Course Research Pages
HUM 401(P): Senior Thesis: Psychology Capstone (Professor Hager)
Savvy Search Tips for Your Thesis Project
Searching Tips
- Collect search terms
- Use subject headings, suggested topics, descriptors, depending on which database you are using
- Use the thesaurus in PsycArticles and PsycInfo
- Add to your vocabulary as you read more deeply on your topic
- Note common topics and themes as you read
- As you gather articles, group them by theme
- Read widely and be curious
Ways to Extend the Reach of Your Search
- References
- "Cited by"
Finding Journal Articles When You Have a Citation
Bowman Library Journal Finder - use to determine if the Library has the journal in which the article appeared; you must search by journal title.
Google Scholar - use to determine if the article is freely available through the scholarly section of Google; easiest search is by article title.
Finding Articles and Books not Available in the Library's Resources
Some Places You May Have Forgotten to Look
EBSCOhost - Contains several different databases of use in psychology. Searching through the EBSCOhost link above searches all of them at once. You may also search its subsections separately: Academic Search Premier for journal articles; Business Source Complete for psychology topics that cross over into business; Health Source and Alt Healthwatch for health topics; Wilson OmniFile Full Text Select for journal articles.
JSTOR - some psychology, plus education, philosophy, and sociology. Note that only 10% of articles have abstracts and the most recent three to five years are not included.
First Search - Professor Hager's favorite. While most of your topics fit into the psycho-social sciences, other fields may be of interest, such as economics.
ERIC - use for education topics. Also freely available online.
MEDLINE - use for medical and psychology topics.
PsyInfo - it looks just like PsycArticles (all full text), so don't get confused! It contains very little full text, but many, many abstracts; articles can be ordered through Interlibrary Loan.
British Medical Journal (BMJ) - use for medical topics; contains some free full text.
Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) - free scholarly and scientific journals.
Citations
Page Last Updated: February 14 2013
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Research Tips
These Research Guides have been prepared by librarians to assist with your research. Read more:
Critically Analyzing Information Sources
Searching Electronic Resources Effectively
For more information on citation style, see:
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association - BF76.7 .P83 2010 (Located in Library Permanent Reserves)
