Searching the Literature planning a search using information resources effectively Applied Psychology November 2006

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

What are you 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

Boolean operators 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 NOT –the first word must be present, but not if the second is, for it to be retrieved. U se with care!

Boolean operators AND eyewitness AND testimony OR eyewitness OR testimony NOT eyewitness NOT testimony

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 eyewitnesstestimon*reliab* eye witnessidentif*accura* 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,...

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?)

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

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 WoK for journal articles »LexisNexis Professional for newspaper articles »Intute for web links

All available via the Library Web pages

Practical First connect to the internet From the University home page click on: Current Student’s Gateway | Library | Resources | Subject information | Psychology | Information skills | AppPsych Training 2 Follow the workbook instructions and use the online tutorial for Web of Knowledge