Start your research early, as you may need to order some materials via Interlibrary Loan.
Ask for help! The Reference Librarians are here to assist you with your research. Contact information and Canaday Reference Desk hours are listed at the end of this Course Guide.
Try these resources to quickly find some full-text articles in academic journals. This is just a first step; you will also want to do more extensive research in PsycInfo, ERIC, or similar databases.
ScienceDirect
ScienceDirect provides abstracts and full text articles in many scholarly journals in the life, physical, medical, technical, and social sciences.
In Advanced Search you can combine keywords using AND and OR in the Term(s) box. To find research studies, include the words method AND results AND discussion.
You may limit the subject of your search to Psychology or Social Sciences if your terms are ambiguous or you are getting too many results from the hard sciences. You may also change the date limits to All Years.
Click Search at the bottom of the screen. If the results set is large, you can change the display order by clicking on Sort by Relevance at the top of your Article List.
JSTOR
JSTOR contains the full text of articles from many scholarly journal from their first issues up to three or five years ago.
In Advanced Search you can combine keywords using AND and OR. Put phrases in quotes. Example: “cooperative learning” AND (gender OR sex) AND outcomes.
To find research articles, your full-text search should include the words: method AND results AND discussion.
You can limit your search by Article Type, Date, Language, and Discipline.
Click Print when you get to an article you like, so that you can download the full PDF instead of looking at the pages one at a time.
ProQuest Research Library
Provider: ProQuest
ProQuest Research Library provides indexing, abstracts and many full-text articles from 1,700 academic periodicals in all subjects. Articles from 1971 through today.
Enter your terms, with one concept on each line. You can enter synonyms on a single line, connected with OR: gender differences OR sex differences.
By default, you will be searching the titles and abstracts of articles; this will bring you more focused results. If you aren’t finding enough articles, you can search the full text by clicking the down arrow next to Citation and abstract, and change the selection to Citation and document text.
To find research articles, your document text search should include the words: method AND results AND discussion.
Limit search to Scholarly journals, including peer-reviewed to retrieve articles from scholarly journals.
PsycInfo covers the literature of psychology and related fields from 1887 to the present. It indexes more than 2200 journals published worldwide, as well as books, dissertations, and more.
Before starting your search in PsycInfo:
Set some limits so that you don’t get dissertations, citations in Portuguese, or non-research articles in your results list.
Look for the box labeled Limit Search To near the top of the PsycInfo screen. Click More.
Click All Journals in the left pane. Click Yes.
Click Language. Scroll down to English, and click it.
Click Methodology. Click Empirical Study.
Click OK at the top of the screen, to set all of these limits.
Choosing search terms:
Use the Thesaurus to determine the “descriptors” (subject headings) used in this database for your concept. Search for terms, click the checkboxes next to the terms you want to search, and then click Search Marked near the top of that window.
Try several synonyms, connected with OR, to find the maximum number of articles on your topic. (Example: cognitive style OR learning styles)
If you have a term with several possible endings, use an asterisk to stand for the different endings. (Example: child* = child, children, childhood, etc.)
If you are getting too many results, search for your terms in the INDEX TERMS (DE) or ABSTRACT (AB) or TITLE (TI) fields instead of the default, Terms anywhere.
ERIC contains citations, abstracts, and some full text for the journal literature in education (more than 600 journals dating back to 1966), as well as citations and full text of reports, conference papers, book chapters, and other materials.
Before starting your search in ERIC:
Set some limits so that you don’t get dissertations, citations in Portuguese, or non-research articles in your results list.
Choosing subject terms:
Use the Thesaurus to determine the “descriptors” (subject headings) used in this database for your concept. Click the Search Tools tab, then Thesaurus. Type in a word or phrase, and click the term of interest to learn the scope of the concept and related concepts. Click the checkboxes next to the terms you want to search, and click the green Search button.
If you have a term with several possible endings, use an asterisk to stand for the different endings. (Example: child* = child, children, childhood, etc.)
You can combine your searches by clicking on Search History in the upper right of the screen. Select AND or OR and then check the boxes for the searches and click Combine.
Click the green FindIt! button in the record for the desired article. If the article is available online, it should appear on the next screen. Sometimes you will be brought to the journal’s first page or table of contents, in which case you may have to search or browse for the exact article.
If it’s not immediately available online, the journal still may be available in print in one of the Trico libraries. If the FindIt! menu says We have a Copy Check Tripod, click that link to find the print copy.
If the journal is not in Tripod, you will see a link labeled Request via InterLibrary Loan (ILL). Click that link to get to the interlibrary loan form; enter your name and barcode and click on Send Request. Please be selective and only order things you need; ILL requests can take up to two weeks to fill.
Please come to Canaday Library for personalized help with your research.
Reference Desk hours:
Mon-Wed
Reference desk email: library@brynmawr.edu
Reference desk phone: 610-526-5279
