Toolkit

Transcript

Hi, this is Bobbie. I will be showing you how to search the PsycINFO (with PsycARTICLES) database using keywords. PsycINFO (with PsycARTICLES) covers the field of psychology and contains abstracts from articles, books, book chapters, and more. Before beginning a search in this database, do some brainstorming and identify keywords to describe your topic. For example, I am trying to locate some journal articles that discuss the violent behavior of male teenagers who play video games. Possible keywords for this topic include violence or aggression and behavior and video games. To search the PsycInfo database using these keywords, type in aggressi* or violen* The * is a truncation symbol that will allow me to search for spelling variants of these terms. In the second box I can type in behavior. Video game* goes in the third box. There are several ways to limit a search in PsycInfo. For example, by date (2000-2010). Since I am interested in locating journal articles, I will apply this limit. - Age groups: Adolescence (13-17 yrs); check English; Population group: Male; Methodology. This search retrieved 26 documents. Currently, the sort is by relevance but I could change the sort to date descending so that I can review the most recent documents first. As I scroll through the list, I see that some of the articles provide the full text electronically and some do not. This record looks interesting. I am going to click on the title and read the abstract. This is great. The publication type notes that the article is peer reviewed. The abstract sounds interesting and so now I want to locate the full text of the article. I can click here. This is an example of a journal that is available electronically in another database. For additional assistance on how to use WFU full text options, you can view the screencast on "What to Do When Full Text Doesn't Work" which is available on the toolkit page. You can also contact a librarian at zsr.wfu.edu/ask.