New Terms & Other Updates to the Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms®

We recently released an update to the Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms. The Thesaurus provides precise and consistent terminology for searching all APA research databases. We added 305 new “preferred” Index Terms and approximately 70 new non-postable or “use” references*.

Each item in the APA databases – journal articles, books and book chapters, dissertations, and more – is represented by a record that is indexed, or tagged, with Index Terms from the Thesaurus. The use of a controlled vocabulary allows someone searching a database to quickly find all items about a specific concept — such as Animal Behavior, Marginalized Groups, or Prescription Drug Misuse — no matter what terminology or keywords the authors used. 

Reflecting emerging areas, technologies, and social issues as well as changing nomenclature, this updated vocabulary will provide users with more targeted and efficient search and discovery. Additionally, we added new terminology in the expanding areas of psychological assessment, psychometrics, and research methods. You can view more details on our web page, What’s New in the 2019 Update, including a link to the full list of new and updated Index Terms (PDF, 135KB).

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Introducing New Features in PsycINFO: Starting Your Research on Ovid

In August, PsycINFO® added new fields and features to help researchers like you search with greater precision and to include more information right in the record.

Because of the interlinking of APA’s products, PsycARTICLES, PsycBOOKS, and PsycCRITIQUES also include these updates.

Four of the new fields are particularly useful as you begin a research project or assignment. They can help you quickly narrow down search results and spot more information about the topic and why it is important.

  • Impact Statement – A summary like an abstract, but instead of describing the technical process, it explains the relevance of the research to the general public. This can help to justify a research project, especially if you are applying for a grant.
  • Open Access – A flag on the record indicates that the fulltext is available through open access. This provides access to resources beyond PsycINFO.
  • Data Sets – A description of the data set is provided, as well as links for access or download when available. Looking at the data yourself enables you to better understand the research conducted in the published study, and to identify your own project that builds on this previous work.
  • Dissertation Details – Advisor(s), Degree, Institution and Department are included in the PsycINFO record. This helps you to find leaders in evolving areas of research, or note other disciplines that are working on similar topics.

Check out our SlideShare presentation for a guide on using these new fields on Ovid.

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Introducing New Features in PsycINFO: Starting Your Research on EBSCOhost

In August, PsycINFO® added new fields and features to help researchers like you search with greater precision and to include more information right in the record.

Because of the interlinking of APA’s products, PsycARTICLES®, PsycBOOKS®, and PsycCRITIQUES® also include these updates.

Four of the new fields are particularly useful as you begin a research project or assignment. They can help you quickly narrow down search results and spot more information about the topic and why it is important.

  • Impact Statement – A summary like an abstract, but instead of describing the technical process, it explains the relevance of the research to the general public. This can help to justify a research project, especially if you are applying for a grant.
  • Open Access – A flag on the record indicates that the fulltext is available through open access. This provides access to resources beyond PsycINFO.
  • Data Sets – A description of the data set is provided, as well as links for access or download when available. Looking at the data yourself enables you to better understand the research conducted in the published study, and to identify your own project that builds on this previous work.
  • Dissertation Details – Advisor(s), Degree, Institution and Department are included in the PsycINFO record. This helps you to find leaders in evolving areas of research, or note other disciplines that are working on similar topics.

Check out our SlideShare presentation for a guide on using these new fields on EBSCOhost.

ebscocover

 

If you access PsycINFO through a different database platform, you can check the Vendor Status page to see when these new features will go live.

Introducing New Features in PsycINFO: Starting Your Research on APA PsycNET

In August, PsycINFO added new fields and features to help researchers like you search with greater precision and to include more information right in the record.
Because of the interlinking of APA’s products, PsycARTICLES, PsycBOOKS, and PsycCRITIQUES also include these updates.

Four of the new fields are particularly useful as you begin a research project or assignment. They can help you quickly narrow down search results and spot more information about the topic and why it is important.

  • Impact Statement – A summary like an abstract, but instead of describing the technical process, it explains the relevance of the research to the general public. This can help to justify a research project, especially if you are applying for a grant.
  • Open Access – A flag on the record indicates that the fulltext is available through open access. This provides access to resources beyond PsycINFO.
  • Data Sets – A description of the data set is provided, as well as links for access or download when available. Looking at the data yourself enables you to better understand the research conducted in the published study, and to identify your own project that builds on this previous work.
  • Dissertation Details – Advisor(s), Degree, Institution and Department are included in the PsycINFO record. This helps you to find leaders in evolving areas of research, or note other disciplines that are working on similar topics.

 

Check out our SlideShare presentation for a guide on using these new fields on APA PsycNET.

psycnetcover

 

If you access PsycINFO through a different database platform, you can check the Vendor Status page to see when these new features will go live.

New Features Added to PsycINFO

PsycINFO® is APA’s flagship research database, providing access to records for journal articles, books, chapters, dissertations, and other scholarly psychological content, with extensive global and historical coverage, and full cited references.

APA strives to keep PsycINFO useful and relevant. This means that, every so often, we need to add a new field to the database. (In this context, a field provides a specific type of information about the article being described – age group of the participants, for example, or the methodology used.) This allows us to provide researchers and users in the behavioral sciences and related disciplines with improved usability and new tools to help retrieve content and conduct their research.

We bundle these changes together and add them all at once, in what we refer to as a “reload” or “refresh” of the database. On August 1, we released a refresh of PsycINFO that includes several new features. These new features are already available on APA PsycNET® and EBSCOhost; Ovid and ProQuest are working on uploading the changes. Our vendor partners implement reloads on different schedules, so check with your vendor or visit our Vendor Reload Status Update page for more information.

In the coming weeks, we will be providing more in-depth information on how these fields and features work, and where to find them as you search PsycINFO. We will also be offering webinars to demonstrate the features live. We’ll announce the schedule here as soon as it’s ready! Continue reading