Читать книгу The Research Experience - Ann Sloan Devlin - Страница 65

A thesaurus of index terms can be useful to students in selecting the most effective keyword to search the literature on a given topic. The thesaurus is usually arranged in such a way that if you look up a particular term, you will see terms that are both broader and narrower. Often students initially enter keyword terms that either lead to “zero” hits or 1,000 hits; that is, the search leads to no or few relevant articles or so many that it would be overwhelming to sort through them. If you look up the keyword “terrorism” in the PsycINFO database, for example, you will get more than 9,000 hits. A recent search consulting the thesaurus function of PsycINFO under “terrorism” showed the year the term was introduced to the tracking citation system (1982), a definition (Scope note), two broader terms “antisocial behavior” and “violent crime,” two narrower terms “bioterrorism” and “counterterrorism,” and a list of eight related terms in alphabetical order. Entering one of these terms, “Radical Movements,” into the PsycINFO keyword search function produced 502 hits, which is a more manageable place to start (if this is the direction you are heading).

Another way to manage the number of “hits” you have is to use the “Subject: Major Heading” listing. After you have entered “terrorism” as a search term, look over at the left-hand column of PsycINFO, which is labeled “Refine Results” and you will see several headings including “Limit to,” “Source Types,” and “Major Heading.” Under Subject: Major Heading, I saw terrorism, violence, war, posttraumatic stress disorder, emotional trauma, and disasters, each with the number of articles associated with that term. You may be interested in emotional trauma, which has far fewer references, by a factor of 10, than does terrorism. This kind of information is helpful in managing your search to avoid becoming overwhelmed. To become more adept at doing searches, you might want to work through a search exercise with a reference librarian.

At the very least, an indexing thesaurus or its online equivalent will give you other keywords to test out. Using the appropriate keyword is critical to accessing the published work in a given area. That is why becoming familiar with the Thesaurus function of the electronic database you are using is essential.