Literature SearchingTips & Techniques

MSc Social Psychology

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Session content

• Finding journals and journal articles• Search strategy & tips• Databases for Social Psychology• Using Google for research• Further help

Planning a search

R eview your resu lts

P erform your searches

C hoose in fo rm ation sources

S tructu re your search

D efine top ic, scope and keyw ords

© 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’

• 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• 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?• 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• 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/

• 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

• Getting the most out of Google involves understanding a bit about how it works – and try the advanced search

• Tips for improving your searching• 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

• 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

Google Scholar and 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/subjectGuides/psychology/Home.aspx

• Workshops https://library-1.lse.ac.uk/course/Students Companion & Researchers Companion in Moodle

• 1-2-1 research consultations with Academic Support Librarian