Ask the Library: Reference

I searched Iceberg, which is a super database that aggregates content from many of our databases.  Iceberg is available by clicking on "Databases" under the word "Research" on the Library's home web page.  I started with the keyword terms "heart transplant*" and "psych*" to see what articles appear.  The "*" after a word is a wildcard symbol that will retrieve any words with that root, so "psych*" will pick up words like "psychology", "psychological", etc.

This search retieved a number of interesting articles.  When viewing the more detailed records of some of the seemingly more relevant articles, I began to see words like "emotional", "depression", "stress" and "anxiety".  I then tried some new searches pairing "heart transplant*" with "emotion*", "depression", etc. to see if any of those combinations retrieved any new, revelant articles that didn't appear in the first search.  

Additionally, some of the articles contained subject terms or phrases like "HEART -- Transplantation" and "PSYCHOLOGICAL aspects", which can create a more precise search for more targeted results.  To use subject terms, you can either select "SU Subject Terms" from the drop down list under "Select a Field (optional)" or simply block, copy and paste the subject terms you want to use including the "DE" prefix that appears in the detailed information about that article.  So you entry would be "DE HEART -- Transplantation" and "DE "PSYCHOLOGICAL aspects".

I don't know if you need to limit your search to a particular date range, but there are filters for doing that on the left hand side of the search page.  You can also limit to full text articles, peer reviewed journals, etc.  Once you retrieve a full text article that is of interest to you, you can download it to your computer.

Beyond Iceberg, you can search additional databases in the psychology or medical subject fields by selecting a subject area under the words "Databases by Subject" on the left hand side of the page once you click on "databases" on the Library home page, if you still need more articles.  Although most of the databases we can access are already included in Iceberg, some like Medline" are not and could yield additional unique results.