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Instruments, Tests & Measures: Example Searches

Use this guide to find published and unpublished tests and measures.

Searching for tests, measures or other standardized instruments

On this page you'll find several different kinds of examples of ways and places to search for instruments - the examples include the short written process, screenshots, and an overview of the process.    

Remember, there's no one perfect way to search, but these are some strategies that work well when searching for instruments. Also, you'll probably have to closely read the methods section of an article to get a full understanding of the instrument.

Finding Tests in Journal Articles

Sometimes authors of a journal article will describe a scale, test, or measure that they either used or created for their research. The authors will occasionally include the scale in the appendix of their article.

Adding the word append* will help you find articles that have an appended test. The * tells the database to look for append, appended, or appendix.

As you look through the abstracts of the articles, look for keywords like "Appended" as highlighted below. This means that you will find the full-text of the instrument in the appendix of the article.

Searching for Tests & Measures: 3 Examples