PSY 289 - Downtown - Psychology Research Methods (Bianchi): Find Articles

This combo-search has the most psychology content of any of our databases. It contains all the content in PsycARTICLES and in many other databases. It lacks the specialized limiters of PsycARTICLES.

Search for a focused topic in psychology

 

First, apply these essential settings

1. Open MegaSearch

2. Click Advanced Search (under the search box)

2. In the Disciplines box (below), check-mark Psychology.

3. Click Search.

4. On the left side, check-mark Scholarly Journals (peer reviewed)

Now all your searches will be limited to peer reviewed journals in psychology.

 

Now add keywords for your topic

1. In the top box, add a word or phrase for your Main Topic. Then Search.

• Notice the number of results.

2. Add a focus concept in the second box. Then Search.

• The number of results has dropped

Tip:  In the search box, enter one of the following things:

• A single word:                                          undergraduates
• A quoted phrase:                                     "college students"
• A combination joined by OR:                   "college students" or undergraduates

Using "quotes for phrases" is essential when you combine terms with OR. For more information, see the box below this one.

 

Optional: Do a fuzzy limit by type of publication

It is fuzzy, because it is not perfect. (You still need to read the Abstract to confirm the publication type.)

Each limit below involves an asterisk (*).  It is a wildcard, which stands for any number of characters.

• For Empirical Studies
  • In the third search box, type this (in quotations):   

"empirical stud*" 

• Search.

• For Literature Reviews
  • In the third search box, type this (in quotations):   

"literature review*" 

• In the pulldown menu (at right), select AB Abstract. 
• Search.

 

• For Meta-Analyses
  • In the third search box, type this (in quotations):   

"meta analys*" 

• In the pulldown menu (at right), select AB Abstract. 
• Search.

 

Review the results

• Find a good title. Click to open the full record.
• Read the abstract. Is this empirical?
• Open the full text PDF.

 

Email the article to yourself, with an APA citation!

• Open the full record.
• Click the Email icon (an envelope) in the right margin under Tools.
• Enter your email address (and double check it)
• Under Citation format, choose APA.
• Send.

You will receive the full text in all available formats The APA citation will be at the top of the email.

Use the following online databases to find both popular and peer-reviewed articles.  Remember, each database allows you to refine your search by type of publication, email the article, and get the MLA or APA citation.

 

This database lets you precisely limit to certain kinds of psychology articles:

• Empirical study (data from observations of behavior was analyzed to answer a research question)
• Literature review (research that describes and evaluates many previous studies on a topic)
• Meta-analysis (creates a comprehensive study out of many studies that share a hypothesis, by statistically combining all their findings).

It also contains the journals published by APA (and by some allied publishers), which are highly used by psychologists.

PsycArticles

1. Click Advanced Search
2. To limit to empirical research reports, scroll down to Methodology. From this menu, select Empirical Study. (Or you can choose Literature Review or Meta-Analysis.
3. Scroll up to the search boxes and enter your keywords, and Search. All of your results will be limited to empirical study articles.

Use the same steps to limit to Literature reviews or Meta-analyses. 

Note: These limits are "sticky." They will remain, until you undo them. To return to search for All types, click Advanced Search, and choose All from Methodologies.