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PSY 242: Abnormal Psychology: Help with Searching

Help with Searching

Advanced Searches in Databases
         AND, OR & NOT
        Field Searches
        Proximity Searches
        Truncation and Wildcard       
Finding More Articles

Advanced Searches in Databases

AND, OR & NOTPicture of three venn diagrams. The first one has survival in the left circle and mortality in the second circle the overlap between them are colored in to represent results from 'AND". The second on is the same two circle with all parts of each colored blue to represent results from 'OR". The last one has only the survival circle that is not overlapping with the mortality circle to represent the results of 'survival NOT mortatality'.

 

      AND, both terms must be in the hits

     

   

 

 

      OR, either terms can be in the hit (good for

      synonyms)

     

   

    NOT, removes hits with the not term (Google products use the minus (-)      sign.) 

Advanced Searches in Databases: Field Searches

Database searches search every field in the detailed record. You can some searches by field. Great ones to use are author, and subject headings. 

Advanced Searches in Databases: Proximity Searches

As part of proximity searches, you can specify how close, and in what order, you want the search terms to appear. The proximity operators are usually composed of a letter (N) or word (NEAR) and a number (to specify the number of words appearing between your search terms). For EBSCOHost databases use the letter (N) and Google products use AROUND(#).

This is a screen shot of the advance search page of Ageline from EBSCOHost. in the first box is 'assisted N3 living'. There is nothing in the other two boxes and all are set to the default search (Select a Field (optional)).

This is a screenshot of Google with 'elderly AROUND(3) "library programs"' as the search string.

Advanced Searches in Databases: Truncation & Wildcards

Truncation and Wildcards are very database specific. Usually the star symbol (*) finds multiple variations, like gr*y finds both grey and gray. The question mark (?) typically is used for unknowns.

EBSCOHost

Web of Science

Finding Similar Articles Using Google Scholar

Places to find similar articles are

Reference list of the article

'Similar Articles' in PubMed

'Cited by' in Google Scholar

1. Click on the 'Cited by' link in the last line of the entry.

This is a screenshot of one result from a search on Google Scholar. The phrase 'Cited by 86' in the last line of the entry is circled and highllighted..

2. If it is a large number, click box below title and use a simplified search to limit your results.

This is a screen shot of a title after you click the cited by button. Below the title is a box that is circled to highlight that it has been checked. It is next to the phrase 'Search within citing articles'.

Finding Similar Articles Using Web of Science

You can find articles that a paper used as references and ones that have cited the article in Web of Science

1. Copy and paste the title into the search box. Use the down arrow to change the search option from all fields to 'Title'. Click the 'search' button.

Screenshot of Web of Science advance search page. The drop down menu set to 'Title' is circled. A title of an article has been copied and pasted into the top search window.

 2. On the right hand side of the article title will be two numbers. First is 'citations'. These are the articles that used your original article as a reference. Second is 'references'. These are the resources that your original article used as references. Click on the number for the list of the resources

Screenshot of the results from the title search in Web of Science. The title is highlighted. The numbers for citations and references to the right of the article is circled.

3. You can use the limiters on the left hand side of the results list to narrow down your results.

This is a screen shot of the results page of a search results in Web of Science. An arrow points to the search within results box.

 

  • Last Updated: Jun 20, 2024 4:02 PM
  • URL: https://libguides.lib.miamioh.edu/psy242
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