Week 3: Psychology 1st Year UGs

1
Searching the Literature

• Week 3 Psychology 1st Year UGs
• Jason Harper

2
What is a literature search?

• A literature search is what you do when you want
  to review the available literature on a specific
  topic. You may want to conduct one
• because you want to familiarise yourself with the
  principles, theories and research surrounding a
  topic
• in response to assignment (e.g. essay), in order
  to show that you have done additional research
  around the topic, and to underpin or expand your
  hypothesis in response to the assignment
• to help you plan a project or research proposal
• and as a formal element of a postgraduate
  thesis (the literature review)

3
How do I find the literature?

• Its tucked away all over the place
• You need to
• think about what it is you need
• make a plan
• start in the most obvious place
• be selective
• know when to stop
• adapt as necessary

4
The steps

• Think about your assignment
• How well do you know the topic? Do you need
  introductory material first to fill in your
  understanding? Are you looking for further
  material to expand the points in your argument or
  illustrate related theories so that you can
  comment on them? Do you want to go back to the
  original source or research, and interpret it for
  yourself?
• Define the main concepts
• Identify keywords, synonyms and relevant phrases
• Decide which resource to begin your search with
• Classroom notes or reference sources for
  background and context, the Library Catalogue
  (for introductory level or subject specific text
  books) or a database (which one?) for additional
  (e.g. journal) literature. Then beyond
• Plan a search strategy and execute the search
• Look through the results
• If you have too many, try applying Limits or
  doing a narrower (more focused) search
• Too few tinker with your search try different
  keywords and synonyms for your main concepts or a
  broader strategy. Search again, switch to another
  database if you dont find what you want
• Select those you are going to keep use the
  title and abstract to help (be ruthless)
  output them
• Get hold of and read the items you have selected
  from your search
• Appraise them discard those that are not
  relevant and of poor quality
• Incorporate what you have found into the
  assignment
• Underpin the structure of your argument with
  examples paraphrase, quote, and mention relevant
  sources. Place citations in your text and include
  a reference list (Bibliography) at the end

5
Levels and types of information

• Tertiary sources (summarised factual information)
• Reference sources (encyclopaedias of psychology
  or social sciences, Oxford Reference Online,
  Wikipedia?)
• Secondary sources (analytical, critical and
  evaluative sources synthesising other
  information)
• Basic and general textbooks (Introduction to,
  Companion to or Handbook of type texts)
• Texts that examine subject specific topics in
  detail, these will synthesise, analyse, reflect
  upon, evaluate and add to the topic (academic
  texts, critical readers, etc.)
• Journal articles that offer a review (or
  overview) of a particular topic
• Sources that analyse and synthesise primary
  sources (some reports and journal articles)
• Primary sources (original sources)
• Raw data (e.g. qualitative or quantitative
  findings from surveys and studies)
• Research reports, conference proceedings and
  journal articles which publish the first, or
  early, findings of research (e.g. empirical
  research articles)

6
Resources that you can use to find it

• Lecture slides and your own notes (for context,
  background and exposition of the topic)
• Library catalogue and reading lists (to find
  relevant books for more background, or to further
  your research and understanding)
• Databases (to identify further published
  literature on a subject often in journals)
• The internet (to search for types of material
  that wont be turned up elsewhere)

7
The assignment

• How can social identity theory contribute to our
  understanding of how gender roles develop?

8
Broken down into concepts

• How can social identity theory contribute to our
  understanding of how gender roles develop?

9
And now keywords and synonyms

• How can social identity theory contribute to our
  understanding of how gender roles develop?

10
Introductory resources Reference sources

• Printed Sources
• Check the library catalogue
• Online sources
• via the Library website
• http//www.kent.ac.uk/library/online/reference/
• Oxford Reference Online
• Quality appraisal of sources
• Wikipedia

11
Introductory resources The catalogue

• Subject keywords (Keyword Anywhere)
• Searching for keywords in the title (Title
  Keyword)
• Simple limits
• Truncation (?)
• psycholog?

