Academic Writer is APA’s revolutionary writing platform designed to help students develop long-lasting scholarly writing and research skills. Combining self-paced learning with seamless integration of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.), this resource helps students grow and succeed in their academic careers while enabling educators to focus on teaching their curriculum.
To help your academic community maximize institutional access to Academic Writer, we’ve compiled a series of video tutorials demonstrating various features of the platform. Read on to watch and share these resources with your users:
In February, APA added 63 new terms to its Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms® to provide more effective searching on current topics, including mental health diagnoses, gender and sexuality, human rights, and legal issues. This Thesaurus update also includes 48 new cross-referenced terms, and 63 revised scope notes.
New terms from this winter update will initially be applied to current content only; following the fall release, the majority of postable terms new for 2023 will be back-mapped to older records.
New terms in the Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms as of February 2023
Using the controlled vocabulary of the Thesaurus means a database search will quickly and accurately retrieve all publications related to a specific concept, regardless of the keywords the authors may have used.
The Thesaurus tool is found on all platforms as part of APA PsycInfo® and redirects synonyms to the preferred “Use” term to include in your search. Each Thesaurus record includes links to broader terms, narrower terms, and related terms, the year the term was introduced, an historical note if applicable, and a scope note providing definition and application.
Interested in strengthening your APA database searching skills? Join us for the next round of APA PsycInfo® webinars designed for students, faculty, and anyone else who wants to learn more about how to search APA PsycInfo more effectively!
APA’s expert trainers will lead three different webinars this spring, so you can choose the one that best matches your interest.
Details and registration links are below; all times are in U.S. Eastern.
APA PsycInfo: Beginner Search
This 45 minute session is for anyone who is new to searching the behavioral sciences literature.
APA trainers demonstrate simple yet powerful techniques including how to quickly identify the best search terms, apply filters to narrow the range of results, and pinpoint empirical studies.
Highlights include: using APA Thesaurus terms and other database fields to target your search, Boolean operators to accurately include or exclude concepts, and cited references to find related research.
This 45-minute session highlights some of APA PsycInfo’s advanced functionality, designed to increase your efficiency by retrieving better search results faster.
We provide an overview of the three main vocabularies [keywords, APA Thesaurus subjects, and Classifications] that you can use to search APA PsycInfo, and show easy yet effective ways to quickly expand or narrow your list of search results.
You’ll also learn how to find important information about tests and measures and how to uncover details about grants and sponsorships that can reveal potential funding opportunities.
Join us for the first ever “Semester Special,” a deeper dive into one area of APA’s research tools and databases. The topic for Spring 2023 is APA PsycInfo research services.
Leveraging AI and machine learning, these services ease access to full text, analytics tools, and discovery of the latest scientific literature—all within the most trusted index of psychological science in the world. This service was designed to keep you current in your field of study without wasting your time or cluttering your email.
Come for a demo of our newest research tool, and stay for a refresher on APA’s other research alerts – the Email Preferences Center and APA PsycAlerts.
Explore the full breadth of a record’s relationship to other research using APA PsycInfo research updates’ newest discovery tool, Citation Mapper. This new feature graphically displays both cited and citing documents associated with any record you select.
Read on for a two-minute tutorial on navigating this interactive, visual network of citations.
In October, APA added 25 new terms to itsThesaurus of Psychological Index Terms® to provide more effective searching on current topics, including cannabis use, socioeconomic status, and health problems related to alcohol use. This Thesaurus update also includes 50 new cross-referenced terms, 147 revised scope notes, and additional edits to historical notes.
Using the controlled vocabulary of the Thesaurus means a database search will quickly and accurately retrieve all publications related to a specific concept, regardless of the keywords the authors may have used.
