View video tutorial for help finding research articles by topic.
Follow interactive tutorial for help finding research articles by topic.
Use screenshot tutorial (in right box) for help finding research articles by topic.
Starting with a topic and need help finding articles in academic journals?
Below are steps for searching the psychology literature by topic.
STEPS 3 & 4: Go to library databases and plug in search terms
Basic Search – search for terms in all fields
Search Strategies
Boolean Operators – AND (find all terms to get fewer results [default]), OR (find any of terms to get more results), NOT (find first term but not second term)
Truncation & Wildcard Symbols – * (replace multiple characters anywhere in term), ? (replace one character inside or to right of term)
Proximity Operators – " " (find terms next to each other in order given [phrase]), NEAR/n (find terms in any order within specified number of words [default is 4]), PRE/n (find terms in order given within specified number of words [default is 4])
STEP 5: Filter and look through results
Filters are available for full text, peer reviewed, source type, publication date, publication title, record type, subject, classification, age group, population, methodology, language, impact statements, location, test & measure, supplemental data, and target audience.
Source type and language should be used to filter results to articles in academic (or scholarly) journals written in English.
STEP 6: Identify additional terms or ways to search
Basic Search – search for terms in all fields
Advanced Search – enter terms into different boxes and/or search for terms in specific fields
STEP 7: Save relevant and/or interesting results
OR
Check add to selected items box in record
STEP 8: Find articles and read them
Determine if full-text of article is available in database.
OR
Click on full-text PDF tab in record
Determine if full-text of article is available in other resources subscribed to by UAB Libraries using linker.
OR
Click on article linker in record
Request full-text of article from another library using interlibrary loan.