CHST 12: Qualitative Research Methods (O'Brien): Psychology

The American Psychological Association produces a massive database of psychological literature back to the 19th century. It is international in scope and indexes articles from thousands of peer-reviewed journals in the field. In addition includes some books, chapters in books, and dissertations and theses. It is called PsycInfo. Here at SCU, it is searched through the EBSCO platform. You may have used other databases through that platform as well. However, searching PsycInfo will be a little different anyway. Read the tips for searching below very thoughtfully or risk missing the most important material!

TIP ZERO: Set all relevant Search Options below the search boxes BEFORE you type anything in the search boxes!! this is where you specify critical things like:  DATES, LANGUAGES, AGE GROUPS (you don't need to type in the word children; just select the age groups), METHODOLOGY (do you just want EMPIRICAL STUDIES?), PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL ARTICLES (you don't really want dissertations, do you?)

TIP ONE: Think very carefully about the words you will use to search. Stick to the concrete and unambiguous. Use single words rather than phrases, except when necessary.

TIP TWO: Use the " " around phrases and the asterisk (stereotyp*, parent*) to truncate. In this database, these tools are critical.

TIP THREE: The Boolean OR is very important to pick up ideas that can be expressed in more than one way. These are not necessarily true synonyms, but just core ideas that can be expressed using different words. Consider these examples:

"learning disab*" OR dyslex* OR autis*

technolog* or computer* or internet

TIP FOUR: Once you've done your search, click on the article titles (in blue) and scan the abstracts to see if you like them. If you do, and the fulltext is there, use the option to send it to yourself. You'll get the PDF as an attachment and you can have the database send you a formatted citation using the pulldown menu:

TIP FIVE: Use the Find It @ SCU to get to the fulltext when it is not right there in the database you are searching. It could be just a click away.

NOTE :  If you need to POST a CITATION and a LINK (not what is in the address bar at the top!) to a specific article, you can get the citation by clicking on the tiny   icon in the column to the right. You can also get a working link by clicking on PERMALINK in that same column to the right.

BONUS TIP :  As you review your search results, put them in a folder by clicking on the folder icon either below or in the right column, depending on how you are viewing your results. Then when you are finished reviewing, click on the folder icon in the bar at the very top of the screen. You can then send them to yourself as a group and even specify which format you want the citations to appear in. You'll also get a permanent link back to the individual records in the database.