Q. How do I find experimental research studies related to psychology?

PsycInfo has useful tools to navigate articles by different topics and subjects. These can be especially useful when starting a search with a broad topic and getting ideas on how to focus that topic using the subject limiters provided. For a demonstration, watch the video. To jump in for a hands-on experience, take the following steps:

1. Start at the Western Libraries homepage so you can get the link to our subscription.
2. Click on the "Databases" link.
3. Either navigate to PsycInfo alphabetically or click the databases by subject drop-down menu and choose Psychology.
4. Do a search on your topic.
5. Chances are, you'll have a lot of results coming back. Look at the limiters on the left side of the screen and click on "Subject." This will give you a set of terms used in the database across articles. Scrolling through the list of terms can be helpful in thinking through how you might want to focus your research topic.
6. I recommend choosing one subject term at a time. Choosing more than one tells the database both terms must be present in the article and might be too limiting. If you don't like the results after applying a term, simply look for the term and the tick box next to it to remove the limiter.
7. An additional limiter that is helpful for many researchers in PsycInfo is the "Methodology" limiter. This is especially effective at locating sources that utilize a particular methodology and works in a similar way as the subject limiter.