HTTPS Support for APA PsycNET beginning January 17

On January 17, 2019, the APA PsycNET platform will be upgraded to HTTPS. This enhancement provides our customers with improved security, and current platform users should not see any changes in functionality.

Although APA will implement a permanent redirect from HTTP to HTTPS, institutional subscribers using a proxy solution may need to adjust their configurations to ensure continued access to the APA PsycNET platform. All users should update links or shortcuts to reflect the HTTPS protocol.

What You Need to Know
The move to HTTPS will require about an hour of downtime on January 17, 2019 during which the APA PsycNET platform will be unavailable. Details about this maintenance window will be posted on the platform approximately one week ahead of the release.

To transition your institutional logos for co-branding, move the files for your institutional logo, link resolver, and/or ILL icons to a secure server and then update these image URLs in the APA PsycNET Admin Center (admincenter.apa.org).

The stanza for EZproxy and information about WAM configuration are included below. If you need additional assistance, please visit the Proxy Server Configuration page on the APA PsycNET Help site or contact us.

EZProxy Configuration
If your library uses EZProxy for authentication, it will require an SSL Configuration. Below is the updated stanza for APA PsycNET:

Title APA PsycNET (updated 20190117)
URL https://psycnet.apa.org
HJ content.apa.org
HJ doi.apa.org
HJ my.apa.org
HJ proxies.apa.org
HJ psycinfo.com
HJ psycnet.apa.org
HJ psyctherapy.apa.org
HJ psyctherapyalpha.apa.org
HJ search.apa.org
HJ www.apa.org
HJ www.psycinfo.com
HJ https://psyctherapy.apa.org
HJ https://psyctherapyalpha.apa.org/
DJ apa.org
DJ psycinfo.com

Configuring Web Access Management (WAM)
If your library uses WAM, please  coordinate with your campus IT department to ensure your proxy has access to a security certificate. Note that your security certificate must include your proxy URL, which may be different from your campus website address. For WAM configuration, please use the following APA PsycNET URL: https://psycnet.apa.org.

From the Deck of … MLA ’18 Sunrise Seminar

Welcome to “From the Deck of . . .” an irregular series in which we highlight search demos and other information from the slide decks we create for our live training sessions. You can view and download these materials from the PsycINFO SlideShare account.

At the Medical Library Association Annual Meeting earlier this month, we presented a Sunrise Seminar training session. This session focused on searchable fields in PsycINFO® that are especially relevant to medical & health fields, including:

  • first postings
  • NLM Title abbreviation
  • PMID
  • MeSH
  • grants / sponsorships
  • methodology

We also demonstrated how the APA Style CENTRAL® Writing Center can assist with teaching or writing your own meta-analysis, including:

  • choosing a paper template
  • managing the reference list
  • creating and importing tables


You can review the slides from our MLA 2018 Sunrise Seminar on our SlideShare account.

You can also view just the slides about APA Style CENTRAL.

 

Related Resources:

Blog post – Online First Publications
Blog post – What’s a PMID?
Blog post – Grants & Sponsorships
Tutorial – The Meta-Analysis Template

Tutorial Tuesday: How (and Why) to use the APA Thesaurus on APA PsycNET

It’s Tutorial Tuesday! In this series, we explore APA’s library of video tutorials available on the PsycINFO® YouTube channel and the APA Style CENTRAL® 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.

We recently updated one of our tutorials: How (and Why) to Use the APA Thesaurus on APA PsycNET®.""

How can you be sure you are finding the best results for your search?

By using the best search terms! The APA Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms (“APA Thesaurus”) contains the controlled vocabulary that APA uses to describe and categorize all content indexed in PsycINFO. This resource is regularly updated to include new and changing terminology for topics in the behavioral sciences, and you can put it to work for you!

Using the APA Thesaurus helps you eliminate “noise” from your search and retrieve the most relevant results by revealing the best search terms for your topic. The APA Thesaurus is a valuable tool for students new to research or any researcher who is new to a topic area and may not yet know the best terminology for searching.

This brief video (2:40 minutes) demonstrates the benefits of using the APA Thesaurus when searching databases on the APA PsycNET platform, and includes:

  • Examples of recent terminology updates to the APA Thesaurus;
  • How to access the APA Thesaurus when crafting a search;
  • Using the APA Thesaurus to find related terms for narrowing or expanding your search;
  • Discovering index terms for broader concepts that encompass your research topic and make searching more efficient; and
  • Uncovering additional search terms you may not have considered.

This tutorial is a great resource to link from a LibGuide or course module for any class working with APA Databases on APA PsycNET, and can be helpful in answering email or chat reference questions.

The previous version of this tutorial will remain available, but if you have embedded or linked to it anywhere, we encourage you to update your materials with the link to this new version.

Related Resources:

Webinar Alert: Tour the New APA PsycNET Interface

Please join us for a brief tour of the redesigned APA PsycNET® platform, which will launch in mid-July!

This 30-minute webinar will highlight the contemporary new “look and feel” of the APA PsycNET search platform and other changes. Highlights include:

  • Technology upgrade: A new cloud-based environment and other behind-the-scenes infrastructure improvements for enhanced system performance, reliability, and search precision
  • Responsive design: Improved content rendering and functionality across all devices, including mobile
  • Content discovery: Addition of a new “Related Content” section providing links to up to 25 similar items, and options to explore trending topics
  • Search tools: Addition of the “Test Lookup” tool, enhanced access to the integrated APA Thesaurus, and platform-wide access to your recent searches

This overview is intended for anyone who uses APA PsycNET through an institutional or personal subscription, including librarians, students, researchers, and professionals.

Register for a session using one of the links below (Note: All times are Eastern Daylight Time / UTC-4):

For more information about using APA PsycNET, see our YouTube playlist of APA Databases on APA PsycNET.

APA PsycInfo Expert Tip: Online First Publications

What is an Online First Publication?

Online First Publication, also called OFP or First Posting, is a publication status that you may see for journal articles in the APA PsycArticles® database. It means that an article has been published online ahead of its journal issue. You can think of it like an artist’s single that premiers ahead of the full album.

How does this early publishing work?

Most scholarly journals release new issues once every month or once every quarter. When an article has been accepted for publication, and the author and publisher have completed any needed edits or corrections to the manuscript, it is assigned to an issue. But it may be months before that issue is published. In order to make the research available sooner, a “First Posting” version of the article is added to APA PsycArticles. It will reach “full publication” status between 1 month and 1 year later, when the issue is published.

What if something changes between the OFP’s release and the full publication?

Any record, OFP or not, can be corrected and have a replacement version released in APA PsycArticles. These corrected records are added twice weekly, at the same time as new records.

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