The Peer-Review Process
The peer-review process is when experts in a subject (for example, psychology) carefully check a journal article before it is published to make sure the research is accurate, trustworthy, and adds to the field. Peer-review articles contain information about experiments and scholarly analysis.
Databases
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PsycINFO This link opens in a new windowProvides access to literature in fields of psychology, psychiatry, social work and related disciplines from 1887 to the present. Partial full-text / links to articles in other databases.
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PubMed This link opens in a new windowPubMed is a free search engine accessing primarily the MEDLINE database of references and abstracts on life sciences and biomedical topics. Citations may include links to full text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites.
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ScienceDirect This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text access to journals in the fields of science, psychology, medicine, and technology.
Boolean Operators: Search Tips
Databases use precision searching and specific language to organize records, which means that we must use keywords, Boolean Operators (AND,OR, NOT), and limiters to effectively search in them.
AND: Narrows search results. For example: Cat AND Dog will result in sources that have both of these words contained in them.
OR: Broadens search results. For example: Cat OR Dog will result in any source that has either of these words contained in them.
NOT: Excludes certain keywords from search results. For example: Cat NOT Dog will result in only sources that have the word cat contained in them.
Truncation: Use an asterisk * to truncate and search for variations of a word, including plural forms. For example: immigrat* searches for the words immigrant, immigrants, immigrate, immigration
Wildcard: Use the question mark to represent more than one letter in a word, especially for words that do not form their plural by adding "s" or "es" and instead have different spellings. For example: wom?n searches for both women and woman.
Phrases: Use quotation marks to search for words as a phrase rather than separate single words. For example: "undocumented immigrant" will search for these two words together as a phrase. This also helps keep your search results narrow and more focuses on the topic you are looking for.
Example of key word search in PsychInfo database.
(Mnemonic) AND (study) AND (student)
Search Terms
Suggested Search Terms:
*This is not a comprehensive list nor does it include all study techniques
"learning Strategies"
"mnemonic learning"
"Study habits"
"note taking"
"Spaced repetition"
"retrieval practice"
Interleaving/"interleaved practice"
"self-explanation"
"Dual-coding theory"
"Elaborative interrogation"
*To brainstorm addition search terms, look in textbook or other scholarly articles for terms