Produced by the American Psychological Association, APA PsycInfo contains abstracts of scholarly journal articles, book chapters, books, and dissertations in psychology, educational psychology, behavioral science, and mental health dating back to the 1600s. Many of these articles are also linked and available through Missouri Valley College's electronic resources.
APA PsycArticles contains full text, peer-reviewed scholarly and scientific articles in psychology published by the American Psychological Association (APA) and other leading sources. Includes access to full-text issues from 1894 to the present.
Both of these databases are available on the EBSCOhost platform.
EBSCO research interfaces allow you to conduct advanced searches using Guided-Style Find fields in order to create a more targeted search.
For example, you can enter your search terms into the Find fields and have EBSCOhost search for your terms in only specific citation search fields, such as the Title (TI) or Abstract (AB) fields.
Note: This can also be done using Command Line Searching. See the Command Line Searching section at the bottom of this page.
To use Advanced Search with Guided-Style Find Fields:
Choose a citation search field from the Select a Field drop-down list (for example, search in only the Title field of the citation).
Repeat steps 1 and 2 for the second set of Find fields.
Select a Boolean operator (AND, OR, NOT) to combine the two Find field entries.
You can enter another Boolean operator, keyword, and search field in the third set of fields.
If you need additional rows, click the Plus button . Up to 12 rows can be displayed. To delete a row, click the Minus button
.
Select from the available Search Options:
Search modes - Use specific search modes, such as "Find all my search terms," or "SmartText Searching," or use search options that expand your search such as "Apply related words."
Limit your results - Apply limiters such as Full Text or Publication type.
Special Limiters - Apply limiters specific to a database. If you select a special limiter, it is applied only to the database under which it appears
Click the Search button. The Result List displays.
The search field is displayed above the Result List. Your search terms, limiters and expanders are retained. To revise your search, you can apply the limiters under Limit To. Click the Show More link to view all available limiters and expanders.
Finding Articles by Location
PsycINFO has a field called PL (Population Location) which allows you to search for materials related to a specific location. Researchers can use this field to find studies done in a particular country, for example. On the search form, type the location in a search box and set the corresponding box to the right to PL Location.
Many other databases use a field called GE Geographic Terms as shown below:
APA PsycInfo® is indexed using the APA Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms. This thesaurus allows researchers to search APA databases precisely using a standard vocabulary. Search or browse for terms using the thesaurus and add them to your search. The thesaurus allows you to add more than one term and separate them using Boolean Operators. You can review scope notes and explode terms to expand your search.
Index terms are controlled vocabulary terms 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. Each record in APA's databases contains controlled vocabulary terms from the Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms.
APA staff index records according to the source document's level of specificity. For example, an experimental population labeled "high school students" will be indexed with the term "High School Students", not the broader and less specific term "Students". Therefore, any relevant narrower terms should be included in the list of index terms in your search. Related terms may also closely match a search topic, and should be considered as well.
With the wide variety of concepts and vocabulary used in the psychological literature, search and retrieval of records about specific concepts is virtually impossible without the controlled vocabulary of a thesaurus. This controlled vocabulary provides a way of structuring the subject matter in a way that is consistent among users (e.g., searching for Dysphoria, Melancholia, and Depression can all be achieved by searching the term "Major Depression").
PsycINFO Expert Tip: Classification Codes
Classification Codes are assigned by APA indexers who tag and categorize each item 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.
Classification Codes can help you limit your search to a particular “bucket” of content within PsycINFO. This can be helpful if you want to search broadly – for example, if you want to see how art, music, and dance therapy are being used to help people manage their anxiety. Searching PsycINFO, using anxiety in Any Field, and selecting the Art, Music & Movement Therapy Classification Code:
Classification codes also help to find more relevant results when you’re searching on a term that can mean different things in different contexts, or different subfields of psychology. For example, someone who’s searching the term “drone” in PsycINFO – is she an animal behaviorist, or a military psychologist?
You can think about Classification Codes as working similarly to the systems libraries use to shelve books. The Library of Congress and Dewey Decimal systems keep books that are on the same topic in the same general area of the library. Classification Codes do this in an electronic environment, and can be used as a way to browse content in PsycINFO (though you will probably want to throw in at least one keyword or subject heading if you try that).
