A question we get frequently is:

What do I do if I can’t find a DOI (Digital Object Identifier) number associated with my article?

A new resource from the Online Writing Center’s  APA Help Page  is a handy Flow Chart that will help you decide what do with citations that do and do not have a DOI.

Print it out this one page chart and keep it handy!

Robin

So the next time you run into a RefWorks problem, first check to see if you’re using the Google toolbar.  Hopefully, this will help save time and stress when you’re working on your next course assignment.

Over the last several years, professionals and advocacy groups have argued about the implications of many current DSM diagnoses, as well as what new entries and changes to the DSM will mean to the patients who are treated and the professionals who treat them.

As Dr. Michael First of Columbia University states in this NY Times article, a big concern is the more entries and diagnoses you add to the DSM, the more people are labeled and stigmatized.  What are your thoughts? 

View the full article at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/10/health/10psych.html?hp

Feel free to visit the DSM 5th edition site at DSM5.org where you can view proposed revisions and create an account to submit your own comments about these revisions.

~Jennie

Okay, now what the heck to I do?

Sometimes I feel the exact same way. But LexisNexis has just updated their search page, and I think they’ve made it a lot easier.

Instead of having to figure out what search area to choose, the most common LexisNexis searches are right there on the front page. They’ve pared down the options, to make it less confusing. And they’ve even highlighted the best ways to search for court cases and company information!

Take Legal Search as an example. Most learners are looking up a specific case. Now you can do that quickly with either the citation or the case name.

When searching for company information you can use the company name or ticker (my preference).

You can still access the more complicated searches using the menu on the left or the options inside the search boxes, so you really haven’t lost any functionality. And you may even same some precious moments you can then spend curled up with your APA manual (that is what you do with your spare time, right?)

- Erin

So, what’s going on?

The library recently changed our automatic settings in PsycINFO to help learners locate the breadth of resources available both in the library and outside it. To understand the change, and the reason behind it, it may be helpful to learn a new library term: index.

An index (in the library sense of the word) is a collection of information about published articles or other works. Typically this would include title, author, journal name, publication date, and subject terms. Originally all indexes were typed and bound. You may remember seeing them on the shelf in the reference section of the library : the general Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature or the subject-specific Art Index are both examples.

When computers first entered the library, the index quickly shifted to a digitized form (often a CD-ROM, but later an internet resource). Suddenly researchers didn’t have to thumb through volumes of an index to find relevant literature. You could just type in some keywords and search dozens of years at once! Even though there was no full text, it was still a giant improvement.

As computers became more powerful, and digitization spread, suddenly the index could be much more robust. Full text was added. Some library resources (most notably JSTOR) started with the first issue of a journal and slowly worked toward the present. Others started with the present and worked backwards.

Either way, there are still a lot of articles that are not yet digitized. And some publishing companies embargo the most recent issues of their journals, so you can’t get digital copies of those either. To keep these resources from being completely lost to the tech-savvy researcher, databases still include them in the index.

Searching the full index in a database is great when you have time to wait for Interlibrary Loan, but not so great when you have a discussion post. To limit your search to full text, simply click the full text limit in PsycINFO or ERIC.

Whenever you search the full index, you can also use the Check Article Linker to see if we have the article in another database. Check Article Linker automatically does a search for the article using the Journal and Book Locator tool. It’s a great way to make sure you aren’t missing great articles on your topic.

- Erin

This 3-volume country-by-country survey of educational systems provides detailed essays on the histories, legal foundations, and primary and secondary educational systems of 233 countries. This updated and expanded edition gives users up-to-date coverage of reorganized educational systems and high-interest topics such as technological advances.

Here are samples of the entries for India and Ecuador.

Let us know what you think of this new resource!

