Psychology: How to Search & Find Resources

Finding Journal Articles

Journals may be called periodicals, serials or magazines. They are usually published weekly, monthly or seasonally. Some are scholarly and can be called peer reviewed or refereed. An article is usually a short written piece or essay on a specific subject. Most of the Children and Family Studies journals and their articles are now electronic. A smaller number are only available in paper format.  Articles contained in the journals can be found in two ways;

1) Search ECU Library

2) Search key databases and journal indexes listed in the A-Z Databases list.

Finding Journal Articles with ECU Library Search

• In ECU Library search type your topic or keywords into the search box and click search.
• more than one keyword can be linked together using the search operator AND eg:  famil* AND community AND programs requires the results to contain all three words in the article.  Another common operator is the use of the phrase search eg: "family groups" 
• once the results are displayed, look to the filters on the left
• limit the results shown to those items held by ECU by selecting Edith Cowan University
• under Content Type select full text and peer reviewed
• select a date range if required
• select the article title or "Access online" button to enter the database that holds the journal title.  Once the article displays you will need to locate the PDF download button to save or print that article.

Instructions: To find a specific journal article

• as with finding a book, we insert one of the authors and some of the words from the journal article title.
• to access the full text of the journal article select the title or "Access online" button to enter the database that holds the journal title.  Once the article displays you will need to locate the PDF download button to save or print that article.

Due to publisher restrictions many of the articles contained in databases may not be found in ECU Library.  It is strongly recommended that you search within a number of the Children and Family Studies databases. For more instruction and recommended databases visit the Databases page.

For more information on finding Journals and Journal articles, visit How to find journal articles

Finding DVDs and Streaming Video

You can locate DVD's and streaming films available at ECU by searching ECU Library. 

You can search by title, keyword or subject. You can restrict your results to the format you want by including DVD or film in your search. Alternatively you can use the format search filters once a search is complete. 

Streaming Video Collections

Streaming Audio - NAXOS

ECU students and staff have access to a large collection of streaming music. Why not use this music to help you get in the zone when studying? 

The library subscribes to music listening, video and music score databases which are accessible from your computer. You can create play lists for listening, assignments and presentations and share play lists with others who have ECU authentication.

Check out the Study Area and Resources section for music resources for children.

Searching by Subject Headings may find a range of items as the search is from the subject perspective.  In ECU Library Search, there are a couple of ways to use Subject Headings, included Advanced Search, which allows you to link a number of Subjects together with title words, authors, etc.

Finding Subject Headings

Find Subject Headings by searching for one item that matches part of your overall search, then identify which Subjects have been used for that.

Searching Subject Headings

Then directly type in su: and the subject term. Be sure to choose the library option of Edith Cowan University to display items in the library collection. Refer to the Useful Subject Terms for Video and Film for a list of the main subject terms that you can use to search for resources in the library.

Advanced search

You can also combine Subject Headings with other Subjects, or titles, authors, etc. in the Advanced Search page of ECU Worldsearch.

A good search strategy is only the beginning, you may end up with many results that are on your topic, but that are unsuitable for other reasons, such as availability, format, age, etc.

ECU Worldsearch allows you to narrow your search results with Filters. You will also find that most Databases have similar functions.

Make sure to narrow them down by using the filters on the left hand side of the web page.
	Pick: Library: Edith Cowan University For academic material select: Peer Reviewed Select: Format: Book, DVD, Music, etc.
For new material, click: Year: Last 5 / 10 Years This will not change your search, but will narrow the number of results.
	For a more precise search, click into the Title and the Description, to find the Subjects an item has been catalogued under. These are more precise than standard Keyword searches, and can be searched via the Advanced Search screen.
Combine these Subjects to get strong results.

 Add / Reorder