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Research Methods. Literature Searches in the PBA Library. The Old Way (a back door): http://library.pba.edu. General Overview…. Choose PsycINFO …. Main screen Thesaurus Keyword Search And, or, not. Peeking in a specific journal for ideas ….
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Research Methods Literature Searches in the PBA Library
The Old Way (a back door): http://library.pba.edu
General Overview… • Choose PsycINFO…
Main screen • Thesaurus • Keyword Search • And, or, not
And … Subjecthas hypertexted subject terms associated with the article.
Adobe (pdf) Version of article
So, … What is PsycINFO? • PsycINFO is the main research database in the field of Psychology. You can imagine it as a list of hundreds of thousands of articles, book chapters, and dissertations on Psychology topics. If you are looking for journal articles and other materials in Psychology, it's the best place to start. • Above is a sample record from PsycINFO
A few things you should know: • You do not get the full article here, just a short summary. Sometimes articles are fulltext, which means that you can bring the article up on the computer screen and read it right here. Rarely will you be able to go to the shelves of the Library to find the article. • Title: is the title of the article. The journal title is found in the Source: field. In this case the journal is Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. You will need the journal title to find your article on the shelves. Make sure you can interpret the numbers which come after the journal title. In this case, it is volume95, issue2, pages237-252. You will need all this information to find the article. • Publication Type: tells you that this is a journal article (I searched for it … remember?). Sometimes you will encounter Dissertations in PsycINFO. Usually it is best to forget about these, because PBA Library is unlikely to have them (they can be ordered). • The Subjects: (also called descriptors) tell you the main topics of the article. They are very useful because you can use them to search. For example, if you are doing research on the topic of being left-handed , and you know that PsycINFO has the descriptor Handedness, you can instantly find everything there is on your topic. This will be discussed later. • The Where can I get this? button will tell you if PBA has the journal. This will be discussed a bit later.
Accessing PsycINFO • To access PsycINFO, start at the Library homepage: http://voyager.pba.edu/library/index.html. If you click here, the Library homepage will open in a new window. Then you can switch back and forth between these instructions and that window, and navigate your way to PsycINFO. • On the homepage, click on the link alphabetical just under Electronic Resources and Advanced Searchin the center of the screen. • Click on Psychology • Click on PsycINFO (1887-Current). • Choose the Advanced Search tab at the top of the PsycINFO search screen for best results with most searches.
A very simple search of PsycINFO • Imagine that you would like to find journal articles proving that left-handed people are more intelligent than right-handers. First, analyze your topic for its key concepts -- in this case left-handed and intelligent. Type your concepts into the Find: box with the word AND between the terms. Then click the Search button. • Tip: Using the *asterisk at the end of your search term instructs the computer to find every word that begins with the letters before the asterisk, e.g. left-handed, left-handers.
Advanced Searches in PsycINFO • The Advanced Search option has very useful Search History(as a separate tab) and Refine Search functions not available in the Basic Search. Search History allows you to combine results of two separate searches. Refine Search allows you to focus your search results. Except for very simple searches, I suggest that you use the Advanced Search option which you can reach by clicking on the Advanced Search tab at the top of the PsycINFO screen.
Using subject headings (descriptors) from one good article to find more • One of the most useful features in PsycINFO is the formal subject headings or descriptors (see the example above) which are assigned to each record. Using the formal subject headings or descriptors can make it very simple to find articles on a particular topic. • One of the easiest ways to find the formal subject headings or descriptors is to start with a search like you did above. I suggest you use the Advanced Search option so that later in your search you can use the Search History and the Refine Search. After you find one good hit, check to see the subject headings or descriptors. For example, imagine that after you do a search for the term "left-hand*" you decide that this record is a good hit.
Using subject headings (descriptors) from one good article to find more • One of the most useful features in PsycINFO is the formal subject headings or descriptors (see the example above) which are assigned to each record. Using the formal subject headings or descriptors can make it very simple to find articles on a particular topic. • One of the easiest ways to find the formal subject headings or descriptors is to start with a search like you did above. We suggest you use the Advanced Search option so that later in your search you can use the Search History and the Refine Search. After you find one good hit, check to see the subject headings or descriptors. For example, imagine that after you do a search for the term "left-hand*" you decide that this record is a good hit.
"Left-handed" is not one of the subject headings or descriptors, but Handedness is. If you click on Handedness, you will see that there are more than 2700 articles with the same subject heading -- i.e. 3544 articles in which left- and/or right-handedness is an important topic. • Now you can narrow in this search by adding another keyword to your search in the search box. The search DE "Handedness" will automatically be in the Find box, where you can add the concept of intelligence. The search will look like this: • Using the asterisk in your search for intelligen* will ensure that that search picks up all the records with words beginning with intelligen; for example, "intelligent" or "intelligence". • You can also find a good subject headings or descriptors to match your concept of "intelligence" by looking again at the subject headings or descriptors assigned to good articles. This is a little trickier, because there are several good descriptors you could use: Intelligence and Intelligence Quotient are probably the best ones. • In the Advanced Search mode you can also use the Thesaurus to find the best subject heading. Do a search for each subject concept or descriptor separately, and then combine your searches.
