotting your findings on a graph. You can also download tons of packages which will allow you to do even more stuff with it.
      • I really like using Statology and watching R Programming 101 on YouTube.
    • SPSS
      • Commonly used in psych research. If you want to use it individually, you'll need to pay for their services, but usually universities will let their students use SPSS for free.
      • Does all the things R can do.
    • Other programming languages: SQL, Strata, Python, SAS
> Terminology

Basic terms that you should get familiar with.

  • Resume - standard is 1 page; any longer will risk the system/person reading it to completely discard it.
  • CV - stands for "Cirriculum Vitae" (literally "course of life"); it is a summary of a person's career, qualifications, and education. In the context of research, this includes everything from conferences they've presented at, publications in which they were an author of, grants recieved (amount of money included), etc. Unlike a resume, a CV can--and should!--be long.
  • Reference letter -
  • Cold emailing - the practice of writing an email to
  • PI -- stnads for "Principle Investigator"; this will usually be the professor/s in charge of the lab, but it can also just be the main researcher of the project.
> Undergraduate

Your biggest priority should be to get into a lab and become an RA (research assistant). The sooner the better. Here are the (practical) reasons why:

  • The longer you stay in a research lab (and express consistant interest/enthusiasm), the more likely you will get more responsibilities (and thus transferrable skills) that will help you later on.
  • The longer you stay in a research lab the better the reccommendation letter your PI or graduate student mentor can write for you. A closer relationship also means that they can advocate for you.
  • Showing loyalty is a good thing. Most positions that you will apply to in the future have a minimum year contract (i.e. you will be required to work under a lab for at least x amount of years).

Here are some ways you can get into a lab:

  • Go to your professor's office hours and ask about oppertunities.
  • Cold email the lab manager/graduate students (because chances are, your professor is busy enough that they might miss your email or just not reply).

Some advice (IMPORTANT!!):

  • Do your research before you contact your

Alright, so now what? Maybe you've already gotten your Bachelor's, or maybe you're going to be graduating soon, or maybe you're preparing early (good on you). There are a couple of options for you depending on where you want to go with your research. Do you want to go into academia? Into industry?

> Entering Academia
  • Academic Jobs Online has job oppertunities in ALL subjects (not just psych!) and also everything from research assistant to professor jobs.
  • Psych Grad School Positions has info on lab manager/coordinator/technician/assistant positions, Master's, Ph.D, and PsyD.

A good rule-of-thumb to base your readiness for grad-school is to ask yourself these two questions:

  1. Do I have a strong background of past research experiences, a good GPA, AND guaranteed strong reccommendation letters and/or a good GRE score(nowdays, GREs are optional in many schools)?
  2. Do I have the time and energy to work on the app during my senior year?

If you answer "no" to either of the questions, you might want to consider doing a gap year.

Of course, don't let this stop you from trying to apply anyway (you never know!), but the ^^ above is a relatively good gage.

>>> Post-Bac

You can think of post-bac positions as getting a Master's degree, except you don't actually get a degree.

>>> Master's

Beware the terminal Master's programs (you pay them to get your Masters rather than the other way around).

Most PhD programs also don't see much value in Master's degrees because they value research experience--and Master's programs are mostly classes.

That said, if you only want to further your education to get a better job, a Master's might be preferable to getting a Ph.D. since it only takes 1~2 years to complete vs. the 5+ years you spend in a Ph.D. program.

>>> Ph.D.

Ahh... my number one op.

Buckle up. We're gonna be here for a while.

>> Industry
> Becoming a professor
> Other Links
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