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PSY 230L: Stats/Methods I Lab - Malone

Workshop focusing on PsycINFO and evaluation of sources

PsycInfo search screen

Limits or Filters

You will tune up your search results by applying Limits or Filters. This technique will help you gain precision in your results.

Many more are found on the ADVANCED search page.

 

A very popular option under Methodology is the Qualitative and Quantitative filters.

Sort your results

You can always sort your result set how you like.  

    

Boolean Operators "AND" "OR" and "NOT"

Boolean logic creates a relationship between your subjects that the computer understands. Understanding the operators will get you pretty far.

 

boolean from wikimedia

Wildcard and Trucation

Using wildcards is a way to expand your search possibilities. Instead of adding multiple lines of search fields, wildcards can collapse those into one. These techniques work in most databases (but not all). There are no wildcard options in Science Direct.

Wildcards — a symbol used to represent any 1 character. Use # symbol or sometimes * symbol.

Wildcards can usually be used 1) at the end of a word or 2) within a word to search variant spellings of a word. See Truncation for a technique to represent more than 1 character. You can use more than one wildcard symbol to stand in for more than one character.

Example: wom#n retrieves woman or women

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Using truncation is a way to expand your search possibilities. Instead of adding multiple lines of search fields, truncation can collapse those into one. These techniques work in most databases (but not all). There are no truncation options in Science Direct.

Truncation — a symbol added to the end of the root of a word to instruct the database to search for all forms of a word. Use the * symbol in most databases.

     Example: adolescen* retrieves adolescent, adolescents, or adolescence