Using formal subject headings or descriptors from the Thesaurus for a precise search • You can find formal or official subject terms related to your research topic through the Thesaurus. • Click on the Thesaurus button in the bluish bar near the top of the screen. • Then type a term or phrase in the Browse for: box and click on the Browse button to reach the list of formal subjects or descriptors. • Notice that you can ask for the list in alphabetical order or in order of relevancy to the topic.
1 3 2 • Click on the best hotlinked subject heading or descriptor to see a scope note or definition of that subject heading as it is used in PsycINFO. You may also see several related terms.
Check all the subjects that you want to search and click on the Add button to move those terms into the Search box. Notice that you can choose to join the terms with OR for a broad search or join them with AND for a focused search. • Tip: To search for records with any subject term as the major concept, click on the box beside the term in the Major Concept column. • Tip: To search for all records with this subject term and also for all records with narrower related subject terms, click on the box beside the term in the Explode column. • Then click on the Search button to perform the search.
Using the Search History to combine results of searches in the Advanced Search mode • The Advanced Search mode allows you to combine the results of separate searches performed by using the Thesaurus. • For example, you can use the Thesaurus to do a search for records related to intelligence and then do a second separate search for records related to handedness. • Then click on the Search History tab to see a table that looks like this:
Now click in the boxes beside any search results that you want to combine. Notice that you can combine the search results with "and" to focus the search, or you can combine them with "or" to broaden the search. Click on the Add button to move these search results into the Search box and then click on the Search button. Notice that the program doesn't move all the subject terms into the Search box. The searches are referred to only by numbers, S1 and S2, standing for Set 1 and Set 2. • Click on the Search button to begin the search. • Tip: Make sure that the Search box is empty before you click on the Add button to move the set numbers into the Search box. You may need to delete some terms that appear there if you have just finished a search from the Thesaurus. • Tip: Make sure that there is no check mark in the box beside "Suggest subject headings".
Using Refine Search to limit search results to the best records • Limiting is a useful to cut down your results if you have a large number of hits. In the Basic Search mode, click the Refine Search tab below the Find: box. You can limit your hits to only full text online articles though this is not advisable since many good articles are not full text or online. You can also limit your hits to a particular journal. • In the Advanced Search mode it is possible to limit your search results in many different ways, as shown on the screen capture below. To have these options show on the screen, click on the Search Options tab. To limit in one of these ways, click on the term describing how to limit the search. For example, in the Population Group section click on the term Human to retrieve only records related to humans. • Most of these different ways to limit are self-explanatory, but there are a few which are helpful to know: • Limiting results to journal articles. For many psychology assignments, you will want to find journal articles only. Look for the Publication Type section in the list of ways to Limit your results. Use the scroll bar to find Journal articles in the list of specific publication types, and choose this option by clicking on Journal articles. • Limiting results to literature reviews: Often it is helpful to find a literature review or a meta-analysis which will summarize the results of many experiments. Look for the Form/Content Type limit in the list of ways to Limit your search results. Use the scroll bar to find Literature Reviews and Meta-Analyses in the list of specific Form/Content types. Notice that the options under Form/Content Type are not in alphabetical order so this requires looking at the whole list. • Tip: To choose two limit options within one box, hold down the control key when you click on each option.
Printing and emailing records & adding items to your folder • If you find an article on your topic, you need to record the journal title, date, volume, page, etc. to go and look for it in the Library. You can write this information down by hand, or you can print out individual records or email individual records to yourself. Scroll up to the top of the screen to find Print and E-mail buttons. • Another method is to add the record you want to save to a folder by clicking the Add to folder button or link. After you have completed several searches and added many items to your folder, you can display the records in your folder and print or email them all at once.
Finding the article or book • The last step in the search process is to determine whether or not PBA Library has the journal (or book) which contains the article (or chapter) you have found in PsycINFO. PsycINFO includes articles and chapters from thousands of journals and books, and PBA Library does not have them all. However, if PBA does not have a particular journal, and another library does have the journal, our library will be able to order a free photocopy of the article. • Tip: If you are in a first year psychology course, you will be able to find all the articles for your work through the PBA Library. If the PBA Library does not have it in print or paper form it will likely be too specialized for your work. • First, a few of the hits in your list of results may have a "Linked Full Text" button. Clicking this button leads to a second page where you can click on the PDF or HTML link to see the full text of the article on your computer screen.
Searching for records for books or articles by recommended authors • Sometimes you may want to find records for books or articles by a particular author recommended by your professor. Click on the Authors button near the top of the page. Type as much as you know of the author's name in the Browse box, using this format: Compton, D*. Then click on the Browse button. Check all the author names in the list that you want to search and click on the Search button to see the records related to that name.
