Goal:
 

• To show how to use PsycINFO and Social Science Citation Index to find solid, empirically slanted articles about personality issues.
• Talk about other possibly relevant resources.  Also, how to avoid unintentional PLAGIARISM.

NOTE: If you have s  about your project, contact Brian Simboli , x5003. Room 633 in Fairchild-Martindale Library.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

A. PSYCINFO
B. SOCIAL SCIENCE CITATION INDEX
C. OTHER LIBRARY DATABASES AND RESOURCES
D. OBTAINING COPIES OF PAPERS
E. PLAGIARISM: HOW TO AVOID IT
F. CONTACT INFORMATION FOR FURTHER ASSISTANCE

• Great place to start your literature hunt.
• PsycINFO is on the library's webpage of database.
• If you are off campus, make sure that you have set up the proxy server.
• Go to the top of the webpage just mentioned to find information about the proxy server.

"Journal articles, chapters, books, dissertations, and reports on psychology and related fields"

 "Why select this database?
Includes international material selected from periodicals written in over 25 languages since
1887 Includes current chapter and book coverage with worldwide English-language material published
from 1987-present
Adds over 55,000 references annually through monthly updates"

"Psychology and psychological aspects of related disciplines:  anthropology  nursing  business  pharmacology  education  physiology  law
psychiatry  linguistics  sociology  medicine"

(quoted material above is from OCLC FirstSearch search interface)
 
 

• The goal of searching is to come up with a really good journal article, whether in print format or available electronically.
• Lehigh has journal articles in both print and electronic form  An example of an electronic journal article is this.
• How can you identify such papers like this one (either in electronic or paper format)? Online searching in PsycINFO is one promising route.
• If you are not familiar with the basics of online searching, see this Generic Searching Guide
• Go to the library homepage, click on databases, and then select PsycINFO.
• Run a search (see examples below).
• Here is a portion of a PsycINFO record; it gives information about the article linked to above. Records like this are the target of your PsycINFO searching:

• This is not an article--it is a record with information aboutan article. (See Section D below for information on how to obtain copies of papers.)
• Notice that PsycINFO records are broken down into "fields" such as title, author, abstract.
• PsycINFO gives you additional fields, such as "descriptors",  which enable you to obtain more focused results, as we shall see when we run some examples below.
• Descriptors are subject headers that PsycINFO assigns to records.

Anyone can throw in a few keywords and bring up search results. But with a little extra effort, you can come up with really good results.
 
 

These are done in the "advanced" mode. Overall point: try different angles until you find what you need.
 

Example 1

Find journal articles in English about lying on personality inventory tests.
 

• First, try a simple keyword search using the keywords "personality" and "inventories" and "lying". A keyword search ranges over these "fields" in PsycINFO records: descriptor, title, abstract, key phrase (identifier), and table of contents.
• The above record comes up, among others.
• Most people stop at this point. But watch what happens if you go further.
• Say the article above is ballpark.  Look at the "descriptors" for this article.  Again, descriptors are subject headers assigned to PsycINFO records.
• Do a descriptor phrase search on two of the relevant descriptors:  "personality measures" and "deception".
• You will see new papers that do not appear in the original list.
• Maybe one of those papers from this second search is better than papers generated by the first search.
• Keep going this way until you find the papers that interest you.
• You can email or print the search results.
• Then see Section D below for information on how to obtain copies of papers.
• (Note: see example 2 for how to limit to papers having an empirical slant)

Find journal articles in English about narcissistic personality disorder. Find articles that have an empirical slant.
 

• First, do a keyword search on the terms "narcissistic" and  "personality" and "disorder". As we have seen, keyword searching is a great way to bring up some initial results that can lead to new ones.
• Maybe you will find what you want at this stage by scrolling through a few screens. The search set is big, so you may want a more focused search.
• Look at the descriptors in search results that look especially relevant. A descriptor you may come across is "narcisisstic personality".
• Drag down "descriptor phrase" and search on "narcissistic personality".
• Go back to the advanced search screen.
• Incorporate the content type for "empirical" into your search. To do so, select "content type phrase". Then click on button  . Type in "0".  Click browse.  Scroll through to see the options. Click on "0800 empirical study"  Now run the new search. (For information about content types, see here)
• Go back to advanced search screen.
• Limit the search to English language, and to journal articles.
• Restrict by last two years.
• Run the search.
• You can email or print the search results.
• Then see Section D below for information on how to obtain copies of papers.

Example 3

Is there a more organized/systematic way to find "descriptors" to search?

