1. PSYC 3401
Experimental Psychology
Prof Traci Welch Moritz
Public Services Librarian
Assistant Professor
Heterick Memorial Library

2. Goals for today
• Devise a research strategy
• Begin background research
• Select and access resources
• Critically evaluating resources
• Saving resources found using
Bibliographic Citation Software

3. How am I going to remember
everything you are going to tell me?

4. Research Guides

5. What do I do first?
 Take a look at your topic and
identify key search terms, Ask a
question.
 Most databases now use an implied
boolean logic search scheme so a
keyword search will get you started.
 Boolean logic is the use of AND,
NOT, OR to narrow or expand your
search
 See Research Guide for PSYC
3401

6. Research Strategy
DEFINING YOUR TOPIC
Most important
part of
research is
at the
beginning

7. Research Tools
• Internet
• Catalogs
– POLAR
– OhioLINK
• Databases
– General
– Subject Specific

8. So what next?
• Start big doing background reading
• Look for patterns
• Look at reference sources, LC subject
heading list, subject headings in
research tools
• Ask a librarian 
• Look at thesaurus in the research tools
• Narrow your topic for a more focused
product

9. Internet Tools
Google and Wikipedia aren’t intrinsically
evil, just use them for the correct purpose
in your research.

10. Internet Tools
Note: If
working Google Scholar
off ONU buys
campus Full-text
database Google asks
please to link to
see the content
“google OhioLINK
Permits
scholar” Google to Run Google
tab at the link to full-text Scholar
Research Search
Guide for
PSYC ONU user sees
licensed full-text
3401 articles

11. Critically analyzing
web sources
• What? is the page/site about
• Who? created and maintains this site
• Where? Is the information coming from
• Why? Is the information presented on the
web
• When? Was the page created or last
updated
• How? Accurate or credible is the page
From the University of Wisconsin Library,
worksheet for evaluating web sites

12. What do I do next?
Use library resources to continue
your background research.

13. Research Strategy
DEFINING YOUR TOPIC
If needed, you
will want to get
an overview of BACKGROUND
your topic. RESEARCH
Reference
works can help
as well as
general books.

14. Find a Book∞POLAR

15. Find a Book∞POLAR
•Looks in several locations (usually
subject, article title, abstracts or
contents)
•Does not require an exact match
•Generates comparatively large
number of hits (not precise)
•Good if you are not familiar with
terminology
•Look for the same or similar words
which keep appearing

16. Find a Book∞POLAR
•Looks in one place – subject
•Usually requires an exact match
between your term and a pre-set
list of terms
•Precise
•Can be used after keyword
search has identified specific
subjects
•Click on the “Find Similar Items” link
found on each item record

17. Find a Book∞OhioLink
• Materials owned by all Ohio colleges,
universities, several public libraries
• Ca. 10 million items
• Link from POLAR permits you to submit
requests. Available from Heterick home
page
• Most requests arrive in 2-3 working days
• No charge
• Limited to 100 items at a time
• MAY RENEW UP TO 4 TIMES

18. What do I do next?
Use databases to find articles based on
your search strategy

19. Research Strategy
DEFINING YOUR TOPIC
BACKGROUND
With a basic RESEARCH
understanding of
your topic, it is DETAILED
time to get RESEARCH
more detail

20. Research Tools∞Databases
• Often tools for locating journal
and newspaper articles
• Most are subject-specific – some
multi-disciplinary
• Many give access to full text of
articles
• Heterick has over 250

21. Scholarly, Peer-reviewed
Popular
• Periodical means the
same as Magazine
Usually magazines are
more “popular”
• Journals
Scholarly or Professional
Peer reviewed See Research Guide
for PSYC 340 for
this and other
Handouts

22. Databases -- Subject Specific
– MEDLINE with Full Text
– Psychology and Behavioral
Science Collection
– Gender Studies Database
– PsycINFO 1967 – present
– PubMed
(for off campus access, click on the “off-campus access” flag
and log in using first and last name and all 11 digits ONU
ID )

23. Tools -- Bibliographic
Citation Software
– REFWORKS

24. Databases -- Subject Specific
• Medline Plus with full text

25. Databases -- Subject Specific
• Psychology and Behavioral Science
Collection

26. Databases -- Subject Specific
• Gender Studies Database

27. Databases -- Subject Specific
• PsycINFO

28. Databases -- Subject Specific
• PubMed

29. Databases -- Subject Specific
• Social Sciences Citation Index

30. Citation Databases
• “General” databases –
searchable by subject, title,
author, etc.
• Citation databases – as
above but tells you who has
cited a particular article -
significance

31. Citation Databases (ISI)
• Science Citation Index Expanded
(SCI-EXPANDED)--1980-present
• Social Sciences Citation Index
(SSCI)--1980-present
• Arts & Humanities Citation Index
(A&HCI)--1980-present
• Combined into product, Web of
Knowledge

32. General or Subject Citation
Specific Database Database
Your Search Terms Your Search Terms
Keyword / subject KW / subject
Sources
Author (citations)
Author used by
authors
themselves
Title
Title
Etc Etc.

33. Advantages
• Gauge significance of individual
articles & authors
• Uses expertise of experts in the field
• Gives insight into research patterns
in different disciplines
• Can save you time – especially
when doing more rigorous research

34. Empirical Article --
summarizing original research
Components of…
• Abstract – A report of an empirical study includes an abstract that
provides a very brief summary of the research.
• Introduction – The introduction sets the research in a context, which
provides a review of related research and develops the hypotheses for
the research.
• Method – The method section is a description of how the research was
conducted, including who the participants were, the design of the
study, what the participants did, and what measures were used.
• Results – The results section describes the outcomes of the measures
of the study.
• Discussion – The discussion section contains the interpretations and
implications of the study.
• General Discussion – There may be more than one study in the report;
in this case, there are usually separate Method and Results sections
for each study followed by a general discussion that ties all the
research together.
• References – A references section contains information about the
articles and books cited in the report.

35. Recognizing Empirical
Research
• Language
• measurement
• psychological aspects
• reports
• research statistics
• usage
• Length of Article
• Empirical research articles are usually
substantial (more than 1 or 2 pages) and
include a bibliography or cited references
section (usually at the end of the article).

36. Searching for empirical
studies Hints and Tips
1. Always click on “peer 3. Also try the keywords
reviewed” and/or "research,"
“scholarly (peer "experiment," or
reviewed) "study"
periodicals” link if 4. Some databases will
available allow you to limit your
2. Try a search that search to a particular
combines the type of publication or
keyword "empirical" content. Use this
with keywords that feature to limit your
represent your topic. search to only
Example: social work empirical or
and empirical. research-based
articles or case study

37. InterLibrary Loan
You can cut and paste
from most any
source, so just fill in all
the lines you can.
ISSN is the unique
number every
periodical is assigned
so it’s great if you can
include that in your
request. Be sure to
only use the print
ISSN, not the on-line
ISSN.

38. Detailed Research
DEFINING YOUR TOPIC
BACKGROUND
RESEARCH
DETAILED
RESEARCH
FINAL
PRODUCT

39. QUESTIONS?
• Ask at the Reference Desk
• Phone the Reference Desk –
2185
• Contact us by E-mail
reference@onu.edu
• Use Chat Help feature or
• IM feature