Tag: APA Thesaurus

Searching with the APA Thesaurus and Subjects on EBSCOhost

Posted on by Marta Soto in For Faculty, For Individual Subscribers, For Librarians, For Students

It’s Tutorial Thursday! In this series, we explore APA’s library of video tutorials available on the APA Publishing Training YouTube channel. Please feel free to link to or embed our videos in your library websites or LibGuides, course management systems, or other locations where students, faculty, and researchers will find them.

In this video, you’ll learn how to create an effective search in APA PsycInfo using Thesaurus Terms. We’ll use the APA Thesaurus to look up “DE Subjects” and conduct a search in APA PsycInfo.

Related Resources

APA Website: Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms 

YouTube Tutorial: Building a Search with the APA Thesaurus and Index Terms 

New Thesaurus Terms for Searching APA PsycInfo (Winter 2025)

Posted on by Marta Soto in For Faculty, For Individual Subscribers, For Librarians

In March, APA added 36 new terms to its Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms® to provide more effective searching on current topics, including child health; family therapy; and parenting. This Thesaurus update also includes 25 new cross-referenced terms, and 37 revised scope notes.

New terms from this winter update will initially be applied to current content only; following the Fall 2025 release, the majority of 2025’s new postable terms will be back-mapped to older records.

New Postable Terms include: attachment security, childhood obesity, family leave, and sleep practices.

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.

You can see the full list of Thesaurus changes on our website.  

Related Resource: 
YouTube playlist – Using the APA Thesaurus to Find Relevant Articles on a Topic 

New Thesaurus Terms for Searching APA PsycInfo (Fall 2024)

Posted on by Marta Soto in For Librarians

 

In November, APA added 41 new terms to its Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms® to provide more effective searching on current topics, including testing & assessment, parental health & stress, and artificial intelligence & digital technology. This Thesaurus update also includes 29 new cross-referenced terms, 227 revised scope notes, and additional edits to hierarchies.

additional examples of new thesaurus terms, also available in the link at the end of the page

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.

 

Continue reading →

Using the APA Thesaurus to Find Relevant Articles on a Topic

Posted on by Marta Soto in For Faculty, For Individual Subscribers, For Librarians, For Students

 

It’s Tutorial Thursday! In this series, we explore APA’s library of video tutorials available on the APA Publishing Training YouTube channel. Please feel free to link to or embed our videos in your library websites or LibGuides, course management systems, or other locations where students, faculty, and researchers will find them.

APA thesaurus terms, also called index terms, are controlled vocabulary used in database records to make searching easier and more successful. By standardizing the words or phrases used to represent concepts, you don’t need to try and figure out all the ways different authors could refer to the same concept.

The first video, Building a Search with the APA Thesaurus and Index Terms, is an introduction for all platforms that shows what the thesaurus is, why it is a valuable search tool, and what to do if you can’t find a thesaurus term to fit your research concept. 

The second video demonstrates how to use thesaurus terms in an APA PsycInfo search to find relevant articles on a topic, and how to revise a search to include additional thesaurus terms. 

Select the video for the platform or website that hosts APA PsycInfo at your institution. 

Learn more about the APA Thesaurus on our website. 

New Thesaurus Terms for Searching APA PsycInfo (Summer 2024)

Posted on by Marta Soto in For Faculty, For Individual Subscribers, For Librarians, For Students

 

In June, APA added 96 new terms to its Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms® to provide more effective searching on current topics, including employment, education, and diversity. This Thesaurus update also includes 61 new cross-referenced terms, and 122 revised scope notes.

New terms from this Summer update will initially be applied to current content only; following the Fall 2024 release, the majority of 2024’s new postable terms will be back-mapped to older records.

NEW POSTABLE TERMS

Use this link to access the list of postable terms on our website.

 

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.

You can see the full list of Thesaurus changes on our website or view the PDF for more details. 

Related Resource: 
YouTube playlist – Using the APA Thesaurus to Find Relevant Articles on a Topic