12
Search strategies

• In at the deep end
• Specificity Narrow/focused search to get right
  to the few most relevant resources
• Or trawling a net
• Sensitivity Broader/less specific search to find
  more material (but perhaps some of it less
  relevant)

13
Techniques Boolean searching

• Look for keywords or phrases that appear
  anywhere, in any record, in the database.
• Use Boolean logic to structure queries
• AND, OR, NOT, ADJ (W1), NEXT (N)
• Truncation
• Parentheses ( )
• Quotation marks for exact phrases

14
Tools 1 Search histories

• Some databases have a feature called a search
  history
• This keeps a record of each enquiry that you
  have entered into the database during a session
• Use the search history to combine previous
  enquiries together into sets of results

15
Tools 2 Thesauri (advanced)

• A structured vocabulary of subject headings
  (DESCRIPTORS) within the database
• Broad (parent) terms
• Narrower (offspring terms) terms
• Related terms
• Exploding terms will include all narrower
  sub-headings in the search

16
Tools 3 Limits

• Use limits to restrict your final set of results
  to a manageable number
• Limit by
• title (doing a keyword search restricted to the
  title is a good way of increasing the specificity
  or relevance)
• publication type
• methodology (type of study e.g. review or
  empirical)
• language
• date

17
Keywords revisited

• How can social identity theory contribute to our
  understanding of how gender roles develop?

18
Searching PsycINFO

• Look at the Online Resources section of the
  Library website.
• Access the database from the Indexing and
  Abstracting Services page
• http//www.kent.ac.uk/library/online/indexing/
• Other databases on this page that may be of
  interest include
• GoogleScholar
• Web of Science

19
Tips

• Look at juicy articles
• view the complete record
• identify keywords/phrases used
• look at related articles
• (and) references given at the back
• (or) other articles by the same author(s)
• Citation searching
• Check how many times cited (for more recent
  research and an indication of impact)

20
Selecting and outputting results

• Most databases (including the Library Catalogue)
  allow you to mark references for output
• Print
• Save
• Email
• Export to reference software

21
Reference management

• Download bibliographic references to citation
  management software
• Can maintain a library of references relevant to
  your study
• Automatically format citations and create
  bibliographies in documents
• Endnote and RefWorks are supported on campus
• RefWorks can be used online
• Keep an eye out for arranged training sessions
• http//www.kent.ac.uk/student/skills/
• Check the support pages
• http//www.kent.ac.uk/library/online/reference-ma
  nagement/

22
Academic integrity citing referencing

• Dont plagiarise cite
• paraphrase
• quote
• mention
• include the citation in the text after each of
  these (with an additional page reference if
  appropriate) and put the full reference for the
  item in your bibliography
• Dont cite something if you havent read it, and
  reword something without citing it
• Its about keeping things tidy and giving credit,
  not trying to sweep poor study practice under the
  carpet

23
Finding the full-text

• If the database doesnt link you through to the
  electronic version of the full-text, youll have
  to search for it
• in the Library Catalogue (for books and older,
  printed journals or photocopies of journal
  articles)
• In the Online Journals database (for electronic
  journal articles)
• or on the Web

24
Different formats of reference

• Books and book chapters (look in the catalogue)
• Davies, G., Wikely, N., Young, R. (1998). Child
  Support in Action. Oxford Hart Publishing.
• Chapters are in references
• O'Brien, M., Van Hasselt, V. B., Hersen, M.
  (1992). Gender identity and sex roles. In
  Handbook of social development A lifespan
  perspective. (pp. 325-345). New York, NY US
  Plenum Press.
• Journal articles (look in the online journals, or
  catalogue for print versions or photocopies of
  the article set the Simple limits)
• Powlishta, K. K. (1995). Intergroup processes in
  childhood Social categorization and sex role
  development. Developmental Psychology, 31(5),
  781-788.
• Reports (look in the catalogue for a printed
  version, or on the web for a free, electronic
  version)
• Audit Commission. (2001). Protecting the Public
  Purse Ensuring Financial Probity in Local
  Government. London HMSO)
• Web pages (the reference should give the URL, if
  the page has moved, search for it using the
  details given in the reference in Google or the
  Wayback Machine)
• New child vaccine gets funding boost. (2001).
  Retrieved March 21, 2001, from http//news.ninemsn
  .com.au/health/story_13178.asp

Look for the italics !
25
Different sources the web

• Natural language searching (not really here yet
  the semantic web)
• Ask
• Google
• GoogleScholar
• Intute?
• Bookmarking resources
• Del.icio.us, Furl, etc.

26
Appraising web information and citing it

• Relevance
• topic coverage?
• level and suitability of coverage?
• Provenance
• author?
• credentials?
• reputable organisation?
• Currency
• revision dates and maintenance?
• Reliability
• academic integrity?
• Bias
• if present, is it acknowledged?

• APA referencing is very specific about internet
  sources. Always include at least
• Author (if known)
• Title
• Date retrieved
• URL or DOI
• See
• http//www.apastyle.org/faqs.html
• http//www.apastyle.org/elecref.html

http//www.kent.ac.uk/library/subjects/healthinfo/
webapprais.html
27
The End