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Writing 101: Writing in the Disciplines - Psychology (Downey)

Step 3 - Find Research & Information Sources

How & Where to SearchDecorative element: Icon of Albert Einstein drawn in outlines

Finding information requires a lot of skills that you may not be aware that you have or that you are developing. Use this page to learn strategies for HOW to find the most relevant information to meet your needs. 

Use the sub-pages to learn WHERE to search for research on your topic or question.

Keep in mind that sources are not fixed in time, but are parts of an ongoing scholarly conversation about a topic. For example, Albert Einstein started a conversation about relativity and quantum mechanics, but since his day, the discourse has grown and grown with new discoveries and new ideas in the field of Physics, its subfields, and other related fields. 

 

Check out information in Step 5 about Citation Trails to learn how to discover additional citations to relevant works to help you answer your research question.

BOO-lean Operators (Halloween edition)

Image by Kelly Blanchat, Yale University Library

Phrase Searching

 

" "

To search for specific phrases, enclose them in quotation marks. The database will search for those words together in that order.

Examples:

“Italian Renaissance”

"pictorial hangings"

"15th century"

"Mannerist period"

"Renaissance architecture"

"Battle of San Romano"

Truncation

 

TRUNCATION

Truncate a word in order to search for different forms of the same word. Many database use the asterisk * as the truncation symbol.

Examples:

Truncate the word architect* and you will search for architect, architects, architecture, etc.

Add the truncation symbol to the word paint* to search for paint, painter, painters, painting etc.

religio* to search for religion, religious etc.

Finding Known Items

If you have a known item, especially a journal article, here are some places to search to locate the item.

1) Google Scholar

  • includes many articles and references to books, a quick way to check for article titles though it is not exhaustive

2) UC Library Search

  • includes a wide range of formats and goes beyond UC's collection
  • can Request easily from records in this catalog

3) Selected Database

  • If the article is from Psychology, you could try a document title searching in a database like PsycInfo OR Web of Science to locate the item.

4) Journals @ UC Merced

  • includes coverage details for periodicals (newspapers, journals, and magazines)
  • use to determine if UC Merced has the periodical

Activity:

Can you find these articles? Use the methods above to see if you can find these articles. 

Goyal, Manu S. et al. (2019). Persistent metabolic youth in the aging female brain. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 

Boothy, E. J, Cooney, G, & Sandstrom, G.M. (2018). The liking gap in conversations: do people like us more than we think? Psychological Science. 29(3). 1742-1756.

Search Strategies Reviews

Step 3 - Pause to Reflect

Pause to Reflect

Did you find the information you needed? Will it help you answer your research question? If not, it might be time to reach out to a Research Librarian for an appointment. Decorative element: Icon of a standing person in a pensive pose with a thought bubble above their head

As researchers, we should approach the evidence we find with an open mind. Research should broaden or inform our perspectives, and not confirm our own biases. If your research is just a collection of cherry-picked quotes, you may need to go back to the library catalog, UC Library Search, or the article databases to gather more information and other perspectives to consider.