Explain a concept - A guide to research tools!

Choosing a Concept

The Explaining a Concept essay answers a question like “What is X, and why do we care?” where X is the concept.

As you select the "concept" you wish to explore, keep in mind that this is supposed to be an "abstract idea" (and not an object, an animal, etc), such as multiculturalism, ethnicity, altruism, conformity, peacemaking, prejudice, gender roles, aggression, etc.

Still looking for a "concept" to pick for your paper? Try a search in Credo Reference (see discussion below) typing in the exact phrase (including the " ") : "concept of." You may also visit the following web site that provides examples of social psychological concepts:http://jonathan.mueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/crow/examples.htm (this web site was put together by a college professor at North Central College, IL, based on student input).

Starting points .... Encyclopedias and other reference sources

One way to start your project is by using one of our online encyclopedias to explore in general what other people have researched and found about your subject. These sources may also give you ideas on how best to narrow down your subject to a researchable topic by narrowing it down to a specific question or aspect.

Our library subscribes both to individual electronic encyclopedias on different subjects (click here to see the whole list) and also to huge online reference collections (kinda like "virtual" big library collections of reference materials...) such as Credo Reference, Gale Virtual Reference Library, Oxford Reference Online, and Sage Reference Online. Credo, in particular, is one of my favorite new subscriptions, an award winning database providing access to the full text of hundreds of highly regarded titles! How to access and explore these wonderful resources? See instructions below...

go to our library homepage.
under the category Quick facts: Encyclopedias, stats, etc. click on Encyclopedias (alternatively, you may also find these sources under the category Articles & More: Databases, under Encyclopedias and other sources).
Go ahead and try a search in Credo Reference or any of the other virtual collections. They are easy to use and search!

Searching the catalog to find books

Books will probably be your next best bet for information on your concept. Here are two tools (COCC catalog and Summit) you can use to find books on the topic:

COCC Catalog - use this catalog to find books in our local collection.

Here is how you may access a the COCC catalog:

go to the Campus Library homepage
under the heading "Books and more: Library catalogs," select COCC Catalog
when you do your searches in our COCC catalog, you may try first the Subject search mode. The advantage of the Subject (versus Keyword) search is that it will provide you results "about" your topic (versus keyword search results which simply contain the search words you typed in).

For example, try a Subject search for Altruism. Besides giving you 6 pertinent results right on this topic, the catalog also offers you a suggestion to search under Helping behavior. Both subject headings give you a lot of great book titles to pick from!

Summit - use this catalog to search for, find, and request books from a HUGE collection of titles owned by college and university libraries in the Northwest!

Here is how you may access Summit:

go to the Campus Library homepage
under the heading "Books and more: Library catalogs," select Summit

In Summit you are given the option of doing Keyword searches for your topic. Again, a Keyword search will simply provide results that contain the search words you typed in. To do a Subject search in summit use the drop down menu and select "Subject" as in the screen below:

For more information on how to use Summit, visit: http://web.cocc.edu/thovekamp/lib127/MORECATALOGS.html

Note that with Summit you may request books which will thenl arrive to our COCC library for you to pick up within 3-4 working days (we'll email you). What a great service, uh?

How do I find additional journal articles?

Need to explore more for your sources? COCC has paid subscriptions to many periodical databases.

Here is how you may access these databases:

go to the Campus Library homepage (http://campuslibrary.cocc.edu/)
under the heading "Articles & more: Databases," select "All Databases" to see an alphabetical list of all databases or select by subject. A good academic database for most disciplines is Ebsco's Academic Search Premier. For more information on how to use this or other Ebsco databases, see: http://web.cocc.edu/thovekamp/lib127/EBSCO.html

in addition, if you are looking for newspaper articles, keep in mind that LexisNexis is a huge full-text database specializing in news sources. For more information on how to use Lexis-Nexis visit: http://web.cocc.edu/thovekamp/lib127/LexisNexis.html

Search Hints
All databases are slightly different, but here are a few hints you should be able to apply in all.

Use quotation marks for phrases, for example "blood pressure."

Use OR to link synonyms.

Use AND to combine concepts.

Check out those dropdown boxes! They can be very helpful.

Note that a good number of databases give you the article in full text, right there on the screen. To get to that full text, just click on the html or pdf full text link under the article in your results list. You can also limit your search results to only full text.

If an article is not available full text, the database may give you the option to request it through Interlibrary loan. Just look for the link that will allow you to place your request online! Articles requested through interlibrary loan are usually delivered to you electronically (check your COCC email) within 7-10 days.

Need more help? Contact Tina Hovekamp, thovekamp@cocc.edu

Last updated 10/7/09