Webinar Alert: PsycINFO Sessions for Students & Faculty November 30-December 2

Our next series of PsycINFO® webinars for students and faculty will run on November 30, December 1, and December 2 from 11 – 11:30 a.m. EST (UTC -5). The sessions may be taken separately, but we encourage those who are interested to take all three, and offer them on consecutive days:

We will provide information relevant to all search platforms including APA PsycNET, EBSCOhost, Ovid, and ProQuest. The platform used will be based on the needs of the attendees of each session. For more information on this series, including full descriptions, please visit our website.

These webinars are an ideal way for students to get a refresher on PsycINFO if they have had a previous training session. Please help us spread the word to interested students and faculty!

New in PsycBOOKS: October 2016

In October 2016, APA added 2 new APA books to PsycBOOKS®:

Bibliographic records are available through your PsycBOOKS vendor. You may also download RDA records directly from APA by following the instructions in the APA PsycNET® Administrator Help Menu.

View the past monthly PsycBOOKS update lists, a list of sample PsycBOOKS titles, and the full coverage list for PsycBOOKS.

Webinar Alert: New APA Style CENTRAL Training Sessions on Teaching and Writing for November & December 2016

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APA’s training specialists have developed two new training sessions on using APA Style CENTRAL® for teaching and writing. Each webinar includes a content overview and a live demonstration of features.

Teaching With APA Style CENTRAL covers the platform content, features, and tools that can be incorporated into course and bibliographic instruction. It’s a great way to tour the learning resources that are available. Faculty, librarians, and anyone responsible for teaching APA Style will benefit from this webinar.

Writing Papers in APA Style CENTRAL details the wide range of writing tools and functionality that make writing papers and managing their references easier. Students, end users, and those in instructional roles can all benefit from this webinar.

The November and December schedule appears below; click on any session below to register (Note: All times are UTC-5):

  • Teaching With APA Style CENTRAL (60 minutes):
  • Writing Papers in APA Style CENTRAL (30 minutes):

Interested but unable to join any of these sessions? More will be scheduled beginning in January 2017, and you’ll be glad to learn that we recently posted a recording of the Teaching with APA Style CENTRAL session on our YouTube channel.

You can also view or download the slides for any of our APA Style CENTRAL presentations on the APA Style CENTRAL SlideShare channel.

The schedule for all APA Style CENTRAL webinars is available on our website.

Searching Many Terms at Once on PsycINFO

When you begin a review of the literature, it’s important to construct a successful search query that harnesses all the research on the topic. One way to do this is to search for synonyms and related concepts at the same time.

First, list the concepts that you are researching. This can be done with pen and paper. For example, I want to learn more about ADHD in teenagers, particularly at school.

Next, brainstorm alternate terms for each of your concepts. ADHD could also be called: ADD, hyperactivity, or attention deficit disorder. Teenagers could also be called: adolescents, teens, or high schoolers. School could also be called: education, classroom, class, academic, or learning.

Keep the terms you brainstorm for each concept together in their own group – we’ll call these your concept groups. Within the concept groups, you’ll join the terms together with OR. The OR search will find items that include at least one of the terms you include, so you’ll get a lot of results from these searches.

Next, you’ll join the searches you just created for your concept groups with AND. In the type of search we’re building, the AND search will find items that include at least one term from each concept group.

long-search-post-imageOnce you have your concept groups mapped out, you can begin your research on PsycINFO® by following these steps. For more detailed information for your platform – APA PsycNET, EBSCOhost, Ovid or ProQuest – please view our presentation on SlideShare.

  1. Before you type anything, login into (or create) your personal account. This allows you to edit your search, and to save the search to run again later. 
  2. Open your PsycINFO advanced search page. Customize the search by adding more rows for search terms, and changing the conjunction from AND to OR.
  3. Most platforms will search All Text or All Fields as a default. This is a fine starting point, or you can pick a particular field to search, such as Keywords, Abstract, or Title.
  4. Type in the terms for your first concept group: ADHD OR ADD OR hyperactivity OR attention deficit disorder. Run the search and save it to your account
  5. Run the rest of the concept group searches and save them.
  6. Within the saved searches page, you can combine your searches with AND. Save this master search too!
  7. This may be a large number of results to work with. Now that your full search is saved, you can further refine it by adding or removing terms, or adding limits such as document type or methodology. If your project is long term or ongoing, you can run this saved search once a month or once a week to review just the recently published articles on the topic.

For more detailed information for your platform – APA PsycNET, EBSCOhost, Ovid or ProQuest – please view our presentation on SlideShare.

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APA PsycNET: slides 5-13
EBSCOhost: slides 14-21
Ovid: slides 22-29
ProQuest: slides 30-37

 

If you’re affiliated with a college or university, you can ask a librarian for assistance with your search. Subscribers to APA PsycNET® Gold, Gold Plus, and Platinum packages can contact APA Databases & Electronic Resources Customer Relations at psycinfo@apa.org or 800-374-2722.

 

Related Training Resources

Using Index Terms and Keywords (APA PsycNET): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFeyRb73yZM

PsycINFO YouTube Channel playlist: Using the Methodology Limiter: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZhiJFnGuh4whhw0wUwrrYhFWYvbedmiA

Setting up an alert (APA PsycNET): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVdD0UtC-Xg

You may be interested in attending our PsycINFO Results Management training (all platforms): http://www.apa.org/pubs/databases/training/webinars-students.aspx

 

APA Librarian Conference Travel Award: Apply by Nov. 30 for Spring 2017 Conferences

Do you work in an academic or health sciences library in the United States? Are you an early- or mid-career librarian? Are you looking for sources of funding for a conference you’d like to attend this spring?

If the answer to all of those questions is yes, please consider applying for an APA Librarian Conference Travel Award! Through November 30, 2016, we are accepting applications for conferences taking place from January to April 2017. This includes – but is not limited to – the National Institute on the Teaching of Psychology, ALA Midwinter, Electronic Resources & Libraries, the ACRL 2017 Conference, Code4Lib, the ACRL Immersion Teaching with Technology Track, and the Annual Conference on the First Year Experience.

The award is intended to help defray conference-related expenses for librarians with less than 15 years of experience after receiving their MLS. Three cash awards are distributed three times each calendar year, and the application cycle opens and closes on a rolling basis. At this time, we are not limiting the conferences that are eligible for travel award funding. Applicants should identify the conference that best meets their professional needs, and explain how attendance will support their current duties and future goals.

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