Name __________________________

Name _______________________________________________

DUE:

Applying Research Methods (PSYC409, 2007)
Searching the Literature

The first purpose of this exercise is to help you acquire some basic skills needed to locate and use the psychological literature effectively and confidently. A second purpose is to start you on a literature search for your independent project for this class. You will use an online index: PsycINFO and PsycARTICLES. You can access this index from the Stevenson Library web page www.lhup.edu/library/home.htm. PsycINFO and PSYCARTICLES are accessed through EBSCOhost (On upper right hand side of library webpage, click on arrow next to Popular Links, then click on EBSCOhost.)

The American Psychological Association (APA) has guide for searching PsycINFO with tips for making the most of your search http://www.apa.org/psycinfo/training/ebsco-host.pdf

If you have trouble locating references while at the library, please ask a reference librarian for help. The librarians are trained in doing research and are there to help you.

At the end of this exercise you should have:

·        Three references identified through PsycINFO and PsycARTICLES.
·        References from one articles you find.
·        Identified key researcher(s)
·        Other indexes you think might be useful in your literature search.

1. Select a research topic of interest to you. Ideally, your topic is related to a phenomenon or behavior that you are interested in investigating and will be the basis of your second research project. If you plan on working with other students on the second course project, you should consult with them about a topic beforehand. If you are unable to think of a topic at this time, you can choose the topic from the first class project. Write you research topic below.

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2. Access PsycINFO and PsycARTICLES. (Web pages change a lot. So some directions in this
assignment may have to slightly modified to fit a change in a web site.)

· After logging on to the internet, go to the Stevenson Library homepage www.lhup.edu/library/home.htm On the upper left-hand corner click on the down arrow next to “Popular Links”, then click on EBSCOhost

· A list of databases will come up. There are times when you may use one or more of these databases, but for this assignment you will use PsycINFO and PsycARTICLES only.

· Select PsycINFO and PsycARTICLES by clicking on the boxes in front the words PsycINFO and PsycARTICLES. Make sure only PsycINFO and PsycARTICLES are selected. You may have to click to unselect Academic Search Premier. Then click the Continue button to start your search.

· PsycINFO is a more complete database than PsycARTICLES. PsycARTICLES is convenient because it provides full-text articles, but PsycINFO can help you find relevant research that is available from non-web sources, e.g., journals in the library and through inter-library loan.

3. Identify key terms using PsycINFO thesaurus.

· PsycINFO has an online thesaurus. PsycINFO uses a controlled vocabulary to index research. If you do not use the thesaurus to identify terms, your search will be much less effective.

· The underlined word “Thesaurus” should appear on a green bar near the top of the page. Click on the word. (If the word “thesaurus” is not there, you may be searching more than one database. Go back and make sure that only PsycINFO and/or PsycARTICLES are selected on EBSCOhost.)

· Before you enter any search words, notice that the first term listed is Abandonment. Words in the thesaurus are sometimes accompanied by a Scope Note (short definition of the term), Used for (term replaces an old term), Use (term is no longer used, so use the newer term), Related Terms, Narrower Terms, or Broader Terms.

· Type in a term in the Browse for box and click on the Browse button. Do not click Search. Browse is for searching the thesaurus, Search searches PsycINFO for articles.

· Use the thesaurus to identify key terms that best describe your research area. Write the key words below. (You may need to revise this list as your search progresses as you discover that some keywords are more relevant to your topic than others.)

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Note: When you find an article that is relevant to your topic, check the keywords that are listed with the abstract. Using these keywords may lead you to other articles of interest.

4. Search PsycINFO for relevant sources. Click on the round Search button at the top of the page. Now type in a key term in the Find box and click on the blue Search button.

If your search yields a large number of citations you may need to narrow or limit your search. You can do this by clicking on Refine Search button that appears near top of page next to the page numbers. Then click on Guided Search in middle of green strip near top of page. You can add additional terms to search. Expert Search (also on green strip) lets you limit your search to certain populations, types of literature, year of publication etc. If your search yields few citations you may need to broaden your search, you can click on the Expand Your Search box on the right side of the main search page.

Notice that other round buttons at top let you search in different ways. For example, you can search by author.

It is often useful to use Boolean terms such as “and”, “or” to either narrow or broaden your search. Many people find the use of these terms confusing. To help you use these terms a guide to Boolean logic from the APA guide to search PsycINFO is attached to this assignment. http://www.apa.org/psycinfo/training/ebsco-host.pdf

5. Read the citation and the abstract to determine if the source is relevant to your topic. Also check for keywords that you didn’t originally have in your list. You may want to incorporate these words in your search.

6. Provide information about three articles you found to be of interest and seem relevant to your topic. Eliminate those articles that are written in a foreign language or are dissertations.

#1. Author(s): ______________________________________________________________________

Title: __________________________________________________________________________

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Journal, year published, volume, and pages: ____________________________________________

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Is article available in the library, on-line, or through inter-library loan? (See the next item for
instructions on how to determine this.) If the journal is available in the library, supply the call number.

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#2. Author(s): ______________________________________________________________________

Title: __________________________________________________________________________

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Journal, year published, volume, and pages: ___________________________________________

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#3. Author(s): ______________________________________________________________________

Title: __________________________________________________________________________

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Journal, year published, volume, and pages: ____________________________________________

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7. Determine if the library has the articles of interest or if it is available in full text on the web. Using PILOT (library's on-line catalog) determine if the library has the journal and the appropriate volume for each of your articles. Access PILOT by clicking on “Find Books and More” on left side of Library homepage; then click on “PILOT”.) You can also use the LHU Journal Finder to see if a journal has articles on-line. Access by clicking on “Find an Article or Journal”; then click on “LHU Journal Finder”.

Go back to item #6 and right in the relevant information for each article. If the journal is available in Stevenson Library, write the call number down. If the article is available on the web, or the full text version is linked indicate this (You’ll want to print out at least one of the relevant articles). If article is not available on-line or in the library, you can request the article through inter-library loan.

8. a) Locate one of the articles on your list. Look through the references of the article and identify at least two other articles that would be of interest. This is called “treeing” backward through the references. Write down the complete reference as it appears in the original article. You may be interested to know that the library now has Interlibrary Loan Forms on-line

You must attach a copy of the article to this assignment.