How & Where to Search

What You Need to Do

• You need to some exploratory searching of the literature to get a sense of scope, to determine whether you need to narrow or broaden your focus.
• Identify databases that provide the most relevant sources, and identify relevant terms (controlled vocabularies) to add to your search strategy.
• Finalize your research topic.

What to Expect of this Step

Defining your research question is the key to beginning, so while you may be clear on the area you want to study, chances are there are some nuances that you need to think through. 

Part of this process may require exploratory searching in databases so that you can see what's already been published on your topic. Even if it's a new area, it's likely something has already been published in at least an adjacent area of study. 

Some things to consider:

• What is my central question or issue that the literature can help define?
• What is already known about the topic?
• Is the scope of the literature being reviewed wide or narrow enough?
• Is there a conflict or debate in the literature?
• What connections can be made between the texts being reviewed?
• What criteria should be used to evaluate the literature being reviewed?

Recommendations: Where to Search for this Step

There are reference databases that provide helpful books for background information, which are perfect for this step because they can help you develop names and other relevant terms for your more in-depth research. To access these sources, use the SFCC Library Guide for Psychology and navigate to the "Books and Videos" tab. About halfway down the page, you'll find a box titled "eBooks for Background Research," where you can explore ideas related to your topic.

This is also a good time to use resources like Wikipedia to get a general overview and spark new ideas, though none of these sources will count as an article towards your final paper. However, they will save you time and effort when it comes to developing your topic. 

• Links

• SFCC Library Guide: Psychology Links to an external site.
  • Tab - Books and Videos
    • Box - eBooks for Background Research
• Wikipedia Links to an external site.
• General Google Search Links to an external site.

How to Sign-In to a SFCC Database

Databases and their content is not available on the free internet. If you are off-campus, you'll be required to login using your bigfoot username and password.

Username: first name first initial of last name last 4 numbers of your student ID followed by @bigfoot.spokane.edu 
(ex. JohnD3443@bigfoot.spokane.edu)

Password: same password you use to log into a campus computer, connect to campus WIFI or access your school email

If you have any login problems, contact the IT Help Desk at 509-533-4357.

What You Need to Do

Think about relevant dates, geographies (and languages), methods, and conflicting points of view

What to Expect of this Step

Once you have a clearly defined research question, make sure you are getting precisely the right search results from searching the databases by making decisions about these items:

1. Select a time frame for relevant search results.
   • Would the most recent five years be appropriate?
   • Is your research from a more historical perspective?
   • What is required for your assignment?
2. Select a geography (and language)
   • Where has this type of research taken place?
   • Will you confine your results to the United States?
   • Choose research constraints
     • Is there a particular methodology, or population that you are focused on?
3. Consider the organizing structure for your review
   • Is there a controversy or debate in your research field that you want to highlight
   • Are you creating a historical overview? Is this background reading for your research?
   • Is there new technology that can shed light on an old problem or an old technology that can be used in a new way?

What You Need to Do

• Conduct searches in the published literature via the identified databases
• Examine the citations of on-point articles for keywords, authors, and previous research (via references) and cited reference searching.

Recommendations: Where to Search for this Step

Different databases offer varying content, with some overlap between them. General databases like ProQuest and Academic Search Complete cover a wide range of topics and are recommended for this research assignment. However, there are also subject-specific databases, such as PsycArticles, designed specifically for scholarly psychological sources. While you can search these databases directly, I recommend consulting the Library Guide for Psychology, which provides information on additional databases relevant to psychological research. Additionally, Google Scholar can be a valuable resource for finding scholarly articles across various disciplines.

Links

• SFCC Library Guide: Psychology Links to an external site.
  • Tab - Articles
    • Box - Library Databases: Psychology
      • I recommend starting with PsycARticles, Academic Search Complete, & ProQuest.
• Google Scholar Links to an external site.

Request Digital Copies of Articles

What You Need to Do

• Save your search results in a citation management tool (such as MyBib.com).
• Make sure that you've discussed classical pieces -- they have been cited many times, and their work is considered foundational (as is relevant) but make sure you focus on the current state of knowledge.
• Check with your professor to make sure your search has been comprehensive.

What You Need to Do

• Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of individual sources and evaluate for bias, methodologies, and thoroughness.
• Group your results in to an organizational structure that will support why your research needs to be done, or that provides the answer to your research topic.
• Develop your conclusions.

 What to Expect of this Step

Synthesis is capturing what you found in a succinct way.

• Organize the paper in such a way to best communicate to another person what we know about the topic.
  • Describe the methods researchers have used and the central findings they have obtained.
• Describe how the research has evolved over time
• Develop conclusions and summarize what's been done in the past.

What You Need to Do

• Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of individual sources and evaluate for bias, methodologies, and thoroughness
• Develop your conclusions

 What to Expect of this Step

Analysis should lead to insight. This is how you will contribute to the field. 

• Analysis requires that you have an approach or a point of view to evaluate the material you found.
• Are there gaps in the literature?
• Where has significant research taken place, and who has done it?
• Is there consensus or debate on this topic?
• Which methodological approaches work best?

What You Need to Do

• Focus on your research question and the most pertinent studies
• Pick an organizational structure, i.e., themes, approaches, researchers, concepts, methodologies
  • Ex: Background, Current Practices, Critics and Proponents, Where/How this study will fit in 
• Organize the citations (and make sure they are complete) 
• Compile the bibliography using the appropriate citation format for the field (APA)

Recommendation: Citation Resources

Video: Citations in 5 Basic Steps

MyBib  Links to an external site.- this is the SFCC Library's go-to citation generator.

• You can use it for MLA8, APA or Chicago citations.
• Covers lots of resources.
• Helps with in-text citations/parenthetical references. 
• No ads.

Citing Resources .... SFCC Library Guide Links to an external site. - helpful formatting tips.

• List your resources alphabetically by the first word in the citation entry.
• Double space.
• Indent all lines after the first line in your citation entry.
• Italicize titles! ***MyBib Links to an external site. will do this for you.