Research Methods in Pscyhology Library Workshop January 2011

Overview  How to be a better researcher  Your Psychology subject guide  Setting up Refworks  Finding articles with PsycINFO  Citation chasing with Web of Science - Social Sciences Citation Index

Research Process Image from Ohio Dominican Library, retrieved 8/29/10 from Edwards, Sylvia and Bruce, C.

E-reference is a great place for background info.

Items the library does not own can be requested through ILL

Create a folder in RefWorks  Folders  Create new folder.

What is a scholarly article?  Scholarly articles have undergone a peer review process prior to being published in a reputable journal.  According to the Encyclopedia of Evaluation, peer review is:Encyclopedia of Evaluation  Peer review refers generally to the evaluation of professional performance or products by other professionals and, more specifically, to a set of procedures for evaluating grant proposals and manuscripts submitted for publication. For peer-reviewed journals, content-matter specialists are asked to judge a manuscript, often using specified criteria and blinded to the author's identity. The journal editor considers reviewers' comments and decides whether the paper should be published, rejected, or revised and resubmitted. Similar procedures are used to review grant applications. Critiques of the peer review process focus on the low reliability of reviewers' recommendations, but the goal of peer review is to make good and defensible judgments rather than to have high reliability. Peer review is an example of an expertise-oriented approach to evaluation.

What is a database?  From the Encyclopedia of Health Care ManagementEncyclopedia of Health Care Management  A database is an organized collection of data that can be manipulated to produce information specific to a user's needs. Conceptually, a database is an electronic filing system with an indexing structure linking to specific data elements. …The basic element of a database is a field, or variable. Each field in a database is specified as a fixed (maximum) number of characters, each equivalent to a byte of data. The data elements may be text, such as a patient name, or numeric, such as a birth date…A group of related fields is called a record. Record from PsycINFO

Truncation: an * placed at the end of a root tells the computer to search for all words containing that stem. Example: aggress* = aggression, aggressive Search Keywords to search the title, abstract, descriptor, and identifier fields. Or, start at the Advanced Search screen.

Scroll all the way down to edit your search. Narrow by language, subject population, subject age, etc.

Article Record.

Use the descriptors to narrow or expand your current search, or start a new search.

Mark the record for later; Save, Print, (and export to Refworks), or FindIt in full text.

Request items the library does not own.

Search History Use the search history to retrieve past searches or to combine searches.

Mining resources  Once you have found a relevant article, review the bibliography carefully. The resources used to write that paper will also be relevant to your research.  This is looking into the past research.  We can look forward and see what subsequent studies have used your articles (i.e. – Your article A was written in In 2007, article B was written and used article A as a reference.)  Although PsycINFO is beginning to do this, ISI Web of Knowledge – Social Science Citation Index is the best resource.ISI Web of Knowledge – Social Science Citation Index

Look up an article from PsycINFO in SSCI Truncation is important for the author’s name. Select which indexes to search.

Results – you may need to refine for common last names

More recent articles may not have been cited yet.

Citation Mapping

Contact Kristyna    Chat: If you see my chat box on a communication guide, then I’m online.  Stop by: My office is straight back from the front door of the library.  Make an appointment.  Questions are welcome at any stage of the research process.