Psychology - MIOP Orientation

Scholarly articles are:

• written by and for researchers and scholars
• explorations of research and ideas to increase knowledge and understanding
• conversations between scholars on research, methods, and theories.

There isn't a tool that searches all available library databases simultaneously, but you can search the databases that K-State subscribes to on the ProQuest or EBSCOhost platforms using the links below. This is a good way to start if your topic is interdisciplinary or you aren't sure which subject-specific database to select.

The ProQuest Multi-Database Search is an especially good starting place for students in the social sciences. It includes databases for psychology, sociology, social services, business, and economics. 

Most databases, although they look different, search in similar ways. You can search the databases in many ways to find relevant research, including:

• If the database has a thesaurus, use it to help you find appropriate subject terms

• Use a keyword search for the specific subject you are interested in (organizational, leadership, satisfaction, etc...)

• Use OR when you want to find either of the search terms, AND when you want both.

• Try truncating keywords using asterisks:  financ* to get finance, finances, finanacial, financing, etc. .

• Put phrases in quotes: “human resources", "job satisfaction"

• Use limits to help find the specific kind of article you want. For example, PsycINFO lets you limit by population or type of study. Most datatabases have limits for date and type of material - you will often want to limit to scholarly journals.

Here is an example of a search using PsycINFO. The first line searches for "human resources". The quotes mean that it will search for the phrase "human resources" rather than human and resources as separate words. On, the second line "satisfaction OR "happiness" means that it will find sources with EITHER of those words.