• Click the button   off the advanced search screen.
• This brings you to a place where you can search for  headings in the PsycINFO thesaurus.
• For example, put in "personality" to see what comes up.
• Keep in mind the following:

 

 
 
 

                  "Index terms are controlled vocabulary terms used in database records to make searching easier and more
                   successful. By standardizing the words or phrases used to represent concepts, you don't need to try and figure
                   out all the ways different authors could refer to the same concept. Each record in the PsycINFO database
                   contains controlled vocabulary terms from the Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms.

                  PsycINFO staff index records according to the source document's level of specificity. [emphasis mine] For example,an
                   experimental population labeled "high school students" will be indexed with the term "High School Students",
                   not the broader and less specific term "Students". Therefore, any relevant narrower terms should be included in
                   the list of index terms in your search. Related terms may also closely match a search topic, and should be
                   considered as well. You will find these narrower and related terms in the Relationship section of the Thesaurus."

Example 4

I've found one really good article. Can I find articles later in time that cite it?

See example here.

Example 5

I want review articles about a subject. How can I bring them up?

Do a search on the subject. Then follow the procedure (mentioned above) for searching on content type.
This time, look for "1300 literature review research review".

Example 6

Are there other indexing tools that I can use to focus searching?

Yes--to see the available tools, see this "Guide to the Fields in Our Database Records", which links out to more information.
For persons interested in psychological tests, see "Tips for Searching for Psychological Tests"
 
 

Search Tips:

• Do not use the limit to full text feature. You will not get everything that is available at Lehigh.
• Items with the "library and book" icon are in our library. However, don't assume that if an item does not have that icon, that we do not have it. Check ASA.
• When putting in search terms, you may want to use truncation and other special features, like proximity--see the help docs for FirstSearch

For more about PsycINFO:

If you want to learn more about PsycINFO or how to search it, see the following:

• About PsycINFO
• Information about PsycINFO
• Consult  Interdisciplinary Applications of PsycINFO  to get ideas about how to search a variety of topics in PsycINFO
• PsycINFO Journal Coverage List
• PsycINFO on OCLC search guides
• Guide to the Fields in our Database Records
• PsycINFO Search Tips...for Searching Historical Records
• See also help documentation on OCLC FirstSearch

What does it do?

Allows you to start with a document and find references later in time that cite it. This way you can build up a bibliography of related works. (See example 3 above for how PsycINFO lets you do the same thing.)
 

Where does Social Sciences Citation Index live?

CD: CDs covering 1998 forward are loaded on a computer behind the help desk in the lobby of Fairchild-Martindale.

We also have paper coverage of Social Sciences Citation Index for 1966/1970-1997. (See ASA).
 

For more information. . .

• Help information is available at the CD station
• Ask Brian Simboli to help you.

 

• Click here to see what journals are covered in Social Science Citation Index.
• Note the various subject areas of coverage for psychology.

PsycINFO and Social Science Citation Index are only two of the databases that Lehigh's libraries make available. See here for an alphabetical and subject breakdown of databases.  "Academic Index, Expanded [Infotrac]"  is an example of another database that has coverage of the psychological literature. Use the subject search, which breaks your subject down into subdivisions.

Check out the  Infodome section for Psychology.

You may find print reference resources in the reference section of FM Library  that can help you:
 

• Encyclopedia of Human Behavior  150.3 E564
• Encyclopedia of Psychology  150.3 E5631
• Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology and Behavioral Science   150.3 E563  2001

We have used bibliographic databases to find references and abstracts for papers that look interesting.

How do you actually locate the paper(s)?

(1.) First, check ASA to see if Lehigh has the journal, either in paper or electronic format. Select "browse", type in the title of the journal,
and then click "Journal Titles".
 

NOTE:

• A record will come up that shows you where the journal can be found in the library, if it is in print.
• Journals in electronic format have a link right out of the ASA record.
• Locations for paper versions of journals are listed in ASA.

(2.) You may want to see if one of the regional libraries has the journal.
(3.) You may order the article through interlibrary loan.    Don't wait til the last moment to order articles through ILL. 
 

An additional way to find papers: browse the tables of contents of recent issues or archived (bound) copies in the library, or look for relevant electronic journals browsable here by title or linked on ASA.

If you engage in plagiarism, it is like a ticking timebomb. There is a good chance you will be found out, with serious consequences.

Without intending to engage in plagiarism, you may unwittingly do so. To avoid it,  familiarize yourself with what it is. If you learn how to do footnoting in the proper style, this can help you.

Here's a new Lehigh University Libraries webpage that can help you get started:  Ante/Anti Plagiarism.

NOTE:   This webpage is not a substitute for whatever instructions your instructor gives about correct footnoting style and what constitutes plagiarism.

Let us know what you think about the "Ante/Anti Plagiarism" webpage--whether you found it useful or how it can be improved. Send an email to Sharon Siegler, the webpage's designer, and copy me (Brian Simboli) in.