Introduction to Research in Psychology

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Introduction to Research in Psychology

• Stefan Smith
• Outreach Librarian

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Our Topic PsycINFO

• Includes Psychological Abstracts
• Approximately 2,000 scholarly journals
• 98 are scholarly, peer-reviewed

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Books Dissertations

• Book chapters
• About 10 of database
• Dissertations
• About 12 of database

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What do you get?

• Information ABOUT articles
• Many articles do NOT provide the online full text

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How do you READ the ACTUAL article?

• Look for the phrase Full Text

• Try the orange GetTeXt button
• For links to other databases
• For print holdings in the library
• For article request form (Interlibrary Loan)

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Your Turn Do a search or two. Find some
articles using GetTeXt.
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What if Murphy Library doesnt subscribe?

• Interlibrary loan
• Also known as ILLiad
• Free
• Gets articles, books, etc.
• Some articles are delivered electronically

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NEW TOPICWorking With Results
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Processing Results using the Folder

• Save articles online
• Process them all at once
• Create instant bibliographies
• Sign in to save articles long term

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YOUR TURN Add some items to your folder
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Processing Results using Search History/Alerts

• Print a record of your recent searches
• Find a previous search and re-run it
• Save a search in your folder
• Set up an automatic search

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Another way to save searches

• Create an alert
• Add search to your folder
• Copy and paste a link to the search

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Your Turn Find your search history, save a search
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NEW TOPICKeyword Searching
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New Topic Keyword Searching

• Use the search tips to understand the search boxes

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Default search rules

• Use the asterisk at the end of a word stem
• child finds the words child, children, childish,
  etc.
• Two or more words are treated as an exact phrase
• Use and to get fewer, more focused results
• Use or to search for synonyms
• But put all your or terms on ONE LINE

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Override default search rules

• This gets confusing if used with more than one
  row of search boxes
• The connectors between search box rows overrides
  these search modes

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Exercise Basic Searching

• Search for a two or three word phrase
• How many results did you find?
• Use different phrases until you find at least 100
  results

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Your Turn Keyword Searching

• Search for a two or three word phrase
• How many results did you find?
• Use different phrases until you find at least 100
  results

• Search for the same phrase but add another term
  using and to connect. Then add some synonyms
  using or.How many results did you find?

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Your Turn Keyword Searching

• Search for a two or three word phrase
• How many results did you find?
• Use different phrases until you find at least 100
  results

• Search for the same phrase but add another term
  using and to connect. Then add some synonyms
  using or.How many results did you find?

• Search using the wildcard symbol at the end of
  one of your word stems
• Example color blind

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NEW TOPICUsing PsycINFOs search limiters
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Focus your search from the start

• Set limits at the main search screen
• Limit to a publication type
• articles, books, dissertations, etc
• Limit to a population group
• Human, female, etc.
• Limit to an age group
• Aged, childhood, middle-aged, etc.
• Limit to a specific audience
• General public, juvenile, researchers

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Your Turn try a new search with limiters
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NEW TOPICKnowing which words to use
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Finding the right search terms

• Behind the scenes, there is an official
  vocabulary. How do you find it?
• Thesaurus
• Suggest Search Terms
• Subjects
• Within an articles description

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Using the Subject feature

• It narrows your existing search
• It does not run a new search
• So your first search terms are still there
• To run a new search, click on the term in the
  header bar

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Finding terms within an abstract

• Click on these for a new search
• Not a narrowed search

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Using the Thesaurus

• Enter your term in the lower search box
• Select terms of interest
• Add them to your search

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Your Turn Find official terms
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Questions?Comments?Discussion?