CHECKLIST
1. READ BACKGROUND INFORMATION in encyclopedias, textbooks, book chapters
- Print reference books - browse call numbers BF, HM-HT, RM-RS
- Online reference books – see “Reference” tab on library homepage
2. BRAINSTORM KEYWORDS and phrases
3. CONCEPTS: identify the CONCEPTS in my topic and realize that I may do several different searches.
- e.g. How could garden or horticultural therapy could benefit autistic children?
- search SPECIFICALLY:
- garden AND autis*
- garden AND autis* AND children
- (garden OR horticultur*) AND autis*
- (garden OR horticultur*) AND autis* AND children
- search THIS therapy within ANY population:
- (garden OR horticultur*) AND therapy
- search ANY therapy type with THIS population:
- therapy AND autis* AND children
4. THESAURUS: utilize the PsycInfo THESAURUS for related disciplinary words for my topic
5. AUTHORITY: what are the foundational texts and important authors in this subject area?
- Search library catalogs (MC, I-Share, WorldCat) for research books to give context
- Who is being cited frequently?
- ENCYCLOPEDIAs give context to a topic and name important figures
6. OTHER DATABASES (e.g. Medline, SportDiscus) - See suggestions on the research guide webpage (Scholarly Articles tab)
7. EVALUATE what you find
- Date article was written
- Read the abstract: is it relevant to me?
- Type of article: does the article summarize the work of others’ research (review article) or does it report on original research (empirical research)?
8. FOLLOW THE TRAIL: How can I find more like this?
- What else has the AUTHOR written? Conduct an author search in the database.
- BIBLIOGRAPHIES:
- Who did the author cite? (going backward in time)
- Who cited the author? (going forward in time)
- “Cited References” in PsycInfo
- “Cited by” in Google Scholar
- SUBJECT field of the database
9. SAVE
- Save search history
- Mark citations, email to yourself, and/or upload to Google Drive
