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PSYC 194A Honors Thesis: Narrowing Down Results

PSYC 194A allows students to plan and carry out a research project under the guidance of psychology faculty. This guide will assist with that process by answering the most frequent questions received about research.

Narrowing Down Results

  1. Do your search with your search terms only. Don't use any filters yet. You want to start broad with as many related results as possible; then you can start narrowing them down.
  2. Use the filters to limit by SOURCE TYPE, PEER REVIEW/SCHOLARLY JOURNALS (if required), and LANGUAGE.
  3. Scan the results by looking at titles and the parts of the abstract you can see. Look at the areas where your terms are highlighted to see in what context they are talking about your terms.

My strategy: if you don't find at least 2-3 good articles on the first page, go back to your search terms and see where some adjustments can be made.

  • Keep track of what you see represented in the results and what is missing that you are looking for. This will inform search variables you may need to add or remove.
  • If you find a good article, click the title to view the full abstract. Read it to see if it's related to your topic. Also, look at the subject headings listed.
  • Are there other words you should be searching for instead?

If you don't find any good articles:

  • Are you in the correct database for that topic?
  • Do you need to adjust your search terms?
    • You can use the SUBJECT filter to see what subjects are represented in your results. (click MORE to get more subject options) This could also give you more ideas of terms.
    • See the SEARCH TERMS FAQ in this guide.