Solano Community College Library: Psychology: Behavioral Science Research Tips

Scholarly Articles

Anatomy of a Scholarly Article
A great visual of the core parts in a scholarly article, created and shared by the library at NC State University.

Need a little more info? Check out Xavier University's "Qualitative vs Quantitative Research" chart.

Boolean Operator:

What it does:

Example:

AND

all keywords will appear

narrows your search (fewer results)

chocolate AND hazelnut

**will return results that contain BOTH terms

either keyword will appear

broadens your search (more results)

chocolate OR hazelnut

**will return results that contain EITHER term

NOT

removes keyword from your search

narrows your search (fewer results)

chocolate NOT hazelnut

**will return results that contain ONLY chocolate

"Phrase Search"

searches for an exact phrase

narrows your search (fewer results)

"cocoa production" will return results for that phrase with the words in that order

(wrap quotes around your phrase)

Truncation*

searches for all forms of a root word

broadens your search (more results)

addict* will search for: addict, addiction, addictive

(put an asterisk at the end of your root word)