Step 1: Searching for Concepts

Kara Blizzard

Using PsycINFO

Step 1: Searching for Concepts

PsycINFO works best if you start by searching for each of your concepts separately. This is because the database uses controlled vocabulary, which means it uses specific terms to tag articles and describe their topics. These terms are called Subject Headings. Searching for one concept at a time allows you to search PsycINFO’s thesaurus for any matching Subject Headings and find articles about that concept.

Why does PsycINFO use Subject Headings?

Different authors might use different words or phrases to describe the same concept. Subject Headings help you find all of the articles about a particular concept, regardless of the specific terms individual authors used in their articles.

Searching for Your First Concept

Type the term into the search box

First, open PsycINFO. The Advanced Search page is the default option, and it is the most powerful way to find relevant articles on a topic.

Start by searching for one of your concepts using the search box in the middle of the page. For example, the search below uses the term university students. Make sure the “Map Term to Subject Heading” option underneath the search box is checked off; this will search PsycINFO’s thesaurus for your term.

Advanced search for the term university students

Select relevant Subject Heading(s)

The results will show a list of Subject Headings that may be relevant. If you do not see any relevant Subject Headings, try searching again with a different term.

At the bottom of the list, there is an option to search for your term as a keyword, which you can do if you are sure there are no relevant Subject Headings for your concept. The keyword option is broader, because it will search for the term anywhere in the article’s title, abstract, or a few other fields. So if you can find an appropriate Subject Heading, use that instead.

In the example below, there is not exact match for university students, but College Students is a close concept that is used widely in the USA. For some terms there will only be one matching result, and it might be the exact term you entered.

You could just select the most relevant term(s) and press Continue, but I like to click on the linked term that seems most relevant. You can note any others to add to your search later.

Subject Headings suggestions for university students. There is no exact match, but College Students is the closest.

View the thesaurus and choose more terms

Clicking on one of the Subject Headings brings up a thesaurus page that shows the relationship between this term and other PsycINFO Subject Headings. It can be really useful for finding more terms to add to your search.

In the example below, the first section (“Used For”) shows that the term College Students is used instead of coeds and undergraduates. This page also includes the broader term Students and a list of narrower, more specific terms for different types of college students.

If you select the Explode function, this will add any of the narrower terms for the Subject Heading and connect them with OR. In the below example, this would mean:

College Students OR College Athletes OR Community College Students OR Education Students OR … any of the other narrower terms.

Using Explode is generally a good practice because it increases the number of results you might find about a certain concept. But you can also choose to select specific narrower terms from the list instead.

Once you have selected all of the term(s) you want to include, click on the “Continue” button at the top of the page.

The Thesaurus page for College Students, showing its broader, narrower, and related terms. The Explode check box is selected, and an arrow is pointing from it to the list of Narrower Terms.

Now you will be taken back to the Advanced Search page, and the Search History section at the top will show one search for the Subject Heading you selected. In this example, “exp” means the Explode function was used, so any narrower terms are included in the search results.

Search History showing one line with a search for college students, with 114291 results

Searching for Your Other Concepts

Repeat these steps for each of your concepts. You may choose to do multiple searches for a single concept if there is more than one relevant Subject Heading.

Note: If one of your concepts is an age group, like children, infants, or seniors, it will not be a Subject Heading in the thesaurus. Just search for each of your other concepts, and later you will be able to limit the search results to a particular age group.

Each time you complete a search, a new line will be added to the search history at the top of the Advanced Search page. Below is an example of what a search history might look like after you finish searching for each of your concepts in the thesaurus.

You learned what the Explode function does, but what about “Focus”?

Selecting “Focus” means that search results must have this Subject Heading as a major focus of the article. This function makes a search narrower: it decreases the number of results. If you were finding too many irrelevant results for your topic, using Focus for one or more of your concepts would be one way to narrow things down. You can use Explode and Focus at the same time; they aren’t mutually exclusive.

thesaurus page for Academic Achievement, with the Focus option circled