Worksheet 02: Literature search and management
Quality not quantity
A question for you.
How many journal articles are you able/willing to read for your Personality Essay?
Is it realistic to assume that the first X papers you find are perfect and assemble delightfully into a brilliant essay?
no? So what will be your Search Strategy?
Some key considerations are:
Where you search and what tools you use
What you search for (your search terms)
What types of papers you are going to look for
How you handle the intial results
How you refine those results and decide that the search is over
How you read and ingest those results
How you take notes and focus on all the areas you need to to answer the question
Here is something you may find useful
I’m presenting this early, as I think it is a powerful ‘thought-provoker’. Last year, a student gave me a box of chocolates for sharing this. I kid you not. When we talk about being strategic and organised in your research, this is the sort of thing we are thinking about.
This is a ‘Reading Tracker’ Excel Reading Tracker and is also available for download on the VLE.
It may not be entirely to your taste, but feel free to develop your own version. Consider how a few minutes of organisation may allow you to make more of the same preparation, or to help you identify gaps you need to explore, or areas you’ve done enough work on trying to document. You are welcome.
The Library.
This is what they do. Use their expertise.
Library resources which you may or may not be familiar with
https://libguides.gold.ac.uk/psychology/databases
But the following video is excellent and outlines most of the major resources and steps you’ll need to be very successful.
Google and Google Scholar
You don't KNOW that you have access to the papers Google or Google Scholar points to, and you don't know what the algorithm is doing to point you there. Do you think it knows how to find the best science?
Use this FAQ to set up the Findit@Gold tool in Google Scholar, which takes you DIRECTLY to a resource in the Goldsmiths Library, to which you usually have access!
https://libanswers.gold.ac.uk/faq/53426
Advanced search techniques
You will also notice that there are lots of useful tools available beyond the keyword searches and Boolean operators (not sure? See the library guide).
https://libguides.gold.ac.uk/aso/library/advancedsearch#s-lg-box-wrapper-17019261
Perform a search in the library and try some of the MANY filters and tools.
Try the Advanced Search options such as Boolean Search. This is increasingly a life-skill. Many search functions, whether academic or websites or document stores (e.g. Corporate Knowledge-bases) use boolean search.
Browzine
Browsing by journal title can be very useful. It’s great on your phone.
Give it a shot and look at Annual Reviews of Psychology.
I always recommend Annual Reviews of Psychology for Review articles on the major topic areas you probably have in mind at the moment.
Use the link below or access the journal via the library.
https://browzine.com/libraries/1374/subjects/67/bookcases/169/bookshelves/1230?sort=title
And if we don’t have access via the Library
And I have already mentioned Senate House Library - it has an incredible catalogue and is free to you to use. Could be handy in a pinch!
You could also consider an Inter-Library Loan. It's free, but can take a few days. Be prepared and this essentially gives you access to pretty much anything you might need or want. Find the request form here and fill in as much information as you can.
Web of Science
My preferred database is Web of Science. It is comprehensive, but sometimes gives too many results and can be overwhelming. Always try to use some of the advanced tools to limit your options.
https://libguides.gold.ac.uk/az.php?a=w
I particularly like the Forward search and Backward searches. You can look for papers that cite the article you found (Forward search) or find the papers that it references (Backward search). Why might that be useful?
25 References should be clear - the paper includes 25 references in the reference list.
14 Citations means that 14 other papers or books are referenced this paper. What a cool way to find a strand of research where potentially similar methods are used, OR where results/methods are criticised or discussed!
These are just tools. They are not going to be the full answer
The most important thing is to BE ORGANISED AND STRATEGIC with your searching and reading. Having 20 papers downloaded but unread is not as good as reading 1 really well and somehow keeping track of the important information gleaned from it. How are you going to do that?
Some of you might ask "How many papers should I read or reference in my Mini-Dissertation?" How could we answer that questions?
The point is that you will read a number, and part of the success of the process is keeping that number manageable, and using the information well. Some of you might make the mistake of reading too few, many of you will read too many. Reflect on this part of the process this year.
Zotero
You will almost certainly read more for Final Year Dissertation than for any other piece of coursework. This can lead to challenges. But you might actually really enjoy it! But the same rule applies. BE ORGANISED AND STRATEGIC.
A number of students have extolled the virtues of Zotero, which is a reference management app that is free from the library https://www.gold.ac.uk/it/apps/zotero/
It's not important to get too complicated right now, but being good at tracking what you read is a useful skill for next year. Maybe give Zotero a shot. See whether it would help you next year, it's just a fancy version of the excel workbook I made. The library has videos that can help prepare you for next year. But you could try it now and be one step ahead. That's what the Mini-Dissertation is here for, to give you a safe environment to try out all aspects of the research process.
An Artificial Intelligence Research Assistant??
I suggest exploring what AI might offer to this process. I have tried lots of these resources, but by far and away the best I have found is https://www.researchrabbit.ai- and it’s free.
You can link it to your Zotero account and find the whole network of associated papers, authors, topics laid out in front of you. If you prefer visual information, this is for you!
