InfoGuides: CRIM 250 Domestic Violence (Whyte): Search Tips

Construct a successful search

Do not write an entire sentence into a database's search box. Explain your topic to someone in three words or less. Multi-word terms that are a single idea count as one word, just put them in quotation marks (e.g. "attachment theory"). These are your search terms.
Search terms that represent different aspects of your topic (e.g. "attachment theory" and infants) should be entered into different search boxes when available. Otherwise, these terms can be combined using the word AND (e.g. "attachment theory" AND infants).
Search terms that are synonyms or related terms (e.g. anxiety or worry) should be entered into the same search box and combined using the word OR (e.g. anxiety OR worry). If multiple search boxes are not available, group related terms in parentheses and combine with the word OR.

Single search box example:

Find more relevant results

Proximity searching allows you to find results where your search terms appear close to one another (e.g. three words apart). The premise is that if your terms appear close together, the words are probably being discussed in the same context. Use proximity searching when you are getting too many results, especially ones that use your search terms, but not together.

Unfortunately there is not a universal way to construct a proximity search. Consult a database's "Help" menu to find out how to use this method in that specific database. Here are the formats for the databases listed on this guide:

Mental Measurements Yearbook with Tests in Print This link opens in a new window
Guide to contemporary testing instruments, including professional reviews and pricing.
Proquest Dissertations & Theses Global This link opens in a new window
Identifies Ph.D. dissertations from U.S. & Canadian universities since 1861. Abstracts from 1980. Master's theses from 1988. Many with full-text.
Psychology Database This link opens in a new window
Provides abstracts and indexing for key psychology titles, many which are available in full text. Many titles are indexed in PsycINFO. Coverage ranges from behavioral, clinical, cognitive, developmental, experimental, industrial and social psychology, along with personality, psychobiology and psychometrics.
APA PsycArticles This link opens in a new window
Full text articles in psychology, many published by the American Psychological Association.
APA PsycINFO This link opens in a new window
Identifies articles, books and dissertations in psychology and related subjects, many with links to full text.
APA PsycTESTS This link opens in a new window
Access to thousands of actual test instruments, most of which are available for immediate download and use in teaching and research.
Summon This link opens in a new window
Summon is a discovery tool which searches across most of RIT's article databases.

Note: The number 3 is used as an example and can be replaced by any number. You might try 3 then 10 then 15 then 25.