SPCE 292: Treatment and Interventions for Autism Spectrum Disorders

Your assignment:

"You must select 3 research papers from peer-reviewed journals, plus 3 additional scholarly works of your choice (i.e., books, other articles, etc.) You must inform your instructor of your topic, your choice of social media outlet, and provide APA style references of your selected sources."

While it depends on your topic somewhat, APA PsycInfo will likely be the best database to consult for this assignment.  However, if your topic deals with anything related to the classroom, learning, or teaching, you may also want to try ERIC (EBSCOhost.)

Links to those databases are here:

Use the CHOP, DROP, and OR technique for your search strategy.

Breaking your topic up into the concepts involved is a great way to start planning your searching.  (This is the CHOP part of CHOP, DROP, and OR.)

Then drop each concept from your topic into a separate search box.  (This is the OR part of CHOP, DROP, and OR.)

Next, consider whether there are synonyms and related terms that you also want to search on, and use OR to include those.  (This is the OR part of CHOP, DROP, and OR.)

Finally, be willing to explore, experiment, and revise your search!

Here's an example:

• Let's say my topic is the use of dogs in therapy with individuals with autism.
• First I'd CHOP it up into these concepts: dogs, therapy, autism
• Then I'd DROP each of those terms in a search box, as I've done here in APA PsycInfo:

• Next, I'd try coming up with other terms to OR into my search, as I've done here:

• Finally, I'll look at my results and edit my search to incorporate any new terms I discover.  After seeing this record...

• ... I might change my search to look like this:

Remember that research takes time...and be willing to scroll down through your list, looking for good 'hits!'

It's important that you use APA citation style as you cite the articles and other sources for your References List.

When you want to cite a source you've found using a library database, you can start by looking for the "Cite" feature.

To use the "Cite" feature in APA PsycInfo and ERIC (and other EBSCOhost databases):

1. From the results page, look to the right of the title you want to cite for the vertical ellipsis.  That brings up a Tools menu.
2. Click on the "Cite" choice.
3. Use the "Select style" drop-down menu to choose APA.
4. Use the "Copy to clipboard" link to copy-paste the citation into your document.
5. Double-check the citation that's generated, however, as it may not be perfect.

To use the "Cite this item" feature in OneSearch:

1. From the results list in OneSearch, look for the blue quotation mark icon by the item you want to cite.  (When you hover over it, it says "Cite this item.") 
2. Under "Choose a Citation Format," choose APA.
3. At that point, you may choose to highlight the citation, and copy-paste it into your document.
4. Double-check the citation that's generated, however, as it may not be perfect.

Things to check for:

• Capitalization: APA citation style requires article titles to be capitalized as in a sentence.  (i.e. The first word is capitalized and any proper nouns, but otherwise, words should be in lower case.)
• Dates and page numbers.
• Formatting: Your APA-style reference list should use a hanging indent for each entry.  You'll need to ensure you properly use that feature in your word processing program.