1. How do I search for my topic?
- Identify the keywords of your topic and use those as your search words.
- Each book and article has tags assigned to it, words or shorts phrases that make each book or article searchable
- You want your search words to match those tags.
- Words like impact, issues, effects, or factors are not used as tags
- Example topic: driver behavior at stop signs
- Search words: driv* behavior AND stop sign*
- driv* searches for driver, drivers, and driving
- sign* searches for sign and signs
- AND tells the database to search for articles tagged with both of these search phrases
2. I have too many search results. How do I find what I need for my assignment?
- Open the All Filters sidebar to find options for focusing your search results to your assignment requirements and to psychological classifications that are relevant to Cognitive Psychology
- Click on the All Filters button at the top of the list of search results to open this sidebar
- You can focus your search results to:
- Peer-Reviewed: to focus to articles from peer-reviewed journals
- Source Types, such as journal articles, books, newspapers, or magazines
- Publication Date, so you get current research
- Subject: Major Heading, to focus to your interest areas
3. How do I know my search words match the tags assigned to articles about my research question?
- As you scroll through the search results, look at the assigned Subjects (tags), and see if they match your search words
- Example: Many of the articles are tagged with the Subject college students. Some of the articles are tagged with physical activity, while some are tagged with exercise.
- Add physical activity and college students to your search
- New Search: exercise OR "physical activity" AND depression AND "college student*" OR undergraduate*
- "physical activity" searches for physical activity as a phrase, not separate words
- Use OR to combine key concepts with their synonyms within the search box
- OR finds sources tagged with any of these search words/phrases
- Use AND to combine search boxes
- AND finds sources tagged with all of the key concepts
- Subjects (tags) also help you identify the specific issues around your topic so you can give it direction and develop it into a researchable topic
4. How do I preview the abstract/summary of articles from the list of search results?
- Look for the abstract beneath the article title in the list of search results (click on Show More at the end of the shortened abstract to open the full abstract)
- Click on the title link to open the full article record, which includes the article abstract and other information about the article such as author affiliation and citation information
5. How do I access the article so I can read the whole thing?
- Look for the Access Options drop down menu or pdf Full Text or HTML Full Text buttons
- Click on the Check 360 Link for Full Text button to see if the article is available to read in other library databases
6. How do I focus search results to review articles like literature reviews, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses?
- Open the All Filters sidebar, scroll down to Methodology, and click on show more
- Check the boxes beside Literature Review, Systematic Review, and Meta-Analysis and then click on Apply
7. How do I identify Populations, Methodologies, and Tests for my research area?
- Open the All Filters sidebar:
- click on Methodology to see a list of methodologies used
- click on Age, Gender, and Population to see a list of populations studied
- Check the box beside Adulthood to focus search hits to articles studying adults or Young Adulthood
- click on Tests & Measures to see a list of tests and measures used
- Go to Find Tests once you've chosen a test for your experiment to get the test
6. How do I identify articles that cite an article I've chosen?
- Web of Science: use the Web of Science database to identify articles that cite your article:
- Enter your article title and select Title from the dropdown menu by the search box
- Look for Times Cited: # to the right of your search hits - click on the number to get a list of articles that have cited your article
- Click on Full Text from Publisher to read the article
7. How can I tell if an article I'm reading is an Empirical Study article or a Review article?
- Search for the article title in the above PsycINFO/PsycARTICLES search box
- Click on the Article Title in the search results (NOT the Full Text online links) to open the full record for the article.
- Scroll down to the Methodology heading in the article record
- If the methodologies listed are Empirical Study and/or Quantitative Study, it's an empirical study
- If the methodologies listed are Systematic Review and/or Meta Analysis and/or Literature Review, it's a review study
8. I can't find anything on my topic. What do I do?
- The search words you're using to describe your topic may not match the tags that PsycINFO or PsycARTICLES uses for your topic
- Use the PsycINFO Thesaurus to identify the words that PsycINFO and PsycARTICLES use to describe your disorders or topics
- There may not be research tying your main ideas together yet
- Try searching for your main ideas separately and linking their findings together
- If you've found one article that's relevant for your topic, look through the sources in its References list to see if any of them are also relevant to your research
