Clicking on the link below will take you to a short information literacy module on what a research study looks like.
Thesaurus – has subject headings from the Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms. These subjects describe the content of an article, book or document. They are helpful in figuring out the language of this database.
For example, knowing the subject brand preferences means Includes loyalty to brand name products or product switching makes a search on consumers and what they like to buy more precise. You can search with the brand preferences = SU Subject from the PsycInfo search screen.
Truncation symbol - *
Wildcard symbol - ?
Tips to search:
State your idea in a sentence.
Identify the concepts and use these as search terms.
Think of synonyms for these concepts and use the thesaurus if necessary.
Use your limiters and remember to Truncate.
Print the Search History and note the useful terms.
Searching for a research study is a little different from searching for articles on a topic. A study is a primary document that discusses the reason to do the research, how the research was set up or Methodology, the Participants in the study, what happened or the Results, the Conclusion and any additional information on the research the authors feel appropriate in the Discussion section. You also may get graphs, charts or other visual data that supports and explains the research.
After logging into PsycInfo, the Advanced Search screen appears. At this point you want to consider using OR and some synonyms as you search.
You'll notice there are many dropdown fields available to narrow your search by and that the link to the Thesaurus appears in the blue area right above Choose Databases. One of these fields is Methodology. You can search by the type of study you are looking for if you choose.
Try a search with these 2 terms:
Type consumer behavior in the first box and change the field to DE Subjects [exact].
Type stud* in the second box and change field to Abstract.
Click in the Peer-Reviewed box.
Click Search.
Look on the abstract to make sure the two fields (Methodology and Publication Type) below are available in an article you choose:
PsycInfo has many types of studies but the Methodology field will verify what type your article describes.