Off The Shelf

If you have a specific title in mind, you can always check Journal and Book Locator and search for that title.  But did you know that you can also run a search to find all the journals in the library that have certain keywords in their titles?  For instance, if you want to see if we have journals about sports psychology, you can run the following search:

Journal and Book Locator search

(sport* will search for any word that starts with the word sport: sport, sports, sporting, etc.)

 You will get the following four results.  Note that two of them are not located in databases that you can find on the Articles, Books and More page:

Journal and Book Locator Results

This brings me to another method you can use to find articles from our stand alone journals:  Search databases with the Full Text box unchecked.  Most databases actually index more journals than they include full text.  By searching with the full text feature off, you will get additional results.  In fact, if you’re a doctoral learner working on your dissertation, we recommend that you always search the databases with the full text limiter turned off to make sure that you are conducting a thorough search of the literature.

When you run a search without limiting to full text, you will then naturally get some results that will not have a full text link.  Instead, some of the results will say Check Article Linker or Linked Full Text (Ebsco databases) or Link to full text (ProQuest).  Simply click on the link to see if the article is available in either another database or from one of our stand alone journals.

To continue with our sports psychology theme, you would pick an appropriate database for your topic, in this case PsycINFO, and then run a search such as the one below, making sure to uncheck the full text limiter:

PsyINFO database search

Now, even though PsycINFO doesn’t include the full text for the Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, we can pull up results for it (and other stand alone journals) because PsycINFO does index it.  Simply click on the link to get to the full text:

PsycINFO search results

As always, if you have questions about article searching, Ask a Librarian! 

 -Kim 

For those of you who will soon be wrapping up at the Jacksonville colloquium (or have attended any other colloquia), here are some of the guides and tutorials the librarians talked about at the library sessions.

Nearly every guide mentioned at the library’s colloquia sessions are included in a special section of our Guides & Tutorials page. To get to that section, just follow these steps.

1) From the Library Homepage click Guides & Tutorials.

2) There are several bulleted links at the top of the page that link to different sections. Click Resources for Doctoral Learners to jump to the section that includes the guides you heard about at Colloquia.

3) From here you can select a guide that piqued your interest at the colloquium!

Got questions? Ask a Librarian!

-Sommer

Business Source Complete has a wide selection of books: over 800.   With most focused on very practical business issues, you’ll see titles such as:

• Action Research in Organizations
• A-Z of Employment Law
• Key Events & Lessions for Managers in a Diverse Workforce
• Social Responsibility of Business
• Twenty-Two Ways to Develop Leadership in Staff Managers

Unlike our ebook databases, Business Source Complete has a record for each individual book chapter.  If you do a general search in the database, you may find book chapters among your results.

You can also restrict your search to just books.  On the Advanced Search page, scroll down until you see the Publication Type limit.  You then have the option of choosing Book:

–Erin

The Capella Library has just added the Journal of Mixed Methods Research. It contains scholarly articles about the use of mixed methodology in research, and includes reviews of books on methodology. If you are using mixed methods for your dissertation, this is a great resource for you.

To access this journal you’ll want to use the link above or Journal Locator and search by title. For help using Journal Locator, see our library tutorial.

For more information about research methodology, check out our Ebook list on Research Methodologies.

-Erin

We have added new guides to the Library’s Guides & Tutorials page

What are Peer-reviewed Articles & How do I Find Them? (Flash with audio)

a link to…Reading Strategies
This resource is designed to help you build skills and strategies to make your reading as efficient as possible.

Course-specific Guides
Course-specific research guides are tailored to course content and include techniques such as developing search strategies, finding materials on specific topics, evaluating results and more.

Undergraduate

• PS3600: Principles of Public Safety Investigation (u01d1)
• PS3900: History of Violence in the U.S. Society (u09a1)
• MAT2050: Statistical Literacy (u05d2)
• BUS3040: Fundamentals of Human Resource Management

Graduate

• Psychology First Courses
  • First Library Search
  • Scholar Practitioner Assignment
• HS5002: Survey in Research in Human Development and Behavior (u07d2)
• PSF8631: Case Studies in Critical Incident Management
• PSY7220: Child Psychology (case study)

Is there another guide you would like to see? Let us know.

-KateP

Dr. Naomi Stanford, who teaches in SOBT, has had a new book published recently:

Standford, N. (2007). The Economist Guide to Organisation Design. Profile Books.

This is her second book. Her first one was published in 2005: Organization Design: the Collaborative Approach.

-KateP

A: We get many phone calls and emails from learners who are having trouble looking for articles but after a few questions we realize the trouble often lies with the topic. When your topic is too broad or too narrow it can make finding articles difficult.

For a few tips on Defining and Narrowing a Topic click through our tutorial or PDF with an example topic grid.

Topic Grid you can fill in is on the PDF:
-KateP

While at the Atlanta colloquium, I was asked the same question over and over:  How do I find a research article that uses a specific methodology? 

There are many types of methodology terms you may run into: qualitative, quantitative, case study, mixed method, phenomenological, action research, content analysis, etc.  The list goes on and on, and will depend on the school and specialization you are in.  Knowing the methodology terms in your field is the first step (look at your textbooks or articles you’ve already read for help with this step).

Next you’ll go into the library databases and use a methodology term to search.  Most authors will mention the methodology they are using in the abstract of the article.   Because searching by methodology will greatly reduce your search results, you may need to search a broader topic.

Here’s an example of a search in SocINDEX for case study research articles about juvenile delinquency:

Why search by a specific methodology?  By looking at research articles that use a particular methodology you can learn a lot about your field.  What types of research are common?  What types of methodology are appropriate for a specific research question?  How do you construct a research study?  What methodologies should you consider for your dissertation research?

For more help finding articles using specific methodologies, you can look at our library guides Search by Methodology: Qualitative, Quantitative or Search by Methodology: Case Study.

 Or you can always Ask a Librarian.

- Erin

Did you know that you can get the latest issue of a journal or magazine (i.e. The Chronicle of Higher Education, Business Week, Journal of Abnormal Psychology, etc.) sent right to your email inbox? Set up a Journal Alert or Table of Contents Alert using the Library databases. The email will contain a list of the articles in the newest issue and with links to the abstract and full text if available in the Library.

How do I do this? Use our Setting Up Journal or Search Alerts Guide.

Ask a Librarian with questions.

-KateP

Have you every wondered when you are “done” with your Literature Review? Have I found everything? Well there are a couple of resources on the Library’s Guides & Tutorials page that can help.

First our Research Guides. We have developed Research Guides for each of the Schools within Capella: Education, Human Services, Psychology, Business and Technology.  Have you checked all of the recommended databases in the Resource Guide for your school? That is one way to be certain you are doing a comprehensive Literature Review.

Also a great way to find other resources for your Literature Review is to check the references on the articles you have already located. This is sometimes called Bibliography “mining” or Cited Reference searching. When you start to see the same resources over and over again, it is probably a good indication that you have done a comprehensive search. The Library has developed a guide called Bibliography Mining and Cited Reference Searching that explains this process in more detail. If you have never searched this way before, try it,  I think you will find it very productive.

Stuck in your Literature Review or any assignment? Need some keyword or database suggestions? Don’t forget to take advantage of the resources available to you here at Capella - Ask-a-Librarian! 

Robin