Copy of Finding Research Instruments from UMass - Dartmouth: Books

Many books contain instruments, or portions of instruments, or discuss instrument design. You won't generally be able to search for the name of an instrument, just for a book that might include instruments about a topic.

UP Library Search is the main search tool for finding books in the library. Because other items, like articles, are also included in UP Library Search, view the tips below for effective searching for helpful books.

The UP Library Search box below lets you do an advanced search. Why is that helpful?

• UP Library Search contains articles as well as books. Using the UP Library Search box, you can limit your search only to books. Searching for articles in specific databases like CINAHL or ERIC is much more effective than using UP Library Search, especially when looking for research instruments.
• As recommended elsewhere in this guide, your best strategy is to search both for the type of thing you want (instruments, tests, etc.) as well as what topic you want that thing to assess. The Search box lets you compose a search of that kind.
• The UP Library Search box allows you to use the * key to truncate (search for any ending of) search terms.

To find instruments about your research topic, use keywords about it in the first search box. In the second box, try using this string of words: test* OR “family assessment” OR “behavioral assessment” OR “nursing assessment” OR “personality assessment” OR “data collection” OR measurement* OR surveys OR battery OR questionnaires OR interview* OR psychodiagnostics OR psychometrics OR sociometr*

Before you click the Search button, add some limits to your search using the drop-down menus on the right. Make sure the Material Type is set to Books and the Language to English.

This image is an example of how you might fill out the UP Library Search box; for the actual search box, scroll down and use the "UP Library Advanced Search"