Database Skills (PsycINFO)

Getting Started

Welcome to the Database Skills Tutorial Series.

This tutorial will teach you about using the PsycINFO database.

This "Guide on the Side" tutorial allows you to continue to use the library websites while also following along with the tutorial.

Note: If you are off campus, you may be asked for your Pirate ID and passphrase to log in to the database.

The tutorial will take approximately 10 minutes. Click the right arrow at the bottom of this pane to proceed.

Navigation

Before we begin, please take note of the following navigation buttons that you will see in the Guide on the Side panel:

Your Turn: This button represents an opportunity to use the database during the tutorial, so please follow the directions.

 

Ask Us: Click this to be connected with a librarian via IM when the Research Desk is open.

 

Let's get started!

Sample Topic

For the purposes of this tutorial, we will be using the following sample topic:

What are the symptoms and treatments of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in soldiers who have battlefield experience in Iraq?

Let's say the paper requirements say that you need at least 4 scholarly sources.

You can find scholarly sources in a database, but what is that?

Defining Databases

You can find articles by searching in a database. A database is a searchable collection of information. Examples of everyday databases include your iTunes library and IMDB, the Internet Movie Database. A library database contains scholarly journal articles, newspapers, magazine articles, trade journals, and sometimes book chapters.

The database we are searching in this tutorial is PsycINFO. This is a subject-specific database, which means it is limited to one field of study: Psychology.

Advanced Searching

In the field of Psychology, you may need to do some advanced searching to find exactly what you need. Your professor may ask you to locate studies using specific types of methodologies in their research, such as empirical studies. You may need to find information about a known psychological test that is put to use in a study. Click on the following links to learn more about specific advanced searching techniques and their uses. All of these limiters can be found by looking on the first search page displayed by PsycINFO.

Methodology

Tests and Measures

Choose Databases

 

 

Keywords

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Recall that our sample topic is, "What are the symptoms and treatments of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in soldiers who have battlefield experience in Iraq?" The next step we must complete is to develop keywords.

Your Turn! Take the research topic and turn it in to keywords for the database. Click on the answer below to see what we will be searching.

Answer

 

To get additional help with keywords and Boolean operators, you may wish to visit our Graduate 101 Research Tutorial.

Keywords

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Your Turn! Your search is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder OR PTSD AND soldiers AND Iraq. Place these search terms into the search box of the database and click search to see the results.

You should have some results on your screen. But how do you make sure they are current, scholarly information?

 

 

 

Limiters

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Notice that on the left side, you will see limiters for the following:

• Linked Full Text
• Date
• Source Type
• Subject
• Age
• Methodology
• Tests & Measures
• Population
• And more...

Your Turn! Click on the check box next to Academic Journals in "Source Types". Notice the results list getting shorter. Next, change the date range to the last 5 years. Notice that the results list gets shorter again.

Limiters

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Advanced Limiters

Recall that on the initial search screen, you were able to look at Methodologies and Tests and Measures. On the left hand side, notice that these options are still available to you. Expand the lists to see the tests and measures used for the studies on PTSD. 

Additionally, you can see that there are linked Subjects on this limiters panel. Click on these links to look at a smaller list with only those articles that fit the subject listed. Subject terms are based on the words used to organize the database by topic. If your search is coming up with only a few results, this is a good way to learn what keywords to search for your topic. Look at the subject listing and then try a new search.

 

Limiters

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A Note about Full Text

The Full Text option allows you to see only the items with the whole article attached. If the whole article is not available as a PDF, many times, if you click the purple Find It! button, you will see that ECU Libraries do, in fact, have the full text in another database or journal. If we do not have an article, we can normally get it for you via Interlibrary Loan. This free service can be used to borrow an article or book from another library that does have it.

 

 

 

 

Results

You should be looking at a list of peer reviewed journal articles about soldiers with PTSD written in the last 5 years. To learn more about an article, click on the article title in the center of the page, or hover over spyglass icon at the end of the title. The resulting record you will see has a short summary called the abstract. Read this to decide if the article is right for your project.

Your Turn! Hover over a few of the titles in the list to see their abstracts. Which would you consider using for your paper?

 

 

Using the Folder

Next, notice the icon that says Add to Folder. If you would like to save an article for use in your research, you can add it to the folder. The folder is a temporary space to hold articles.

Your Turn! Add 4 articles to the folder by clicking on Add to Folder.

 

 

 

 

Email your Results

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In order to access the articles in your folder at a later time, you will need to email them to yourself.

Your Turn! Scroll to the top of the screen to access the folder. Click the folder and notice that on the right there is the option to Email.

Once you have accessed the Email option, you can do the following:

• Enter your own email address
• Enter a subject and comments
• Change the citation format to the format required for your paper
• Click Send!

Email your Results

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You should now have 4 items for your paper on PTSD in soldiers that have been sent to your inbox. These articles will be attached to the email if they were PDFs, or there will be a link back to the database. You will have the citation for your articles, as well, but make sure to check them over before copying and pasting them in to your bibliography.

Next Steps: If you wish to complete this tutorial again with your own topic, you may start over by clicking Back Home.

 

 

Certificate

Please enter your name and email address to retrieve a copy of your completed quiz.

You can enter multiple email addresses separated by commas. If you are doing this for a class, you may need to enter your instructor's email address also.