Transcript L042: Literature Searching for Social Pyschology students

Literature Searching
Tips & Techniques
MSc Social Psychology
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Session content
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Finding journals and journal articles
Search strategy & tips
Databases for Social Psychology
Using Google for research
Further help
Planning a search
Define topic, scope and keywords
Structure your search
Choose information sources
Perform your searches
Review your results
© Netskills Quality Internet Training, University of Newcastle
Still undecided on your topic?
• Brainstorming:
• List all the keywords which could describe your topic
• Identify synonyms & alternative spellings
• Formulate a ‘research question’
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Are they any key papers already published?
Any key authors?
Hot topic or dead duck?
Run a quick search in a database/ library catalogue to
scope material
Essay questions
• 1. How does organisational culture impact on
working practices and processes?
• 2. The modern corporation is as good an example of
‘disciplinary power’ as the modern penal system.
Discuss.
• 3. Discuss the extent to which Taylor’s “scientific
management” principles are present in current
organisational management practices.
• 4. Knowledge is the organisation’s essential source
of ‘competitive advantage’. Discuss?
• 5. Resistance stimulates organisational learning.
Discuss.
Search tips for individual database
searching
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AND &, + – combines terms. Narrows results
OR , – locates results containing either of the
terms. Use ‘or’ for synonyms. Useful for US/UK
Spellings. Broadens results
NOT – excludes terms. Discards results that contain your excluded
term (even if the results contain your chosen search term)
Phrases – enclose in quotation marks “third way”
Truncation – replaces multiple characters at the end of a word,
e.g. pension*– finds pensioner, pensions, pensioned
Wild card – replaces a single character organi?ation – locates
either spelling, e.g. wom?n finds woman and women ; wom* finds
both along with womb, wombat, womble etc.
Check help pages for the correct symbol. Can be * ! + $
What type of information do you
need?
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Journal articles, books, theses?
Conference reports?
Government reports?
Very recent material?
Historical?
English language?
UK or International?
Peer reviewed or Practitioner, Trade, Commercial?
Statistical Data? Our Data Librarian can help
Archives?
Web or other sources?
Find what’s out there-don’t just restrict to LSE holdings
Identifying books / printed materials
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LSE Library Catalogue
Printed bibliographies/indices
Search other Libraries catalogues
http://www2.lse.ac.uk/library/otherLibraries/Home.aspx
• COPAC: Large research Libraries, including the British
Library http://copac.ac.uk/
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Library of Congress http://catalog.loc.gov/
National Library catalogues for overseas materials
WorldCat (via catalogue/subject pages)
Catalogues of specialist Libraries e.g. Wellcome Library
Websites of specialist organisations
Amazon
Journal articles
• Library Catalogue – journal title level not
articles
• Full text online journal databases e.g.
Oxford Journals, JSTOR but only limited to
what is available in full text on a specific
databases.
• If only searched full text services would
miss out on literature.
Main Resources
• PsycINFO & PsycARTICLES
• International Bibliography of the Social
Sciences (IBSS)
• ISI Web of Knowledge/Science
• Scopus
• Science Direct: Medical & Health
• Business Source Complete
• Human Resources Abstracts
• Communication Abstracts
PsycINFO
• From American Psychological Association’s
(APA)
• Abstracts of scholarly journal articles, book
chapters, books, and dissertations,
• peer-reviewed literature in behavioral
science and mental health.
• Journal coverage, which spans from the
1800s to present, includes international
material
PsycARTICLES
• Also part of EBSCO databases
• Complements PsychINFO – can be
searched together
• From American Psychological Association
(APA)
• Full-text, peer-reviewed scholarly and
scientific articles in psychology
IBSS: International Bibliography
of the Social Sciences
• Premium Social Sciences Index- references journal
articles, books, chapters and book reviews.
• Links to full text articles via Article Finder
• Good foreign language coverage
• Results can be imported into Endnote
• Searches can be saved to rerun at a later date
• Date range: 1951• Updated Weekly
ISI Citation Indices via the Web of
Knowledge
• Science, Social Science & Arts and Humanities
available
• Abstracts and references to journal articles and
book reviews
• Links to full text articles via Article Finder
• Enables citation searching in addition to
searching by keyword
• Results can be exported into EndNote
• Searches can be saved to rerun at a later date
The Internet is….
• A fabulous source of information, and full of
information that can be used in place of books
and journals.
• However, there are problems….
• There is no central index
• There is no quality standards or peer review
• Information can:
• be moved or removed without warning
• be wrong, out of date and biased
• be overwhelming!
Internet Evaluation Criteria
• Who?
• Name & responsibilities
• Contact details
• Individual or organisation?
• Where? Domain-check the URLs for an indication of the type of
organisations who created the site
• .edu .ac .gov all educational or governmental sites
• .com commercial site
• When?
• When was the site last updated
• What?
• Serious or hoax?
• Evidence?
Internet Detective site
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Getting the most out of Google involves
understanding a bit about how it works – and try
the advanced search
• Tips for improving your searching
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Capitals / lower case
Automatic use of ‘and’
Automatic word stemming
Google’s Interface
• The interface changes subtly all the time
• Depends on where you are in the world, and which
version you went to (www.google.com or .co.uk/.de
etc)
• Basic homepage with advanced options available:
• ‘Show options’
• Advanced Search
Results pages
• Indenting of some
results
• Clustering of links within
a site
• Google Books and
Scholar results in the
main Google results
• Cached pages
• Different results if you’re
logged in
• Twitter feed results
• Some results are
seconds old, from
twitter and Facebook
• News results (like
from the BBC are
often minutes old
• Others can be weeks
old.
Google Scholar
• http://scholar.google.com/
• References to peer-reviewed papers, theses,
books, abstracts and articles, from academic
publishers, professional societies, preprint
repositories, universities and other scholarly
organizations.
• Should indicate using LSE Article finder to tell
you about LSE subscriptions
• No approved list of sources
Google Scholar and LSE
• Should indicate using LSE Article Finder to tell
you about LSE subscriptions. You can add this
off campus
• If you find something on Google that won’t let
you access, check our Library Catalogue for the
correct link – using Google may mean that you
aren’t recognised as a member of LSE
Getting hold of material not at LSE
• Senate House Library-Can borrow materials
and use online resources
• Join with your LSE card
• British Library
• Join with 2 forms of ID (proof of address & proof of
signature)
• All titles to be consulted in the BL Reading Rooms
• Inter Library Loan
• Via the Library Classic Catalogue
• Select the Requests & Interlending option
Managing your information:
Keep track of it
• Note full information at point of use
• Nothing worse than trying to identify material
months afterwards
• Note ALL details not just author/title
• Helps avoid plagiarism
• Note your search strategies so as to rerun at a later
date
• LSE Library Catalogue - My Favourites
• Consider using Endnote for storing references-also
formats bibliographies automatically
• Other options Delicious, Zotero, Cite-U-Like
Further Help
• Social Psychology Guide
http://www2.lse.ac.uk/library/subjectGuide
s/psychology/Home.aspx
• Workshops https://library1.lse.ac.uk/course/
Students Companion & Researchers
Companion in Moodle
• 1-2-1 research consultations with Academic
Support Librarian