Brief Guide to Effective Literature Searching

Best strategies for choosing relevant resources

Using databases and keeping up to date

How to check for access to articles

Plan well ahead

It may take you some time to decide on your research topic/focus

It may take you longer to do your literature search than anticipated

You may need to visit other libraries or order items through inter-library loan

Not everything is freely available on the internet!

Plan your search

Find general background information before using more specific and recent resources

Think about the possible search terms or keywords for your topic

Arrange into broader narrower terms

Consider any alternative terms or spellings: eg. murder/homicide or behavior/behaviour

Evaluating Internet ResourcesHow do you know if a website is reputable and offers reliable information? Compare these three websites:-

http://www.wto.org/ http://www.gatt.org/

http://worldtradeorganisation.com/

Which is the genuine World Trade Organization?

How can you tell?

Remember – P . R . O . M . P . T

Provenance: who has produced it?Relevance: is it what you want?Objectivity: what are the creators interests?Method: is research explained fully?Presentation: is it clear and easily accessible?Timeliness: how recently updated?

Google or Google Advanced Search

Compare Google searching with Advanced Search, which offersnumerous refinements. http://www.google.co.uk/advanced_search

Or Google Scholar ???http://scholar.google.co.uk/ Use the Preferences

link to select notification for Middlesex accesses

and save

Google Advanced Scholar Search

Library and IT Support Web Page http://unihub.mdx.ac.uk/study/library/

Start from UniHub to link to Library and IT under the Your study tab.

Library and IT Support Web Page Scroll down the screen to Study and Research Resources

These are the most useful resources for Literature Searching

myUniHub for alternative access to the catalogue etc.Logging in here enables access to electronic resources without further authentication.

myUniHub

Library & IT Support Web Pages

PsycINFO BASIC SEARCH : ADVANCED SEARCH : ACCOUNT and ALERTS

PsycINFOAdvanced Search offers the option to “map term” which might speed up the search.It also provides the option to “Combine” searches which is not available from the Basic Search

PsycINFOUsing single terms and Combining from Search History using AND will narrow results in a gradual but focussed way enabling evaluation of individual term results – quality and quantity. The search can be adjusted as necessary, trying different terms or revising topic.

PsycINFO – updating results

If you create a PsycINFO Personal Account you can Save Searches, which can then be re-run. You will also be able to set up RSS feeds.

PsycINFO – updating results

PsycINFO – updating results

RSS Feeds can be saved in a number of different types of web site Readers: Yahoo, Google, Bloglines or your preferred browser.

PsycINFO – updating results

RSS feeds into Google Reader

Social Science Citation Index

SSCI: Search History & Results

SSCI – Managing Results

Register and Sign In

Citation Alerts- set up from single record

Saved Searches – from Search History

Finding the Journal: Full-Text: via Library Catalogue A-Z:Print & Online

Library Subject Guides

Psychology resources brought together: http://libguides.mdx.ac.uk

Library Subject GuidesUnder the tab Searching for Journal Articles information about relevant databases and guides for using them. Also details for contacting your librarian and booking appointments.