Literature searching

This document has a guide on using two

slightly different search engines; these
are the two most commonly used ones.
When you are writing academically, you
should focus on using articles published
in peer review journals. Newspapers,
generic websites, (e.g.
https://www.simplypsychology.org)
should be avoided- unless you are using
them to point out problems with how
psychology is discussed in the media!
Textbooks are useful for getting an idea about a topic and can be cited although they tend
not to be particularly up to date. Journal articles are the best source of up to date and
detailed information and should be cited in reports.
Here is a guide to searching using two good academic search engines
Scopus:

Go to https://www.scopus.com/
Try searching theories AND development – how many results do you get? Select an item.
This is clearly far too many to read, and if you look at some of the titles, you will see these
are not all relevant to your topic.
Next, refine your search by using the limit to boxes
on the left hand side; choose the options for years
2017-2018, document type to reviews and the
subject area to psychology – how many results do
you get now?
Select an item.

This is still too many and although these are now

more related to psychology some of the results are still irrelevant to what you are looking
for.
To further reduce the reviews you can also search within results.
Try searching within results for “attachment” - how many results do you get now?
Select an item.

You now have manageable list of documents from which to start your literature search.
From here, you can read the article title and abstract to see if it is relevant to what you are
writing about. You can then download any useful papers to read in full.
Google Scholar:

Go to https://scholar.google.co.uk/ (not Google.com)

Search for: Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development

On the left-hand side, you will see the ability to limit by date (similar to Scopus). Wherever
possible you should use up-to-date literature, so unless you are looking for a specific paper
you should consider limiting your search using the “since 2014 button”.
Google scholar also has other buttons, which can be useful when you are looking for
literature:

Occasionally journals will ask for payment to view an article, do not provide this! If you need
access, speak to the library or your tutor about alternative ways of accessing the article, the
university pays a lot of money for subscriptions so you don’t have to.
Locate the paper by “Clapper” published in 2015
The library can help you with accessing papers and doing a literature search.
https://libguides-liverpool-ac-uk.liverpool.idm.oclc.org/library
And this is a useful website where you can find an APA style guide:
Purdue Owl https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/