Tag: APA PsycInfo

In Case You Missed It: New Terms Added to the PsycINFO Thesaurus

Posted on by Customer Relations Staff in For Faculty, For Individual Subscribers, For Librarians, For Students

In November 2015, we released an update to The Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms, the source of the controlled vocabulary used in indexing PsycINFO® and the other APA databases. This particular update was significantly larger than previous vocabulary updates, containing 227 new Index Terms.

In December, we shared the details of the update, highlighting some of the new terms and other changes that were incorporated. We also provided a document with the full list of Index Terms included in the update.

Did you miss that post? Take a look! It explains several important points about the new terminology, including a change to the language used to tag research on Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Related Resources

Changes to the Thesaurus sometimes impact search alerts and saved searches. For example, when a new term replaces an older term, saved searches and search alerts created with the older term will no longer generate updates. In this update, 5 terms were changed such that any saved searches or search alerts that use them will no longer retrieve the desired results.

Here are the terms that were changed, along with the new Index Terms that have taken their places:

Terms that are now Use references New Index Terms to search
Aspergers Syndrome
Autism
Pervasive Developmental Disorders		 Autism Spectrum Disorders
Complications (Disorders) Sequelae
Q Sort Testing Technique Q-Sort

 

For assistance in updating your search alerts, please see our post PsycINFO Expert Tip: Updating Search Alerts When a Thesaurus Term Changes.

PsycINFO Expert Tip: Classification Codes

Posted on by Patti Avellanet in For Faculty, For Individual Subscribers, For Librarians, For Students

Have you ever noticed the Classification Codes in PsycINFO® and wondered what they’re for?

Screenshot of the Classification Codes limiter on APA PsycNET.

The Classification Codes limiter on APA PsycNET.

Our indexers tag and categorize each item in PsycINFO so searchers can more easily locate exactly what they need. Classification Codes categorize an item, such as a journal article, by its main theme. Each item receives one, sometimes two, Classification Codes. Continue reading →

In Case You Missed It: PsycINFO Quick Reference Guides

Posted on by Patti Avellanet in For Faculty, For Individual Subscribers, For Librarians, For Students

Have you looked at our PsycINFO® Quick Reference Guides lately? Many librarians know and love these compact handouts, which use a series of screenshots and captions to reinforce foundational PsycINFO search techniques.

PsycINFO Quick Reference Guide - Keywords panel

An excerpt from the PsycINFO Quick Reference Guide for APA PsycNET(R). This demonstrates how to perform a Keyword search.

Available for PsycINFO on APA PsycNET®, EBSCOhost, ProQuest, and Ovid, the guides cover search basics such as formatting an author search, finding for a journal by title, using the Index Terms or Subjects, and more.

PsycINFO Quick Reference Guides are available as PDFs to easily share via email, or link on your LibGuides, course modules, and other resources.

Printed Quick Reference GuidesLibrarians can also request a quantity of print guides, which APA will ship free of charge! The print guides are formatted into small, accordion-fold handouts – easy to tuck into a bookbag, satchel, or purse for convenient reference no matter where or when you’re searching PsycINFO.

To make a request, please contact us at psycinfo@apa.org. Be sure to include your mailing address, the number of guides you’d like, and indicate which platform you use to access PsycINFO.

 

 

 

 

 

Download or link to the PsycINFO Quick Reference Guide PDF for:

Webinar Alert: PsycINFO Sessions for Students & Faculty June 15-17

Posted on by Customer Relations Staff in For Faculty, For Librarians, For Students

Our next series of PsycINFO® webinars for students and faculty will run on June 15, 16, and 17 from 11 – 11:30 a.m. (EDT). 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!

PsycINFO Expert Tip: Finding the Tests in PsycINFO

Posted on by Patti Avellanet in For Faculty, For Individual Subscribers, For Librarians, For Students

Have you ever needed to find a psychological test? It can be a surprisingly difficult task! Many of the tests you may know by name, such as the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale or the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, are commercial tests. This means those who are interested in using them must pay a fee, and may also need to meet other criteria. If you’re a student who needs a test to review for a class, or if you’re researching how to create an effective psychological measure, you’ll need to find non-commercial tests.

You can, of course, find these types of tests in PsycTESTS®, our database of psychological tests and measures. This database contains information about, and excerpts from, more than 34,000 tests in the behavioral sciences. But what if you don’t have access to PsycTESTS?

Try PsycINFO®! You probably know PsycINFO as a database of journal articles from publishers around the world. PsycINFO doesn’t contain any full-text, but each article included is represented by a record, which has been extensively tagged by APA’s indexers. This information allows you to assess how useful the article may be before you try to find the full text. Continue reading →