As we’ve seen in the images above, Classification Codes are presented as a limiter in PsycINFO – this means you choose from a set list of options. The list can be difficult to scan when you’re setting up your search, so we have put the list online. We recommend that you consult the full list on our website to identify the Classification Code you’d like to use. Then you can use the four-digit code to quickly and easily select it from the list!
An excerpt from the full list of Classification Codes on the APA website, and selecting the same Classification Code on APA PsycInfo.
Credit: Allison Cody, APA Publishing Blog
https://blog.apapubs.org/2016/07/22/psycinfo-expert-tip-classification-codes/
Limiters let you narrow the focus of your search so that the information retrieved from the databases you search is limited according to the values you select. You can use more than one limiter if more than one is available.
Common limiters that may appear in the Limit your results area include:
Age Groups
Classification Codes
Date of Publication and Publication Year – Use these option to search for articles within a specified date range. Create a range by using the drop-down lists to specify the months of the range and enter the last four digits of the year in the entry fields to specify the years of the range.
Diseased Populations Check Box – This option limits the search to only those populations which have been diagnosed with a disease or disorder.
English Only Check Box. There is also an option for selecting language.
Exclude Dissertations Check Box – This box will remove Doctoral dissertations and Master's degree theses from the results.
Full Text Check Box – Click to limit results to articles with full text.
Intended Audience – Limit the results to materials for the general public, juveniles, or psychology/psychiatry/counseling professionals or researchers.
Methodology Used – This limiter includes both physical and social types of methodologies.
Population Groups – Who is being studied, humans or animals? Male, female, or transgender people? Inpatient or outpatient groups?
Product Name – Use this limiter if you are looking for articles dealing with a specific product or brand name.
Publication Name – This limiter allows you to specify a particular journal for your results.
References Available – Find articles that contain bibliographies and references.
Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Check Box – Limits search results to articles from peer-reviewed journals. Peer-reviewed journals are publications that include only those articles that have been reviewed and/or qualified by a selected panel of acknowledged experts in the field of study covered by the journal.
Supplemental Materials – Many items contain audio and video files, websites, study guides, tables, appendices, etc. This limiter allows you to specify those supplemental materials.
Tests and Measurements Check Box – Use this limiter if you are looking for materials about (or containing) tests and measures.
Treatment/Prevention Check Box – This limiter is for finding articles, chapters, and dissertations related to treatment and prevention.
Document Type – PsycInfo will allow limiting to the following types of documents: Abstract collections | Bibliographies | Chapters | Classifications | Column/Opinion | Comment/Reply | Dissertation | Editorial | Erratum/Correction | Interview | Journal Article | Letter | Obituary | Poetry | Publication Information | Reprint | Retraction | Review (any, book, media, software & other).
1. In the Find field, enter your search terms.
2. Select the limiters you want to use from the Limit Your Results section of the search screen.
3. Click Search. The Result List appears.
4. Using Limiters with Advanced Search
Both database-specific limiters and global limiters are available to apply to your search term. When you search more than one database, the common limiters are displayed under the Limit Your Results heading. Other limiters may appear under the Special Limiters for: Database Name heading.
Limiters do limit one another. For example, if you select both the Age limiter "Childhood (Birth to 12 Years)" as well as the Population Group limiter "Female," you will only receive articles dealing with females from birth to age 12.
Limiters are applied to your search with the AND operator. When you make multiple selections from within a limiter (such as Publication Type or Language) those selections are applied with the OR operator. Limiters are applied to the entire search, and appear at the end of the search with the AND operator.
ProQuest's Psychology Database covers scholarly journals, trade publications, books, magazines, and reports. Additionally, full-text dissertations are included allowing users to track emerging research that isn't published elsewhere.
Subject coverage includes:
Behavioral psychology
Clinical psychology
Developmental psychology
Neurology
Personality
Psychobiology
Social psychology
The subject heading look-up option on the advanced search page allows for easy exploration of subject headings from the ProQuest Thesaurus. Combining subject headings with keywords or limiters allows for a focused search.
Available from the advanced search page, the age group facet provides searchers an opportunity to limit searches to the age group or groups that are most relevant to their information need.
The age groups are:
Searchable Fields in the Advanced Menu
