Searching the Literature planning a search using information resources effectively Applied Psychology October 2009

Gathering information 1 – definitions 2 – search strategy 3 – choose resources 4 – begin searches 5 – refine searches 6 – note the sources of information used

What am I looking for? Planning is the key: look carefully at your topic break it down into concepts or themes e.g. “how reliable is eyewitness testimony”? eyewitnesstestimonyreliable

How to put concepts together AND –both words must be present in the record for it to be retrieved OR –either word or both must be present in the record for it to be retrieved

Boolean operators AND eyewitness AND testimony OR eyewitness OR eye witness

Boolean operators use the Boolean operators to help you express your search logically e.g. eyewitnesstestimonyreliable AND

Synonyms and spellings think about other terms which mean the same i.e. synonyms, or related terms remember alternative spellings e.g. US vs British eyewitnesstestimonyreliable eye witnessidentificationaccuracy AND OR AND

Widening a search Other options with keyword searching: use truncation to pick up plurals or other word endings –e.g. testimon* = testimony, testimonies use wildcards to pick up spelling variants – e.g. behavio?r = behavior, behaviour use adjaceny for words appearing in the same sentence –e.g. nature SAME nuture = nature nurture, nature versus nurture, nurture as opposed to nature,...

Widening a search eyewitness*testimon*reliab* eye witness*identif*accura* AND OR AND

Limiting a search Can you make your search more specific? For example: –English language –date of publication (last 5 years?) –type of publication (review articles?) –type of population (human? animal?)

Selecting your resource(s) what kind of information do you want? how much information do you want? which “finding aids” cover this type of information? e.g. »Library Catalogue for books »databases such as PsycInfo for journal articles »LexisNexis or Infotrac for newspaper articles »Intute for web links

Library Catalogue Databases link Subject Information – Psychology Information skills – tips pages Literature searching workshop page with online tutorials

Constructing your own search Using the search grid choose your own search question break it down into key terms think of synonyms, alternative spellings and plurals, etc decide which Boolean operators are required

Practical Connect to the internet From the Current Student’s Gateway click: Library | Subject information | Psychology | Information skills | AppPsyc Training 2