1. Finding qualitative & quantitative studies
Lydia Thorne, MLIS Co-op Student
Elizabeth Yates,
Health Sciences Librarian
January 2016

2. Why am I here? Annotated Bibliography Assignment (10% - Due Feb. 3rd!)
2 peer reviewed research articles
1 qualitative; 1 quantitative study

3. Agenda Keywords In-Class Activity #1: Keywords
Focusing your search: tips & tricks
PsycINFO
How to find qualitative & quantitative studies
How to use subject headings
In class Activity #2: PsycInfo
Writing & citing

4. Getting the good stuff
What works for you?

5. Today’s outcomes You will recall strategies for finding:
Qualitative & quantitative health articles using:
PsycINFO
Help writing an annotated bibliography
Help with APA style

6. Think like a search engine
Next stop: where & how to search >> think before you search
To start, pull 1-2 keywords out of your topic and use them for your search
Search engines such as Google and SuperSearch – and the library catalogue -- work by matching the words you enter in the search box to the words in the documents it searches. So for Google, that’s billions of web pages; for Supersearch it’s records for everything the library has – books, articles, movies, music, etc.
Generally, search engines work by trying to match all the words you put in the search box – so the more words you type, the fewer results you will get; the fewer words you type, the more results you will get because it’s easier for the search engine to match fewer words
Keywords & synonyms

7. What’s a keyword? The most important, relevant word(s) for your topic
Usually nouns
Usually 1-3 words
Think about broader, narrower and related terms
Keyword searching isn’t an exact science, because researchers sometimes use different words to talk about the same topic – e.g teenagers/adolescent/youth etc
But choosing relevant keywords and thinking about related words can really help your search focus on highly relevant results
To generate good keywords:
-think about what your books or articles should be about to answer your research question
-use nouns – search engines/databases don’t look for articles and prepositions
-keywords are 1-2 words – not sentences or phrases

9. Topic:
What are the keywords in the following topic sentence? Stress and/or coping among university students
Website
Audience can respond atPollEv.com/hlsc3p07727, as long as the poll is active. (?)
 Text messaging
Presenter session: Audience textsHLSC3P07727 to 37607 to join the session, then they text a response.
Keywords: Audience texts an auto-generated code and a response each time they reply.

11. Keywords & synonyms Stress Coping University students Anxiety Worry
Pressure
Tension
Strain
Adapt
Manage
Handle
Capacity
Students
College students
Young adults
Post-secondary students

12. Broader and Narrower Terms
Students
Brock University Students
First-year Undergraduate Brock Students

13. Search tips & tricks
Use “quotes” to search for an exact phrase, e.g. “coping with anxiety”
Use * to search for variations of a word ending e.g. student*(student, students)
Quotes are particularly helpful if you’re the words in your phrase are common and might generate a ton of results otherwise e.g. “capacity building”

14. Search tools: combine the concepts
Search words AND, OR are powerful tools for retrieving relevant results Distinct concepts: use AND e.g. Hemophilia AND exercise Similar concepts (synonyms): use OR e.g. Anxiety OR worry
home.howstuffworks.com/power-drill.htm

15. Finding foreground info
Search engines
Databases/Indexes
e.g. Google:
- broad scope
- may not know where you are searching
- few options for focused searching
e.g. OVID MEDLINE, PsycINFO
- defined/subject-specific scope
- you can discover what journals are being searched
- many options for focused searching e.g. by subject, age group, methodology, article type
Both tools are great – choose the one that’s best for your search

16. Finding qualitative & quantitative studies
Most efficient method?
Search in a subject database
Use methodology filters
Lydia

17. PsycINFO
Citations and abstracts for journal articles, books, book chapters, theses, dissertations and reports in psychology and related disciplines
Search by:
Keyword
Subject heading – use Term Finder

18. SH = consistency, efficiency
Subject Headings
SH = consistency, efficiency
Standardized words assigned to an article based on its topic
Groups together all the information on a given topic
SH searches retrieve targeted information
Image
Using MeSH means your searches only return articles that are relevant to the topic
Keyword searches return articles that mention your keyword anywhere in the article – but the article itself may not be relevant for your topic
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19. Find subject databases
Research Guide for Health Sciences
Library website > left menu
“Research Guides by Program”
> Health Sciences
> Articles tab
= Databases relevant to Health Sciences
(including PsycINFO)
Show find books, find articles, writing and citing help

20. Key filter: Methodology

21. Refine your results in PsycINFO
Methodology
Age group
Population group
Publication year
Index term
Need to quickly decide if an article is relevant?
Scan the abstract!

22. Find good articles? Email them to yourself!
Dive in: try PsycINFO
> Health Sciences Research Guide
> Articles
> PsycINFO
Find good articles? them to yourself!

23. Finding enough articles:
Find one good article? Check its references!
They’ll lead you to other studies on the same topic!
GIF:

24. Annotated Bibliography & APA style
Research Guide for Health Sciences
Library website > left menu “Research Guides by Program” > Health Sciences
Writing and Citing tab:
APA style
Annotated bibliographies
Writing and citing resources:
-guides to APA style – OWL at Purdue, Dalhousie University handout
Image:
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25. Getting Help @ the Library
Visit our AskUs desk or call x4583
Chat with us via Ask-a-Librarian
Watch a short video on our Help page --
Contact us!
Lydia Thorne, MLIS Co-op Student
Elizabeth Yates, Health Sciences Librarian

26. Questions?
GIF: