PsycARTICLES

Printable version

Introduction | Accessing | Searching | Search Results | Managing Search Results | Search Tips 

Introduction

PsycARTICLES provides full-text articles in general and specialized psychology from over 50 peer-reviewed journals published by the American Psychological Association, the APA Educational Publishing Foundation, the Canadian Psychological Association, and Hogrefe & Huber. The database includes all material from the print journals with the exception of advertisements and editorial board lists. The database contains articles about general psychology and specialized basic, applied, clinical, and theoretical research in psychology, including topics such as: abnormal psychology addictive behaviors adult development and aging behavioral neuroscience comparative psychology educational psychology experimental psychology family psychology history of psychology interpersonal relations and group processes personality psychology psychopharmacology psychotherapy rehabilitation psychology Coverage dates are from 1985 to present (year varies by title), with weekly updates.

Accessing

This database may be accessed from the Databases page of the Electronic Resources section of the NSU Alvin Sherman Library website. For more on how to access databases visit http://www.nova.edu/library/dils/lessons/electroniclibrary/

Searching

When you open PsycARTICLES the screen defaults to the Advanced Search mode. To choose between search modes, click on the Quick Search or Advanced Search tabs near the top of the screen. To construct a search in PsycARTICLES using the Advanced Search screen type your search term(s) in the search boxes (the Advanced Search feature is not case sensitive) click on Search to obtain a list of records Not all of the empty search boxes need to contain words in order for the search to proceed. Consult the Search Tips for additional information on constructing your search. Advanced search screen in PsycARTICLES.

Search Results

Search results will vary. If you get: No records matched your search, then check your spelling or the fields you searched in. Too many, then go back and limit your search. Sometimes a search needs to be modified with: additional search words, searching only a specific field, adding date limitations, or type of materials. Too few, then go back and expand your search. Consider synonyms for your search words or concepts. Try to use professional language or terminology. Irrelevant results, then try new search terms. Consider synonyms or related concepts. Identify and search using descriptors. Try a different database. Results lists A list of search results matching your search terms will be displayed. The Search Results page shows citations from All Publication Types that matched your search. Most will be from Peer-Reviewed Journals. link to view an item's record, references, and table of contents links to view full-text in HTML and PDF format Sample search results in PsycARTICLES. To navigate through the results use the Previous or Next links to move through the results Navigating through search results in PsycARTICLES. Records To view a record: Select the View Record link at the bottom left corner of each item. The record includes the article citation and other details, abstract, and references cited in the article. Please note that the link to Table of Contents is to the table of contents of the journal in which the article appears. To view full text: Select Full-Text HTML or Full-Text PDF. Sample record in PsycARTICLES.

Managing Search Results

Databases typically allow you to manage your search results by marking or tagging records to select only the records that you want from your search results from later printing, emailing and/or saving printing the search results list and/or specific records emailing the search results list and/or specific records to your email address saving the search results list and/or specific records–some databases may allow you to save your file for export into commercial bibliographic citation manager software, such as EndNote or ProCite Not all search management features are available in all databases. Marking Marking is an important feature in CSA Databases. The "mark" feature allows you to select records from within your search results. By marking items, you can print, email or save multiple records at one time. To mark a record: In the Search Results, click in the check box Or, in the Record View, click in the check box Then, click Update Marked List link to add checked records to your list. You may select your marked records or a range of up to 500 records from your results to print. The default will be the records that you have marked. Choose the format of the records and enter comments to be inserted on the record list. PsycARTICLES records include cited references, which may be removed to reduce the size of the file. Once you have printed your marked records, you may opt to clear your marked records and start a new list, or you may continue to add to your current selections. Printing To print a record or list of records Click on the Save/Print/Email Records link from the "View Record" link as seen on the list of Search Results. You will have two options use either the results from the 'marked record list' or all the records from All Publications Type Click the Print Preview button to display records in a printable format. Use your browser's print function to print. This can be done either by clicking the print icon on the navigation toolbar, or clicking on the File menu, then clicking on Print. To return to your results, use the back button on your browser. Please note that this will print the record only, which does NOT include the full-text. To print a full-text article Click on the link to Full-Text HTML or Full-Text PDF For HTML, select Print from the File menu, or click on the Print button of your browser OR For PDF, click on the Print button for Adobe Reader. Printing full-text article in HTML format Printing full-text article in PDF format Emailing To email a record or list of records Mark the records you want to email Click Update Marked List In order to print records first click on the Save/Print/Email Records link from the Result list or from the "View Record" link as seen on the list of Search Results Change to Full format To email the records, enter the address(es) you would like the records sent to in the Email to: box. In the From: box enter the address that you would like to appear as the sender in the email account(s) you are sending the results to. Once sent, use the back button on your browser to return to your search. Please note that the emailed records do not include full text. Use your complete email address and include a note about what you are sending in the comment box. Emailing a record in PsycARTICLES Confirmation message in PsycARTICLES. Saving To save a record or list of records Select the type of computer you are using to save records. Then click the Save button. To save a full-text article From the Search Results list, click on the link to Full-Text HTML or Full-Text PDF For HTML click on File menu, then Save As in your browser select a location for the file type in a file name save as filetype .txt (Text file) For PDF click on the Save button for Adobe Reader. select a location for the file type in a file name save as filetype .pdf (PDF file) Saving a full-text article in HTML format. Saving a full-text article in PDF format.

