LibGuides: PSYC 499: Troubleshooting

Can't find what you're looking for in PsycINFO?

While PsycINFO should be your go-to for psychology research, you might also find relevant articles in multidisciplinary databases like Google Scholar or Web of Science. Because psychological research frequently overlaps with other fields, you'll also discover pertinent studies in subject-specific databases such as Medline (for health research) or ERIC (for educational research). For instance, a study on the psychological effects of a new medical treatment would likely appear in Medline, while research on cognitive development in children would be found in ERIC.

A key difference to remember when using these other databases is that they lack a "Methodology" filter. Therefore, to determine if an article is an empirical study, you'll need to carefully read the abstract of each article.

Medline with Full Text (EBSCO)
Provides the authoritative medical information on medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, and pre-clinical sciences found on MEDLINE, plus the database provides full text for more than 1,470 journals indexed in MEDLINE.
Google Scholar
Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations. Google Scholar helps you identify the most relevant research across the world of scholarly research.
Data Citation Index - Web of Science
Access an array of data across subjects and regions, providing a comprehensive picture of research output to understand data in context and maximize research efforts.
ERIC (EBSCO)
Gain immediate access to information from journals included in the Current Index of Journals in Education and Resources in Education Index with ERIC.

Other tips for finding literature on your topic

If you are suffering from "keyword search burnout", there are other methods for finding material. These methods should be regularly employed as part of your search process.

Read the bibliographies of the resources you have already found – it will help you find additional leads to materials.
Look for "related publication" links. If you use Google Scholar, in your list of results you will notice that it provides "cited by" and "related articles" links. These can lead you to additional information on your topic.
Search by author. If you know the name of an author who has written extensively in your field, use Summon or Google Scholar to see if you can locate more of his/her works. Both Summon and Google Scholar allow you to search by author name (look for this option in their "Advanced Search" screen).
Search for theses and dissertations on your topic. Theses and dissertations have extensive bibliographies. If you can find one on your topic, it is another source for resources.