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PY 700: Foundations of Research Design: Find Sources

Get Items

Interlibrary loan service enables students to borrow materials not available at the UAB Libraries from other libraries.

Document delivery service sends students electronic copies of articles from the UAB Libraries print journal collection.

Courier service allows students to request materials be moved between Lister Hill Library, Sterne Library, and the remote storage facility in the 801 Building.

Library Databases

Consult the subject categories below for more library databases.

Find Items

OneSearch is a tool for searching multiple library resources using one interface.

 

 

WorldCat is a tool for searching library catalogs around the world.

Search for an item in libraries near you:
 
WorldCat.org >>

Items not held by the UAB Libraries may be requested from other libraries by clicking on the interlibrary loan button.

PsycINFO is a tool for searching the psychological and behavioral sciences literature (1806 to present).

Below are tips for searching PsycINFO:

  • Boolean Operators – enter in lowercase or uppercase letters
             AND         Use to find all of the terms and to get fewer results   [default operator]
             OR   Use to find any of the terms and to get more results
             NOT           Use to find the first term but not the second term

  • Truncation – automatically finds plural from singular and applies variant spellings
              *                       Use to replace multiple characters anywhere in the term
              ?   Use to replace a single character anywhere in the term

  • Proximity
             " "            Use to find the terms next to each other in the order given as a phrase
             PRE/n   Use to find the terms within a specified number of terms (n) in order given
             NEAR/n   Use to find the terms within a specified number of terms (n) in any order

  •  Subject Terms – identify subjects and identifiers describing topic and use as terms in advanced search

  • Controlled Vocabulary – standardized terminology from the Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms

PubMed is a tool for searching the biomedical literature (1950 to present).  [research guide]

Below are tips for searching PubMed:

  • Boolean Operators – enter in UPPERCASE letters
             AND                  Use to find all of the terms and to get fewer results   [default operator]
             OR   Use to find any of the terms and to get more results
             NOT   Use to find the first term but not the second term

  • Truncation – try without due to automatic term mapping
              *                        Use to replace characters at the end of the term

  • Proximity – try without due to automatic term mapping
              " "                      Use to find the terms next to each other in the order given as a phrase

  • Automatic Term Mapping – concepts are mapped to subject headings and searched as phrases and individual terms in all fields

NOTE:  Truncation and proximity operators turn off automatic term mapping so may not want to use these strategies

  • Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) – identify subjects describing topic and use as terms in advanced search

NOTE:  Not all records in PubMed have MeSH terms so some results may be missing from subject searches

  • Controlled Vocabulary – standardized terminology from Index Medicus  (MeSH database)

Scopus is a tool for searching the scientific literature.  [research guide]

Below are tips for searching Scopus:

  • Boolean Operators – enter in lowercase or uppercase letters
             AND         Use to find all of the terms and to get fewer results   [default operator]
             OR   Use to find any of the terms and to get more results
             AND NOT   Use to find the first term but not the second term

  • Truncation – automatically finds plural from singular and applies word stemming and variant spellings
              *                       Use to replace multiple characters anywhere in the term
              ?   Use to replace a single character anywhere in the term

  • Proximity
             " "                Use to find the terms next to each other in the order given as a phrase
             PRE/n   Use to find the terms within a specified number of terms (n) in order given
             W/n   Use to find the terms within a specified number of terms (n) in any order

  • Keywords – include all terms describing topic as records do not have subjects (controlled vocabulary)

Google Scholar is a tool for searching scholarly literature available on the web.  [research guide]

Google Scholar Logo

 

Below are search tips for Google Scholar:

  • Boolean Operators – enter OR in UPPERCASE letters
             AND                  Use to find all of the terms and to get fewer results   [default operator]
             OR   Use to find any of the terms and to get more results
             –   Use to exclude the term from results

  • Field Operators
             author:             Use to search by author   [author:"mw otto"]
             site:   Use to search within a specific website [site:google.com] or domain type [–site:edu]

  • Word Order – first word ranked higher than second word and so on

  • Truncation – automatically applies word stemming unless searched as phrase

  • Proximity
              " "                     Use to find the terms next to each other in the order given as a phrase
              *   Use as placeholder for term in a phrase   ["cognitive * therapy"]

  • Advanced Search – specify how the terms should be searched, refine by author or source, and limit by date

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