Tag: APA PsycInfo

New Terms & Other Updates to the Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms®

Posted on by Patti Avellanet in For Librarians

We recently released an update to the Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms. The Thesaurus provides precise and consistent terminology for searching all APA research databases. We added 305 new “preferred” Index Terms and approximately 70 new non-postable or “use” references*.

Each item in the APA databases – journal articles, books and book chapters, dissertations, and more – is represented by a record that is indexed, or tagged, with Index Terms from the Thesaurus. The use of a controlled vocabulary allows someone searching a database to quickly find all items about a specific concept — such as Animal Behavior, Marginalized Groups, or Prescription Drug Misuse — no matter what terminology or keywords the authors used. 

Reflecting emerging areas, technologies, and social issues as well as changing nomenclature, this updated vocabulary will provide users with more targeted and efficient search and discovery. Additionally, we added new terminology in the expanding areas of psychological assessment, psychometrics, and research methods. You can view more details on our web page, What’s New in the 2019 Update, including a link to the full list of new and updated Index Terms (PDF, 135KB).

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Webinar Alert: Spring PsycINFO Sessions for Librarians

Posted on by Marta Soto in For Librarians

Join us this spring for a Beyond Subject Searching webinar – designed for librarians and other expert users of PsycINFO. If you’re looking to expand your search skills, or just need a PsycINFO refresher, we hope you’ll join us!

This one-hour session includes a behind the scenes look at the PsycINFO record structure and live search demos.

Learn how to use PsycINFO for more than just locating articles, such as identifying the types of research being done at a particular institution and finding journals in which to publish new work.

We’ll also search for information on grants and sponsorships, and on tests and measures and will highlight our Record Structure and Field Guide — tools that can help you become your library’s PsycINFO expert.

You can register with GoTo Webinar for one of the following times.

  • Tuesday, Feb 26, 2019 11:00 AM EST
  • Friday, Mar 22, 2019 10:00 AM EDT
  • Wednesday, Apr 24, 2019 2:00 PM EDT

Can’t join us at the times listed?

HTTPS Support for APA PsycNET beginning January 17

Posted on by Patti Avellanet in For Librarians

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… ALA Annual 2018 Lunch & Learn

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

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 ALA Annual meeting last month, we presented a Lunch & Learn training session covering a wide variety of updates to APA’s publishing program:

  • New Handbooks from APA
  • New Online Dictionary of Psychology
  • APA Librarian Travel Award Recipients
  • Magination Press Overview
  • APA Style JARS
  • What’s New With APA Style CENTRAL

We also spent some time providing thoughts on integrating PsycINFO into a systematic review including:

  • Reasons to add PsycINFO to your systematic review searching
  • Aligning APA thesaurus terms to your MeSH-based search strategy
  • Practical PsycINFO search tips for systematic reviews
  • Issues for reporting and replicability

PsycINFO Expert Tip: Searching by Date on APA PsycNET

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

PsycINFO® records have several date fields that provide information about the creation of the scholarly work and information about the creation of the PsycINFO record in the APA database. In this post, we’ll explain what these different dates mean and how you can use them in your search.

What do all these different dates mean?

The Publication Date is the date that the journal article or book chapter was delivered or made available to customers or subscribers. For journal articles, you may also see Publication History dates –  First Submitted, Revised, and First Posting.

The Release Date is the date that the record was added to the PsycINFO database. You may also see a Correction Date in some records that were updated after the release date.

Usually, the publication date is only a few weeks before the release date on PsycINFO. But sometimes, material published at an earlier date, such as older issues of a journal, will be added to PsycINFO. 

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