Searching the Psychology Journal Literature

Last update: 5 January 2011,
by Maureen Bell

Do not use the Library catalogue when searching for journal articles, as it lists journals but not individual journal articles.

Instead you will need to use databases to find details of journal articles on your subject. You'll find a list of databases of interest for psychology on my web page.
Scopus is is very easy to use, and is probably a good place to start if you're not an experienced searcher.

PsycINFO is the major psychology database. It allows highly sophisticated subject searching, and is essential for advanced study and research.
Notes on how to use it are here.

Database checklist

When using a new database it's a good idea to check its features using the Help option.

First Steps

1. Use of Boolean (logical) operators - AND, OR, NOT to connect your search terms. PubMed's tutorial gives a clear explanation of how Boolean logic works.

2. Truncation (also called use of wildcards) is a useful shortcut to search for plurals and variant forms of words.
An asterisk allows for any number of characters, or the absence of a character at the end of a word or word stem, and this symbol can be used in most databases.
For example, you could use comput* to find the words computer, computers, or computing. However compute* would find only compute or computers. You need to be careful where you truncate words, or you may be in for a shock. Photo* may look like a simple way to look for photographs, photographics, or photography - but it will also find photosynthesis, phototropic, photovoltaic etc.

In PubMed this is how truncation works.

Truncation works differently in Scopus

Asterisk (*) An asterisk can substitute for the absence of a character, a single character, or multiple characters. It can be used at the end of a word.. Example mammog* finds behave, behavior, behaviour, behavioural, behaviourism, etc. It can also be embedded in a word. So it can be used to indicate a character that may or may not be present. Example h*emoglobin finds both hemoglobin and haemoglobin. Or it can be used to allow for variant spelling involving multiple characters Example behav*r finds both behavior and behaviour An asterisk cannot be used at the beginning of a word - it must be preceded by at leat one character. Question mark (?) Replaces a single character anywhere in a word. It doesn't allow for the absence of a character. It cannot be used to indicate a character that may or may not be present. Example analy?e finds analyse or analyze.

PsycINFO uses two truncation symbols -

An asterisk (*) stands for any number of characters, including none, and is especially useful when you want to find all words that share the same root. For example, adolesce* matches adolescence, adolescent, adolescents

A question mark (?) stands for one character (or the absence of a character) and is especially useful to allow for British or American spelling of words like colo?r. It's also helpful when you're uncertain of a spelling. For example, a search like relev?nce means you can match the word relevance even if, like many of us, you can't remember whether it's spelled with ance or ence.

3. Is there a thesaurus which will allow you to use a standardised language to search? How does it work?
PsycINFO has a sophisticated thesaurus of terms. With the wide variety of concepts and vocabulary used in the psychological literature, searching for articles about specific concepts is virtually impossible without the controlled vocabulary of a thesaurus. This controlled vocabulary provides a way of structuring the subject matter in a consistent way (e.g., articles which discuss Dysphoria, Melancholia, and Depression can all be found by searching the thesaurus term “Major Depression”).

4. How do you search for articles by an author, or in a particular journal?

5. How do you display references, or mark them for saving, printing, or emailing to yourself?

6. Can you link to the full text of articles, or will you need to find print articles in the Library?

Search Strategy

Before you search for information you'll need to formulate a search strategy. Below are some tips on how to do this.

1. Identify the key concepts .

2. Work out alternative terms for these concepts. Always remember that databases, unlike humans, do not think in concepts, but simply match words.

3. Decide whether you want to restrict your search to a certain population or group

4. Remember that practice helps, and that there is no such thing as the perfect search - a strategy which may be fine for an essay may be totally inadequate for a thesis topic.

5. You may find it helps to clarify your thinking if you use a logic grid, in which you group related concepts or synonyms - see the example below

Supposing you want to find information about self concept and weight problems in adolescent girls.
As there are four distinct concepts involved in this search we will use four columns. When searching phrases use inverted commas to ensure that the words are searched together.

This is not a comprehensive search, but shows some options.

You would need to OR the individual words in each column, and then AND the groups of words together - remembering to use brackets to preserve the logic of your search. Always check your Boolean logic (the use of logical operators, and brackets in search strategies), as faulty logic can produce some bizarre results.

("self concept" OR" self perception" OR "body image" OR self-esteem)

AND

("weight gain" OR "weight loss" OR obesity OR "body weight")

AND

(adolesce* OR teenage*)

AND

(girl* OR female*)

You would probably decide that you wanted only articles that dealt with adolescents, not articles that looked at people of all ages, and you might therefore simply add not adult* at the end of your search. However you'd need to be aware that this would exclude articles which dealt with comparing adults and adolescents.

Search results

The purpose of searching a database is to get a list of citations telling you where to look for articles on your subject.

Finding the full journal article

A database citation may give a link to a full electronic article, often in .pdf format which you can save or print directly.
If there is no link, or a faulty link, the Library may still have the journal in electronic or paper format - so always search the Library catalogue under the journal title. There is a demonstration on how to do this in our library tutorials.