Qualitative Methods in Psychology

Course #: PS398

Using deep web search engines to find articles on a research topic

Overview of deep web search engines

Not all information is freely available on the Internet. There is a vast amount of information that is only available to those who pay for access. This information is in the region of the Internet known as the "deep web". The Library subscribes to parts of the deep web so you as Laurier students get free access. If a website ever asks you to pay for an article, contact the your librarian (Mark). The Library has ways of getting students free access to any academic resource.

You can use deep web search engines to find quality, peer-reviewed academic journal articles in the deep web.

Deep web search engines

Psychology students in Qualitative Methods in Psychology may find these search engines most helpful:

Tips for using deep web search engines

Search engines that search the deep academic web often come with very powerful tricks.

Using double quotes to find an entire phrase

To find matches for a series of words or a phrase, put your search terms in double quotes. For example:

  • "climate change": When entered into the search box, the double quotes will search article records for the whole phrase "climate change"
  • "water reduction education": When entered into the search box, the double quotes will search article records for the whole phrase "water reduction education"
Using the wildcard operator

communi*: searches for words starting with "communi". Will return "community" or "communities"

Using boolean operators

"climate change" OR "global warming": Will search for articles with either the phrase "climate change" or "global warming". This is great when you aren't sure which phrase or word might be used.

Using proximity operator

water NEAR/10 education: searches for articles where water and education are within 10 words of each other

garden NEAR/3 community: searches for articles where garden and community are within 3 words of each other

Finding a journal article with a citation

    Reference material

    Need help understanding a concept quickly? Consult reference collection:

    Educational videos about qualitative research

    Movies about ethical aspects of doing research