PsycINFO will limit the hits to work published in journals PsycINFO has identified as psychological. The specialized search terms enable a researcher who knows "enough" about the topic area to create a focused search, minimizing the noise of irrelevant hits.
Students frequently don't see these benefits because they don't know the best terms to enter as search terms. Even experienced users will get searches with too many irrelevant hits when we venture into a new topic area or construct a search for material in an area that we are less familiar. The limitation on the set of journals and other publications searched can actually be a detriment if the content area is interdisciplinary. I have to use more than one data base when I'm searching for materials related to Judgment and Decision Making because PsycINFO doesn't index all of the relevant publication outlets. Inexperienced users sometimes get more effective searches with Google Scholar. It is more forgiving about search terms (but does generate lots of "noise" in the hit lists). It crosses all sorts of disciplines, which makes it nice for strongly interdisciplinary topics. I taught a graduate course in JDM this spring with an extensive reading list of journal articles. Rather than put all of these on reserve, I decided that grad students ought to become adept with electronic data bases. I put the few items that I knew students couldn't access electronically on reserve but I expected them to use the library data bases and electronic resources to access the others. (A sort of ungraded stealth information literacy assignment.) The surprise was that the students said that they had an easier time accessing full text electronic files by searching in Google Scholar (using my citation information) than by using the library electronic data bases. Often, Google Scholar provided a link to the item in our university electroinic data base. Some students reported that when they tried using the library data bases, they couldn't actually access the full text files (the links can be flakey in these data bases - Google's appear to be more reliable). Claudia J. Stanny, Ph.D. Director, Center for University Teaching, Learning, and Assessment Associate Professor, Psychology University of West Florida 11000 University Parkway Pensacola, FL 32514 – 5751 Phone: (850) 857-6355 or 473-7435 [email protected] CUTLA Web Site: http://uwf.edu/cutla/ Personal Web Pages: http://uwf.edu/cstanny/website/index.htm On Wed, Jun 2, 2010 at 1:54 PM, Sally Walters <[email protected]> wrote: > > > I never use Google Scholar but my students often do, even after I advise > them to use PsycINFO. Can anyone point me towards any analyses of the > differences between them for students? My sense is that GS is not as good > but I'd love to show them something concrete. I will create something myself > if nothing exists already but am hoping not to have to. > > thanks, > Sally Walters > Capilano U > > --- > > You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. > > To unsubscribe click here: > http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13144.1572ed60024e708cf21c4c6f19e7d550&n=T&l=tips&o=2868 > > (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line is broken) > > or send a blank email to > leave-2868-13144.1572ed60024e708cf21c4c6f19e7d...@fsulist.frostburg.edu > --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=2871 or send a blank email to leave-2871-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
