PsycINFO, the largest and most comprehensive database of articles and other materials related to psychology and allied fields (psychiatry, education, business, medicine, nursing, pharmacology, law, linguistics, and social work), is now available to Andersen Library’s patrons through the ProQuest interface. PsycARTICLES, a full-text database of articles from 42 journals published by the APA and allied organizations, also moved to the ProQuest platform. Patrons can search PsycARTICLES separately from PsycINFO (although all PsycINFO searches include PsycARTICLES results).
These two databases, both compiled by the American Psychological Association (APA), combine thorough indexing and extensive options that allows users to fine-tune their searches almost infinitely. Here are some of the most useful options:
- Methodology: Unlike many databases, PsycINFO and PsycARTICLES allow users to choose what type of methodology the works in the result list will have. Popular choices include Empirical Study and Literature Review. The APA provides an explanation of all the different types of methodologies available in PsycINFO.
- Find the Methodology limiter on the Advanced Search screen below the main search boxes under More Search Options.
- Thesaurus: The APA notes that “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”) (APA website, 2016).
- Find the link to the Thesaurus on the Advanced Search screen above the main search boxes and to the right of the words “Advanced Search.”
- ProQuest My Research: Save articles in your own account and access them later. See last week’s T3 post to learn more.
