Tips on finding articles for your research. From the Libraries of Montgomery County Community College. Updated 8-8-12 by librarians Mary Beth Parkinson and Jerry Yarnetsky. Contact us at jyarnets-at-mc3.edu

1. MC3 Libraries
Finding
Articles

2. MC3 Libraries
On the
library
website,
click
“Research”

3. MC3 Libraries
Choose Your Subject
From the drop-down “Refine
by Subject” menu, choose the
subject that best fits your
topic.
For PTSD, you might try
psychology.
The list of databases
automatically filters to the
options best for your subject.

4. MC3 Libraries
Try the Psychology and Behavioral
Sciences Collection. You’ll see it is
listed as a “Best Bet”

5. MC3 Libraries
Search using your first keyword
and click “Full Text”
Tip 1: For articles, avoid using acronyms such as PTSD, spell it out for better results!
Tip 2: Click the “Full Text” button to insure all entries have articles.
Tip 3: Click the “Peer Review” button for research-based academic articles.
Spell it out…

6. MC3 Libraries
Let’s look at the results…
(A) Article title. (B) Author and journal information.
(circle) Number of pages. (D) Article subjects. (E) Link to the article.
A
B
D
E

7. MC3 Libraries
Look at the article subjects
This is how the articles are classified.
Search with these to get better results!
Here we searched for PTSD, but found it was tagged
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

8. MC3 Libraries
Click the title for the article view
(A) Here’s the article. (B) Find similar articles.
(C) Email yourself the article. (D) Citations. (E) Link to the article.
Always email yourself the articles!
A
B
D
E
C

9. MC3 Libraries
Focus your results
You will often see hundreds if not
thousands of articles!
Use options in the left column
including date, source type
and subject to narrow your
results!
When you click a box or change the year,
your results list will update.

10. MC3 Libraries
This left column
can only provide basic
focusing. Let’s try
combining keywords
for better results using
the words…
And • Or • Not

11. MC3 Libraries
Start with your
main topic.
Post-Traumatic
Stress Disorder.
Post-
Traumatic
Stress
Disorder

12. MC3 Libraries
However, you want to focus your
topic on veterans suffering PTSD.
So add a second keyword…
Veterans
Post-
Traumatic
Stress
Disorder

13. MC3 Libraries
Post-
Traumatic
Stress
Disorder
Veterans
Search “Post traumatic stress
disorder and Veterans”
Get articles with both terms in common – Veterans who suffer PTSD
This would be purple the overlap area.

14. MC3 Libraries
Post-
Traumatic
Stress
Disorder
Veterans
Search “Post Traumatic Stress
Disorder not Veterans”
Now you get PTSD articles not related to veterans.
For example, natural disaster or child abuse victims
suffering PTSD. These articles are in the blue area.

15. MC3 Libraries
Search “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
and (veterans or child abuse)”
OR is the way to
examine multiple
aspects of the
same issue.
This expands
your results.
Post-
Traumatic
Stress
Disorder
Veterans
Child
Abuse

16. MC3 Libraries
Post-
Traumatic
Stress
Disorder
Iraq War
Experiment with keywords
Aim for a fewer very good articles instead of
hundreds of so-so articles.
Changing Veterans to Iraq War gave us 38 good articles

17. MC3 Libraries
Need Help?
Visit, Call,
IM or Email
Brendlinger Library
(215) 641-6594
West Campus Library
(610) 718-1864
IM a librarian
refdesk@mc3.edu