If you have done your background reading and have an idea of the issues on which you want to focus, then you're ready to dive in and explore what experts are saying about it. You'll want to look at different aspects of your topic to give your paper breadth and depth.
You're busy, so any strategy that will make your work faster and produce better results is welcome. Did you know that you can use different search techniques in library catalogs, article databases, and the Web to find just what you need quickly?
Use the relevant articles you find to help you discover additional literature on your topic:
Adding a few search techniques to your search will help you search more quickly and effectively.
Check out the short videos below introducing you to some of the most common techniques you should master: Narrowing your Search, Boolean Searching, and Using Subject Headings.
This video, created by The University of Guelph McLaughlin Library, is being shared unchanged using the CC By-NC-SA 4.0 license.
YouTube video on effective search strategies from EmilyatChemLib. | Time - 3:03 mins.
Video from the Wellington Medical and Health Sciences Library. | Time - 1:56 min.
To find information that is relevant to your topic you need to know what words to use for searching.
The discipline of psychology has a great tool called, the Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms that you can use in MJC's east campus library. The thesaurus shows you words that different search engines and research tools use to organize their information to make it searchable. You can also use it to discover terms that are related to your topic in case you need to broaden or narrow your search.
In addition, Library catalogs and many other search tools use Library of Congress Subject Headings to describe the content of all of their books, eBooks, CDs, DVDs, etc. Useful subject headings for psychology are:
psychology
psychology pathological
psychology, applied
developmental psychology
social psychology
human behavior
interpersonal communication
mental health (you can also use specific conditions as a subject, i.e., schizophrenia)
The MJC Library subscribes to many databases filled with authoritative articles, book chapters, research reports, statistics, and more from thousands of respected publications. You can search these article databases either by topic or for a specific article.
Using the Library's article databases ensures that you're using sources your instructors expect you to use, and you won't have to cull through millions of unrelated Web pages that will waste your time and energy.
All of these resources are free for you because you are a student at MJC. If you're working from anywhere off campus, you'll need to sign in just like you do for Canvas and your student email. |
The literature you find in articles is generally much more up-to-date than the information in books because periodicals (magazines, journals, newspapers) are published much more quickly. Using our library databases will help you find current research on your topic.
This short video shows you how to navigate our Article & Databases page:
Use the videos below to see how easy it is to find academic journal articles in two of our most used databases.
Use EBSCOhost Databases to Find Academic Journal Articles
Searching for Academic Articles in Gale Databases
Use Google to find scholarly literature available on the web.
Did you know you can:
Learn more about Google Scholar at Google Scholar Search Tips