CFS 493: Professional Self Series: Search Disciplinary Databases
The Search Process
Searching databases for articles is a process--your first search is not going to be your best search. As you try keyword searches and explore results, pay attention to the words and terms researchers use to describe ideas, as well as how the database describes the article with subject headings. Once you learn more "research-y" terms, you can go back and perform better, more targeted searches.
Selecting a Database
Who cares?
When you're ready to search for articles, the next thing to consider is "Who cares?" Research literature databases are often organized around disciplines or research areas. For example:
| RESEARCH TOPIC | BEST ARTICLE DATABASE | OTHER SUGGESTED DATABASE |
|---|---|---|
| Bullying in school | ERIC (Education) | PsycINFO (Psychology) |
| Racial discrimination and drug enforcement policy | Criminal Justice Abstracts (Criminal Justice) | Sociological Abstracts (Sociology) |
| Domestic violence prevention programs | Social Services Abstracts (Social Work) | PsycINFO (Psychology) |
| Substance abuse treatment for adolescents | PsycINFO (Psychology) | Social Services Abstracts (Social Work) |
Most Frequently Used Subject Databases
- Family Studies Abstracts
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Provides citations and abstracts on family studies research, including family therapy, marriage, children, and youth. - ERIC (EBSCO interface)Includes citations and full-text access to education research found in journals, books, and grey literature.
- Education SourceIncludes citations and full text articles from education research journals, books, and conference papers.
- PsycINFOMaintains citations and abstracts for journal articles, books, and dissertations in psychology about human behavior from 1879 to the present. Nearly 2500 journals are indexed in PsycINFO, and the database is updated weekly.
- Social Services AbstractsIncludes citations of journal articles, dissertations, and conference proceedings focused on social work, human services, social welfare, social policy, and community development.
Other Useful Subject Databases
- LGBT Life with Full TextIndexes and contains full text of international literature regarding gay, lesbian, bisexual, transexual, and transgender issues.
- Criminal Justice Abstracts with Full TextOffers citations, abstracts, and full text articles in scholarly journals on crime trends, prevention and deterrence, juveniles, police, courts,and sentencing.
- Sociological AbstractsIndexes citations to journal articles, book chapters, dissertations, and conference proceedings in the field of sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences.
- PubMed (Interface for MEDLINE)
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Provides citations and abstracts for journal articles in all areas of medical practice and research from 1953 to the present. - Environment CompleteProvides full text journals, books, and reference works that cover agriculture, ecosystem ecology, energy, renewable energy sources, natural resources, marine and freshwater science, geography, pollution and waste management, environmental technology, environmental law, public policy, social impacts along with urban planning.
Database Searching Tutorial
Tools to Expand Your Research in Google Scholar and PsycINFO Video
Search Tips
Construct your search using the keywords or terms relevant to your topic.
- Quotation marks can be used to search for phrases (e.g. "social cognition")
- Use OR to search both keywords/phrases
- Truncation searches for variants of a word. Use an asterik (*) at the root (e.g. psych* searches for psychology, psychologist, psychological, psychosocial)
The following will search for "Child Development" AND ("Domestic Violence" OR "Family Violence")
Before or after performing your search, you can further limits your results to Peer Reviewed Journals and Publication Date.
Using the "Record Type". Selecting "Peer Reviewed Journal" will update your results to be only research articles from peer reviewed journals.
Easily limit to the desired publication date range using the publication date option.
Find it @ PSU
If the article citation does not include links to the full text, click on the Find it @ PSU button to check availability. Find it @ PSU is the link to the full text article if available. Go to the link listed under "Online Access" to click through to the article.
If the PSU Library does not hold the article online or in print, order it through Interlibrary Loan & Article Delivery.
