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Effective Information Gathering and Search Strategies in Applied Psychology

Learn how to plan a literature search effectively, choose resources, refine searches, and gather information for your research in psychology. Understand Boolean operators, synonyms, truncation, and wildcards to widen or limit your search. Select suitable resources like library catalogs and databases. Construct your search by breaking down key terms and using appropriate Boolean operators to find relevant information.

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Effective Information Gathering and Search Strategies in Applied Psychology

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  1. Searching the Literatureplanning a searchusing information resources effectively Psychology (Applied) October 2012

  2. Gathering information • 1 – definitions • 2 – search strategy • 3 – choose resources • 4 – begin searches • 5 – refine searches • 6 – note the sources of information used

  3. 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”?

  4. 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

  5. Boolean operators AND OR perception AND gaze looking OR gaze

  6. Boolean operators • use the Boolean operators to help you express your search logically e.g. AND AND

  7. 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 AND AND OR OR

  8. 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,...

  9. Widening a search AND AND OR OR

  10. 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?)

  11. 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 Factivafor newspaper articles

  12. www.dur.ac.uk/library • Library Catalogue • Databases link • Subject Information – Psychology • Information skills – tips pages • Literature searching workshop page with online tutorials

  13. Constructing your own search Using the search grid • choose your own search question • break it down into key terms • think of synonyms, alternative spellings and plurals, etc • decide which Boolean operators are required

  14. Practical • Connect to the internet • From the Current Student’s Gateway click: • Library | Subject information | Psychology | Databases 2) Library | Subject information | Psychology | Information skills | AppPsycTraining 2

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