Search Tips

Use advanced search features to modify a search to obtain more successful search results. You can combine search features to modify and improve your search. Advanced search features often include: phrase or proximity searching field searching date document and/or publication type additional limitation features Boolean operators plurals and wildcards One useful tip when searching any electronic database is to leave out articles, prepositions, and very abstract or general terms–they confuse the database's search engine. For example, if the paper is on "The Effectiveness of Psychotherapy of Adolescent Depression" use the most precise terms like 'major depression' and 'psychotherapy' and skip 'effectiveness,' 'the' and 'of.' You can either limit to 'adoloscent' age group or add this term to the original search. Phrase or proximity searching In Cambridge Scientific Abstracts, there are several ways to search for a phrase terms typed in the same entry box are automatically searched as a phrase higher education curriculum development put the phrase in double quotes, such as "higher education" "curriculum development" use within 1 to search for a phrase: (higher) within 1 (education) (curriculum) within 1 (development) Field searching To limit your search to a specific field in the record use the pull-down arrow–to the left of each text entry box scroll to the field to limit your search to click on the field name Selecting the search field in PsycARTICLES. Date To limit a search to specific dates go to the Date Range section of the screen–below the entry boxes select the desired years using the pull down arrows Limiting by date range in PsycARTICLES. Publication type PsycARTICLES includes only journal articles. However, you can limit to the following types of article: Erratum or retractions, Journal article, or Book review. To specify a type of article: scroll down to the Limited to section below the Advanced Search area. select a Publication Type from the pull-down menu. You can select multiple items within a menu by holding down the Ctrl key and clicking on items. Searching for specific document types in PsycARTICLES. Additional limitation features PsycARTICLES has very few limiting options. In addition to Publication Type, you can also limit by Language. To limit a search: scroll down to the Limited to section below the Advanced Search area. select options from the pull-down menu for any desired limits. Limits available in PsycARTICLES include: Publication Type, and Language. You can select multiple items within a menu by holding down the Ctrl key and clicking on items. Additional limiting options in PsycARTICLES. Boolean operators The Boolean operators, AND, OR, and NOT, can be used to modify a search click on the pull-down arrow–between entry boxes click on the Boolean operator to use Use AND to narrow a search. AND looks for both terms in the same record. leadership and vision; mainstreaming and science Use OR to broaden a search. OR looks for either term in the same record. mainstreaming or inclusion; elementary education or secondary education Use NOT to eliminate records with a certain term. Saturn not car; Venus not planet Plurals and Wildcards Use the following symbols in PsycARTICLES to locate plural forms, truncate search terms, or replace characters: ? Single-character wildcard for finding alternative spellings. The ? represents a single character; two ?? represent two characters.Use within or at the end of a word, e.g., wom?n finds woman as well as women, and carbon fib?? finds carbon fiber or carbon fibre. * Truncation. This expands a search term to include all forms of a root word, e.g., hear* retrieves hear, hears, heard, hearing, heart * Multi-character wildcard for finding alternative spellings. Use to indicate an unlimited number of characters within a word, e.g., behavi*r retrieves behaviour or behavior.