Search Strings and Databases

For our assignment in class this week we had to hone our skills in creating search strings to see how we could tweak them with the right word usages to provide us with the most relevant results on our search topics.  We also had to use the search string we created and apply it to another database other than Academic Search Premier.  And then we had to describe our experiences while navigating through both databases.

The subject specific database that I choose was PsycINFO.

And the database which gave me the more relevant results was Academic Search Premier. 

In Academic Search Premier you were able to narrow down your result through choosing what language the article was in, choosing to only search for scholarly journals, having the text in full format and in PDF format. It also gives you options on the left hand side of the screen after you have begun your search to help you further limit your topic down.  And I greatly appreciate all of these features because they are quite helpful when it comes to finding relevant information.  But in PsycINFO the ability to further limit your topic was very complicated, you could only limit the date publication range, choose to search for journal articles only, and you could choose to limit it by location and publication type but if you attempted to search for your preferred setting through their options they give you, you get an extremely long and confusing list of what formats you could choose from. And you were also able to limit your results through choosing your preferred language format.

For my search string I used (alcohol* OR drinking) AND men AND (power OR control) and my search did work but I felt that it gave me way to many results and irrelevant ones at that so I used (alcohol* OR drinking OR booze) instead, and then (power OR control OR dominance).

On Academic Search Premier with the search string I used above and through the use of its limiters I was able to get it down to 491 results, 4 of which I found to be relevant information on what I was looking for.  And on PsycINFO I was able to get 7730 results (this was very frustrating.....I could not easily limit it down any farther with the tools they provided) and I found 2 semi-relevant articles.

On Academic Search Premier 2 of the results where available in full text online, while the other two were not in full text online, where not available through FindIt and required getting an inter-library loan to get the material. And for the articles I found on PsycINFO in general they do not provide full text for any of their articles, and I was unable to locate the 2 articles in FindIt, so to get them I would have to get an ILL loan to fully read them.

Since working with databases my research questions have not really changed all that much.  I think this is because I am trying to stay focused on the material I view as being of potential importance to the information I will need for my in class presentation.  And I fear that if I deviate to much from my research questions my subject will not be concise enough and will be too broad of a focus.  Though if I do find information I deem to be of interest and importance I will be completely open to incorporating it into the material I gather.

I think the biggest challenge I have had in composing my research question(s) is determining if they are too much of a general topic on alcoholism and are not specific enough and asking myself if the questions are related to each other and are cohesive.  I think to overcome these challenges I need to just break them down to their bare components and think about the ways in which they relate to each other, and focus on why it is that they are relevant questions to ask on my topic.