One Good Article Leads to Another

PSY100 Library Assignment #1

“One Good Article Leads to Another”

Due: 12 a.m. (midnight) on October 27, 2008

OVERVIEW

You will use the PsycInfo article database to find journal articles on a topic covered in the course. One of these articles will become your target article. You will use the following research tools: descriptors, lists of references and cited by lists. With your target article you will explore both the features of the PsycInfo database, and the ways in which having one good article can help you find others.

STEP 1: Excel File Preparation

You will keep track of your search process in an Excel file.

Create an Excel file called LIBstudent#.xls (e.g.: LIB987654321.xls). If you have the latest Excel, you MUST save your file in an older format called “Excel 97 – 2003”. You will save your search process and results in your file. It will be your search history. (Under File, choose Save As and select the older Format.)

STEP 2: Background Reading

Browse your PSY100 textbook for background information on possible research topics. Choose any topic that interests you, read about it, and make a list of terms related to the topic.

In a phrase or two, write down the TOPIC you will be researching in the first row of your Excel file.

STEP 3: Logging into PsycInfo

To get to PsycInfo:

select the Library link from the top of the UTM home page;
click on students;
click on Article Databases;
type psycinfo into the box and click on the Search button;
click on the PsycInfo link to access the search screen.
click on the link called "Click here to search for articles"

STEP 4: Searching PsycInfo

Use search statements employing Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) with the terms you found in STEP 2. Start experimenting with searches by writing terms into search windows and monitoring the quality and the quantity of results.

As you search, copy your search statements, together with the number of records found, into you Excel file. You can find all this information in summary form if you click on the Search History link in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. You need at least two search statements, and corresponding record numbers, to complete this step.

The ellipse on the screen capture below shows you where the Search History link is:

This is what a Search History looks like:

Copy the portion of the record enclosed by the rectangle:

Search Query #1KW=(("zone of proximal development") or ZPD) and KW=learn* and KW=cognitive (Copy Query)

46 Published Works results found in PsycINFO

Before you go on to the next step, your Excel file should look like this:

1 / TOPIC: Discussion of new adaptations of Vygotsky’s ZPD concept.
2 / Search Query #1KW=(("zone of proximal development") or zpd) and KW=learn* (Copy Query)
227 Published Works results found in PsycINFO
3 / Search Query #3KW=(("zone of proximal development") or zpd) and KW=learn* and KW=cognitive (Copy Query)
46 Published Works results found in PsycINFO

Here are search examples to help you write your own:

EXAMPLE 1: OR

This search will be a very broad search retrieving articles which contain either just the word “memory”, or just the word “recall”, or both together, in either the title of the article, the name of the journal, the author’s name, the abstract (a short summary of the article), the article’s descriptors, sometimes even in the article’s references if they are part of the PsycInfo record. When you compose your searches, don’t write OR between horizontal search boxes. PsycInfo search interface is set up to place an OR between horizontal terms and an AND between vertical terms.

EXAMPLE 2: OR

AND

This search will be more focused than the previous one because it uses the AND operator. In Boolean logic, it looks like this: (memory OR recall) AND learn*. This search statement asks the database search engine to return only records containing any words starting with “learn” (e.g. learning, learns, learn, learned) in the same record as either “memory” or “recall”.

EXAMPLE 3:OR

AND

In this search, the quotation marks enclose an expression which must be matched exactly. Note that the search will return article records with either the exact expression, or its abbreviation, ZPD, as long as these articles also include the word “learn” with any ending.

In addition to writing search statements, set search limits to help you narrow down the set of retrieved articles. Select these limits: Journal Articles Only and English Only.

STEP 5: Refining the Search

In Step 4, you have practiced writing search statements. When you have a search generating between 30 and 70 records, look critically at the results. Ask yourself the following questions:

Are the articles on your topic?
Do some of them interest you?
Do most of the articles you like have the References and Cited by links?

References and Cited by links Descriptors

For the articles you like, look at the Descriptors. If you click on the View Record link located beside the References, you can set up a search using descriptors and Boolean operators. This search can even include your original search terms!

Before going on, identify the search that gives you the best results (30 to 70 records that are on topic and interesting to you, many with both the References and Cited by links). Copy the search statement from your best search into your Excel file, as in Step 4.

STEP 6: Selecting the Target Article

Now, look through the article records in your best search. Pick the article that interests you the most from your best search. Please make sure your record has the References and Cited by links. This is your target article.

Hint: Read article abstracts to help you pick the best article. An article’s abstract is the summary of its main points and results. To read it, click on View Record or on the title of the article.

To summarize, you have to pick a target article from among the articles in your best search.

The target article:

is interesting to you,
is on topic,
has both the References and Cited by links at the bottom of its record.

Once you have picked your target article, paste the citation of the article into your Excel file.

To paste the target article citation, select and copy information starting with the title and ending with page numbers of your target article. The highlighted text below is an example of what you would select and copy:

Now, your Excel file should look like this:

STEP 7: Research Tool #1 – The References List

Click on the References link of your target article. The list of articles used by the authors of your target article will appear. This list is a useful research tool because it helps you to identify interesting articles on different aspects of your topic.

Scroll through the References and scan the article titles. Pick what appears to be the most interesting article from the list. Copy its citation into your Excel file.

STEP 8: Research Tool #2 – The Cited by Link

Your target article has a Cited by link followed by a number. This Cited by number tells you how many articles have used your target in their list of references. This may be seen as a measure of the target article’s importance in the field, and, to some extent, of its quality as a resource.

Write down the number of times your article has been cited in your Excel file.

STEP 9: Research Tool #3 – Cited Reference Search

Looking at references has a limitation: you can only get interesting articles that are older than your target article. How do you quickly find interesting articles that are more recent than your target article? Use the Cited by link to see the articles which have used your target in their research. All of these articles are more recent than the target, and they are all related!

Copy the citation of the most interesting (or the only) citing article from the list into the Excel file.

After completing Step 9, your Excel file should look like this, but may be longer if you have included more searches:

1 / TOPIC: Discussion of new adaptations of Vygotsky’s ZPD concept.
2 / Search Query #1KW=(("zone of proximal development") or zpd) and KW=learn* (Copy Query)
227 Published Works results found in PsycINFO
3 / Search Query #3KW=(("zone of proximal development") or zpd) and KW=learn* and KW=cognitive (Copy Query)
46 Published Works results found in PsycINFO
4 / TARGET SEARCH: Search Query #3KW=(("zone of proximal development") or zpd) and KW=learn* and KW=cognitive (Copy Query)
46 Published Works results found in PsycINFO
5 / TARGET ARTICLE: Re-conceptualizing "scaffolding"and the zone of proximal development in the context of symmetrical collaborative learning.
Fernández, Manuel1; Wegerif, Rupert1; Mercer, Neil1; Rojas-Drummond, Sylvia2
Journal of Classroom Interaction. Vol 36(2)-37(1), Fal-Spr 2001-2002, pp. 40-54
6 / MOST INTERESTING REFERENCE: 4. Maybin, J., Mercer, N., & Stierer, B. (1992). 'Scaffolding' learning in the classroom. In K. Norman (Ed.), Thinking Voices (pp. 186-195). London: Hodder and Stoughton. Cited by 3
7 / Cited by 4
8 / MOST INTERESTING CITING REFERENCE: Reconstructing undergraduate education: Using learning science to design effective courses.
Innes, Robert B.1
Mahwah, NJ, US: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers. (2004) xv, 301 pp.

STEP 10: Submitting the Lab

Submit the Excel file using UTMSubmit (use the link on your PsyLab web page).