Q: What if one of our key terms is too broad? (e.g. if there are too few synonyms)
A: My general advice here would be:
Q: Is PsycInfo better/worse than using the U of T library website?
A: I'd call it "better" in the sense that a) it's going to draw from a more precise/psychology-oriented pool of literature and b) offers more advanced filtering options (e.g. peer-reviewed, empirical journal articles) than the library website does. That's not to say you shouldn't use the library website, but I'd definitely recommend it as a supplement to PsycInfo.
Q: Within one database like PsycInfo, can we combine or find articles related to other fields? Like finding info on psych and tech?
A: The main thing I'd note here is that different disciplines have different databases that cater to their specific subject area. While there is some overlap between resources, there is also unique literature within these databases that you won't necessarily find elsewhere (which is why its generally a good idea when doing comprehensive literature searches to look in more than one place). As long as a study has a strong psychological component, however, there is a good likelihood that it will be indexed in PsycInfo (and this database would definitely have literature on psychology as it relates to tech). So for the purposes of this course/your debate topic, you should be safe primarily sticking to this database.
Q: What if even the subheadings of the results/articles are not exactly what you need?
A: If you can't find any subject terms to match close enough to what you're looking for, trying using the "search as a keyword" option when you search a term in PsycInfo OVID. From there, check any relevant results and then go to the "Complete Reference" view of the article(s) to see if the "Subject Headings" section has any relevant terms you can use. If you see them come up in more than once across several relevant results, that's usually a good indication that it'd be a useful term to use. If you've tried a few iterations and it's not working out, it might be worth going back to the drawing board to brainstorm further around possible directions for your topic. If you find this is something you're struggling with, feel free to reach out to me and/or the Reference Desk in the library with a summary of what you've tried so far, and we can try to give some additional pointers from there!
Q: Is there a location to find citations of articles?
A: Yes! PsycInfo has built in citation information for all its indexed literature. To find newer citations, use the "Find Citing Articles" link to the right of the article title:
Note that this approach only pulls citations from within the PsycInfo database, it will not pull from other external citations. To see a broader scope, you can look up the article title in Google Scholar and use the "Cited by" link provided there, with the caution that a) those references will not necessarily be peer-reviewed, and b) they will pull from a much broader pool of non-psychological literature.
To find older citations, select a result's "Complete Reference" link in PsycInfo to pull up the article record. If you scroll down, there will be a "Cited References" section where you can find past literature referenced in the study.
Questions from previous years can be found below:
Q: Is Wikipedia ok to use when getting started?
A: Wikipedia is a great tool for doing background research and getting a broad overview of your topic; you can also check the References section of a Wikipedia entry for relevant studies (but double-check to make sure that they're peer-reviewed, empirical articles). If you find a good article, you could even try creating a "Title" search in PsycINFO to a) see if it's indexed in the database, and if so, b) go to its Complete Reference page to look for relevant Subject Headings:
Step 1: Conduct a 'Title' search in PsycINFO.
Step 2: If the article is available in PsycINFO, check its 'Complete Reference' page for relevant Subject Headings; you can then use these terms to create a search strategy for similar articles.
Q: Can we use other search engines such as Google Scholar, so far as we are looking at peer-reviewed articles?
A: Google Scholar can definitely be a useful place to check and makes a great supplement to PsycInfo. However, keep in mind that it will pull in a lot more results from across many disciplines, which can make results irrelevant and tedious to sort through. Results retrieved from the Google Scholar search engine are also not guaranteed to be peer reviewed, so if you find any results of interest, it's important to verify that they've gone through a peer review process.
Q: What is the use of "AND" and "OR" in a search?
A: "AND" is used to combine distinct concepts in a search. It narrows your search by pulling in only articles where both search terms are present (e.g. mindfulness AND depression). "OR" is used to combine synonyms or related concepts in a search. It will broaden your search to pull in articles which use different terminology around a shared concept (e.g. happiness OR well being OR life satisfaction).
This video from McMaster Libraries provides an overview of each, as well as the third Boolean Operator "NOT."
Q: Is there an easier way to use the keywords instead of AND/OR?
A: Databases like PsycINFO rely on combining concepts using the AND/OR functions, so this is a necessary step when developing your search.
Q: How do I broaden my topic/what do I do if I get too few results?
A: There's a few things you can try to increase your number of results:
Q: How do I narrow down a topic/what do I do if I get too many results?
A: There's a few things you can try to decrease your number of results:
Q: Does OVID work with other databases/would these databases have the same search mechanics?
A: Yes, it does! OVID is a platform that hosts a number of different databases, including PsycInfo. While there are some nuances from database to database (for example, the designated subject heading for a term may vary slightly between databases), the base process for searching within OVID is the same. You can see a list of some key OVID databases on our Popular databases page, under the OVID (Interdisciplinary) heading, which also includes a link to the full list of OVID databases available through U of T.
Q: What to do if I cannot find a full article using library resources?
A: Feel free to email me for assistance or stop by the Information and Reference Desk in the Library. If UofT doesn't have the article, we can request it free of charge from another library.
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