Robin

APA Books

1. The development of giftedness and talent across the life span, © 2009, by Horowitz, Frances Degen (Ed.); Subotnik, Rena F. (Ed.); Matthews, Dona J.(Ed.) ISBN: 1-4338-0414-X

2. Integrated behavioral health in primary care: Step-by-step guidance for assessment and intervention, © 2009, Hunter, Christopher L.; Goodie, Jeffrey L.; Oordt, Mark S.; Dobmeyer, Anne C. ISBN: 1-4338-0428-X

3. Interpersonal theory of suicide: Guidance for working with suicidal clients, © 2009, by Joiner Jr., Thomas E.; Van Orden, Kimberly A.; Witte, Tracy K.; Rudd, M. David ISBN: 1-4338-0426-3

4. Obesity in youth: Causes, consequences, and cures, © 2009, by Heinberg, Leslie J. (Ed.); Thompson, J. Kevin (Ed.) ISBN: 1-4338-0427-1

Classic Books

5. The book of good examples; drawn from authentic history and biography; designed to illustrate the beneficial effects of virtuous conduct, © 1847, by Frost, John

6. The constitution of man, considered in relation to external objects (from the 3rd enlarged Edinburgh ed.), © 1845, by Combe, George

7. Curiosities of human nature: By the author of Peter Parley’s tales, © 1846, by Goodrich, Samuel G.

8. A discourse of the Baconian philosophy, © 1844, by Tyler, Samuel

9. A discourse of the Baconian philosophy (2nd ed.), © 1846, by Tyler, Samuel

10. The doctrine of the will, applied to moral agency and responsibility, © 1841, by Tappan, Henry P.

 11. Eclectic moral philosophy, prepared for literary institutions and general use, © 1847, by Boyd, J. R.

12. An essay on transcendentalism, © 1842, by Anonymous

13. Fundamental philosophy, or, Elements of primitive philosophy; being the first division of a complete system of philosophical science, © 1848, by Krug, William Traugott

14. The human brain: Its structure, physiology and diseases, with a description of the typical forms of brain in the animal kingdom (2nd London ed.), © 1848, by Solly, Samuel

15. Introduction to ethics, including a critical survey of moral systems (Vol. 1), © 1848, by Jouffroy; Channing, William H. (Trans.)

16. Introduction to ethics, including a critical survey of moral systems (Vol. 2), © 1847, by Jouffroy; Channing, William H. (Trans.)

17. Memory and intellectual improvement applied to self-education and juvenile instruction (25th ed., improved), © 1850, by Fowler, O. S.

18. Parental instructions; or, Guide to wisdom and virtue designed for young persons of either sex, selected mainly from the writings of an eminent physician, © 1847, by Percival, Thomas

19. The Philosophy of life, and Philosophy of language, in a course of lectures, © 1847, by Schlegel, Frederick von; Morrison, A. J. W. (Trans.)

20. Psychology, elements of a new system of mental philosophy, on the basis of consciousness and common sense, © 1842, by Schmucker, S. S.

21. The revelation of rights (2nd ed.), © 1847, by Ellmaker, Elias E.

22. Sketches of modern philosophy, especially among the Germans, © 1842, by Murdock, James

23. A treatise on man and the development of his faculties (A facsimile reproduction of the English translation of 1842 with an introduction by Solomon Diamond), © 1842 (Reprinted 1969), by Quetelet, Lambert A. J.

24. Youth’s book on the mind, embracing the outlines of the intellect, the sensibilities, and the will: Introductory to the study of mental philosophy, © 1842, by Pearl, Cyril

Note: To read any of the these ebooks – go to the Articles, Books, and More page.  Scroll down and click PsycBOOKs.  Once  in the database, type in the title.

~Jennie

Basically, an annotation is a bit of extra information added on.  They are most often short paragraphs that provide context and explanation.

While you may grumble at the extra work, annotated outlines and bibliographies can help focus your thought and be quick reminders later on.  This is especially true of the annotated bibliography: you can go back months or years later and quickly see which article contained what information.  You don’t have to waste time rereading whole articles, because you already boiled it down into a useful nutshell.

You can also put annotations in the notes field in RefWorks.

For help creating annotated outlines and bibliographies, you can see these great guides from the Online Writing Center:

• Annotated Outline
• Annotated Bibliography

- Erin

Sometimes the toughest part of conducting legal research is trying to find a legal case on a specific topic.  It’s difficult to search the millions of state and federal cases using keywords and Law Reviews can also be time consuming to search for cases on a topic.

Google Scholar has added legal cases to their search by providing an option to search Legal opinions and journals.  See below for an example how to use this new tool.

Caution: As with anything on the free web, Google Scholar can make mistakes.

Search Example Topic: Lawsuits involving universities

1) Go to www.scholar.google.com.

2) Select the radio button to search Legal opions and journals and type your keywords in the search box.

3) Use your results to identify case names or citation numbers.

4) Go to LexisNexis and search using either a case name or citation number.

-Sommer