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PSY 5112: Concepts and Principles in Behavior Analysis

This guide is for students enrolled in PSY 5112 at John Carroll University.

Search Strategies

References

Looking at the list of references (i.e. works cited, bibliography) of a highly relevant article helps you find earlier published studies the author used to build their research, often leading you to foundational or closely related sources on the same topic. It’s a useful way to trace the background and development of an idea within the scholarly conversation

 

Cited By

The “Cited by” feature in databases such as Google Scholar and Web of Science shows how many times an article has been cited and lists those citing sources. It helps you find related research published after the original article.

Build an Advanced Search

Build an Advanced Search

  1. Develop a relevant research question. 

  2. Identify the most important ideas/concepts that all articles you hope to find will discuss.

  3. Identify synonyms, related words/phrases, and examples of each important concept.
Example search term table for the database, PsycINFO for the research question, "How effective are brief online cognitive-behavioral interventions in reducing test anxiety?"
Database/Website = PsycINFO Concept 1 = online interventions Concept 2 = CBT Concept 3 = test anxiety
Synonym or Related Term 1 online "Cognitive behavioral therapy" "test anxiety"
Synonym or Related Term 2 app* "cognitive behavioural therapy" "exam anxiety"
Synonym or Related Term 3 digital CBT "exam stress"
Synonym or Related Term 4     "test stress"
  1. Add the terms to a database using the Advanced Search. Search for terms in title and abstracts (or just abstracts). This allows you to perform a strategic and comprehensive literature search in a database.

example search in psycinfo

 

Search Techniques

Truncation in a database search allows you to use a symbol (usually an asterisk *) to find all words that begin with the same root, helping you capture variations of a term—for example, educat retrieves education, educator, and educational.

 

Boolean operators are words like AND, OR, and NOT that help refine database searches. For example, in psychology research:

  • anxiety AND depression finds studies discussing both topics,

  • anxiety OR stress finds studies on either concept, and

  • anxiety NOT children excludes studies focused on children.

 

Using quotation marks around a phrase in a database search creates an exact search, meaning the database will only return results where the words appear together in that exact order—for example, searching "cognitive behavioral therapy" ensures you find sources with that full phrase, not just the individual words scattered throughout the text.