Get started with researching your Topic using LSE Library resources. Here is a quick guide to looking for information for your psychology dissertation.

Before you begin.

Analyse Your Research Topic. Be clear about the type of information that you want. Identify any dates, key persons,

geographical locations or concepts which relate to your needs. Find out how many words you need to write. The type of resources you need. Is it just books or newspaper articles, or films?

Select Your Search Terms · It is necessary to choose your search terms correctly. Remember that search tools

are machines they will look for whatever you type in, they cannot currently interpret it. Ideally your number of search terms should not exceed 6 to 8 keywords or phrases.

Some good tips are

Check your spelling Identify any terms which have alternative spellings (e.g. labor and labour) Identify any synonyms (e.g. women or female) Identify any search terms that may have alternative word endings (e.g. Marx and Marxism)

Identify key concepts, writers or research institutions associated with your topic Consider the level of specificity. This is one of the most difficult things to get right. Make

your search terms too broad and you will get too many hits. Make them too specific and you will get too few. Be prepared to refine your search after reviewing your initial results. Avoid using prepositions, conjunctions or common verbs as search terms. These include: and, about, if, the, of, a, not, why, before, is, at. Search Engines refer to them as stopwords and usually ignore them. Once you have run your search look at the results and try to refine your search.

Using the library to find resources.

Looking for books? Search library search. http://www.lse.ac.uk/library/home.aspx use the advanced search feature to limit your search . Items on loan can be reserved to recall them in one week.

Looking for Journal Articles? These will not all be listed on Library Search you need to use our specialist databases. Note that if you just use Google to find articles you may not get everything you need and many of the links may not work so always check journal titles on the library catalogue! Full guidance on databases for your subject area is at http://www.lse.ac.uk/library/collections/subjectGuides/socialPsychology/home.aspx However the major journal article databases are: General Psychology Psychinfo – major database from the American Psychological Association. http://pmt-eu.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/44LSE_VU1:44LSE_ALMA_DS61146908460002021

specialist ethnographic and anthropology You can cross search with other databases . Select Choose databases . Good options are SocIndex (sociology) LBGT Life, Business Source Complete (organisational psychology) Race relations abstracts

Scopus http://pmt-eu.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/44LSE_VU1:44LSE_ALMA_DS61147683880002021. Covers all the sciences and social sciences from approx. 1996 onwards. Allows you to trace highly cited articles

Web of Knowledge http://pmt-eu.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/44LSE_VU1:44LSE_ALMA_DS61146908920002021 Provides access to a collection of databases which enable you to trace references to academic journal articles and conference papers. They include the ISI web of Science citation indexes which comprise the Science Citation Index from 1970 onwards, the Social Sciences Citation Index from 1956 onwards, the Arts & Humanities Citation Index from 1975 onwards and the Conference Proceedings Citation Index- Science from 1990 onwards. It is possible to search the database by author, keyword or cited reference. Community Health and development In addition to the services listed above, of which you will probably find the Web of Science and ScienceDirect the most useful. There are a number of other specialist medical and development databases which you might wish to try. CAB Direct - Global health http://pmt-eu.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/44LSE_VU1:44LSE_ALMA_DS61147123020002021 provides access to databases published by CABI. This includes Global Health which indexes articles relating to community health and development. It encompasses some articles published in developing countries which are not included in Medline. Cinahl http://pmt-eu.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/44LSE_VU1:44LSE_ALMA_DS61148027570002021 specialist nursing and medical care subject index. Find journal articles and reports published since 1937. PubMed- US Library of Medicine http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/

Organisational Psychology In addition to the services listed above the following related to business and management may also be useful.

ABI/INform Complete http://pmt-eu.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/44LSE_VU1:44LSE_ALMA_DS61147532440002021 Access references and full text articles from leading business databases and newspapers published since 1971. It is offered on the proquest site where you can cross search it with other business databases including Asian Business, Proquest entrepreneurship.

Business Source Complete http://pmt-eu.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/44LSE_VU1:44LSE_ALMA_DS61146910920002021 Leading business research database which provides access to the text of several thousand journals covering business, management, human resources, finance and market research topics. Find articles on the media industry.

Looking for Newspaper articles? NEXIS UK http://pmt-eu.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/44LSE_VU1:44LSE_ALMA_DS61146890810002021 provides full text of newspapers and newswire services from around the world. It includes the full text of UK daily newspapers from 1980 to the present day. daily updates. Major foreign language newspapers also accessible. Factiva http://pmt-eu.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/44LSE_VU1:44LSE_ALMA_DS61148222400002021 Good for Indian newspapers and business sources. FT.COM Register to get full access to the Financial Times. Nexis and Factiva do not have the last 30 days! http://pmt-eu.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/44LSE_VU1:44LSE_ALMA_DS61148089890002021

Looking for TV Programmes? Box of Broadcasts(UK Access only). http://pmt-eu.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/44LSE_VU1:44LSE_ALMA_DS61148128570002021 Streaming TV service. Access TV and radio programmes from obver 60 channels. Includes BBC TV and radio plus 10 foreign language channels. Content is from 2007 onwards

More help needed? Contact Your liaison librarian Heather Dawson h.dawson@lse.ac.uk