Searching the Literature planning a search using information resources effectively Psychology (Applied) Heather Robb Academic Liaison Librarian October 2013

Outline planning a search where to look finding answers presentation practical workbook & online tutorials

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 can we assess the perception of another person’s gaze”? assessperceptiongaze

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 perception AND gaze OR looking OR gaze

Boolean operators use the Boolean operators to help you express your search logically e.g. assessperceptiongaze 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 assessperceptiongaze testawarenesslooking AND OR AND

Widening a search Other options with keyword searching: use truncation to pick up plurals or other word endings –e.g. assess* = assessment, assessing 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 AND OR AND assess*perceptiongaze test*aware*looking experiment*conscious*stare

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

Have a go... in pairs plan this search using the simple grid structure break the question down into key terms/concepts think of synonyms, alternative spelling and plurals decide which Boolean operators are required What part do genes play in human intelligence?

humans intellig*gene OROROR homo sapiens intellect*genesOR IQgenetic* OR genom* AND

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 or Web of Knowledge for journal articles »Nexis UK or Factiva for newspaper articles

Psychology Subject Page

Practical