Tag: Searching EBSCOhost

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

Our spring semester lineup of webinars for librarians kicks off next week. If you’re looking to expand your search skills, or just need a PsycINFO refresher, we hope you’ll join us! We offer two different one-hour sessions, both of which include live search demos.

 

Behind the Scenes of PsycINFO reviews the structure of APA Database records, and covers fields such as Index Terms, Keywords, and Classification Codes.

 

Beyond Subject Searching in PsycINFO includes a review of searching for information on tests and measures, and looks at other ways you can use PsycINFO to do more than just locating articles.

 

Additional Webinars for Students and Faculty

Looking for sessions for students and faculty, or our APA Style CENTRAL Online Introduction? Please visit our main webinars page for schedules and descriptions.

 

View Tutorials Anytime, Anywhere!

We also offer a large library of video tutorials. These can help you – and the students, faculty, and researchers you support – become a PsycINFO expert: https://www.youtube.com/PsycINFO

Tutorial Thursday: Using the Author Affiliation Field in PsycINFO on EBSCOhost

Posted on by Patti Avellanet 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 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: Using the Author Affiliation Field in PsycINFO on EBSCOhost.

Video thumbnail

Do you want to discover what institutions are conducting research relevant to a specific topic, or track down a corresponding author’s contact information?

The Author Affiliation field in PsycINFO provides information about authors’ affiliations at the time of publication. This can be helpful to psychology students and practitioners who want to locate an author, see the kind of research conducted at an institution, or are considering where to apply to graduate school based on topics of interest.

This three-minute video demonstrates how to use the PsycINFO® Author Affiliation Field when searching PsycINFO on the EBSCOhost platform, and includes:

  • Description and search examples for the PsycINFO Author Affiliation field;
  • Using the Source, Authors, and Address fields to help obtain the contact information for a corresponding author; and
  • How to search for articles written by authors affiliated with a particular institution.

This tutorial is a great resource to link from a LibGuide or course module for any class working with APA Databases on EBSCOhost, 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 to link to this new version.

Related Resources:

Tutorial Thursday: Using PsycINFO Classification Codes on EBSCOhost

Posted on by Patti Avellanet 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 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: Using Classification Codes in PsycINFO on EBSCOhost.

Screenshot of tutorial title screen for Using Classification Codes in PsycINFO (EBSCOhost)

For a more powerful and precise search, you can include PsycINFO Classification Codes in your query. Searching all fields or the “Keywords” field in a database is an easy way to start your research, but using these numerical codes from the APA Thesaurus will help you retrieve the resources you need more quickly and effectively.

Classification Codes are assigned by APA indexers to categorize documents in the PsycINFO database according to the primary subject matter. They are especially helpful for targeting your results when a search term can mean different things in different contexts, or when you want to search broadly.

This three-minute video demonstrates how to use PsycINFO® Classification Codes when searching PsycINFO (and other APA databases) on the EBSCOhost platform, and includes:

  • Description and examples of PsycINFO Classification Codes;
  • Where to find the complete list of PsycINFO Classification Codes; and
  • How to apply these codes to narrow your search to the most relevant results on the EBSCOhost platform.

This tutorial is a great resource to link from a LibGuide or course module for any class working with APA Databases on EBSCOhost, 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 to link to this new version.

Related Resources:

Tutorial Thursday: How to Format a Citation in APA Style on EBSCOhost

Posted on by Patti Avellanet in For Faculty, For Librarians

It’s Tutorial Thursday! 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 most-viewed videos: How to Format a Citation in APA Style® on EBSCOhost.

Screenshot of How to Format a Citation in EBSCOhost tutorial title screen.

This brief video demonstrates how to export APA Style citations from PsycINFO® (or any other database) on the EBSCOhost platform.

This is a great resource to link from a LibGuide or course module for any class working with APA Databases on EBSCOhost, 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 to link to this new version.

Related Resources: