PsycInfoA Database Evaluation

By Nina Collins and Emily Bean

PsycInfo: Subjects Covered Animal Behavior Social Work Applied Health Science Cognitive Science Kinesiology Speech and Hearing Sciences Nursing Neural Science Education

Psychology Linguistics Criminal Justice History and Philosophy of Science Biology Health, Physical Education and Recreation Library and Information Science Religious Studies Psychology--Abstracts--Periodicals.

Psychology--Bibliography--Periodicals.Psychology--Indexes--Periodicals.

PsycInfo : languages coveredA whole bunch!

Unlimited, Afrikaans, Arabic, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, Georgian, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian, Malaysian, Non-English, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian

PsycInfo : Type of documents/materials coveredThe documents covered include several

different formats. This includes journal articles, books, chapters in books, encyclopedias and encyclopedia entries, reviews on media and software and more.

The materials covered in the database reference different topics as they pertain to psychology.

PsycInfo : Type of documents covered abstract collection authored book bibliography book chapter classic book column/opinion comment/reply conference proceedings dissertation abstract edited book editorial electronic collection encyclopedia encyclopedia entry erratum/correction handbook/manual journal journal article letter edited book editorial electronic collection encyclopedia encyclopedia entry erratum/correction handbook/manual journal journal article letter obituary peer reviewed journal peer-reviewed status-unknown publication information reference book reprint review-book review-media review-software& other textbook/study guide

Again a lot of different items! This is a very comprehensive Database!

What kind of patrons find this useful?Psychology professionalsNurses and DoctorsChild Development ProfessionalsStudents/Researchers of Psychology related

fieldsLibrarians!!There is also a juvenile section

PsycInfo: Time Coverage and Updates1887 to presentUpdated quarterly

PsycInfo: Search CapabilitiesYou can search by: keyword, author, title, descriptor,

abstract, age, accession number, affiliation, classification, conference, corporate author, contact individual, DOI, dissertation number, electronic ISSN

Default Fields:Keyword, Title, Author, descriptor

Phrase searching capability: Sample search

Put the phrase in quotesExample: in typing “coming out of the closet”

I retrieved 85 results that all seem relevant.You can also combine search terms “coming

out of the closet” AND gay for example. It doesn’t really work as well trying to

combine phrases, for example, “coming out of the closet” AND “in the Midwest”

PsycInfo: Search CapabilitiesCan you combine search sets? Yes!“Search History” tab. Searches can be

combined using Boolean operators. Searches can be refined using any limiters or searchable fields.

Sample SearchSample search : teen* and hyperactivit* and

high school*• Truncation helps retrieve items on teen and

teensCombine search terms with AND

PsycInfo: Boolean Operators and TruncationAND, NOT, ORTruncation= *Multi-character wildcard for finding

alternative spellings= use * in the middle of a word (such as “behavi*r” will retrieve behavior or behaviour).

Single-character wildcard for finding alternative spellings= ? (one ? will represent one character, while 2 ?? will represent 2 characters, etc.)

Sample search:For example the difference in U.S. vs. the U.K. spelling of the word behavior or (UK) behaviour

If you type in behav***r , this will retrieve articles with both the words behavior and behaviour. Limiting by keyword also helps

You can also combine a search such as behav***r AND child*

PsycInfo Proximity Operators None=retrieves records containing the three words immediately adjacent to

one another and in the same order

Within “x”= Find words within a specified radius, e.g., carbon within 3 fiber retrieves records that contain carbon and fiber in any order and within a three word radius of one other. Any number may be used to determine the proximity radius.

Near=Find words within 10 words of each other, e.g., (women near violence) retrieves records that contain women and violence in any order and within a 10 word radius of one other. Note: near is the same as within 10.

Before=Finds words in a relative order, e.g., social before security. Note: adjacency is not implied.

After=Finds words that contain words in the relative order specified with the after expression, e.g., scope after science. Note: adjacency is not implied.

Proximity Operators: Sample SearchWithin “x” I did a search on women within 3 Africa retrieves records that contain women and

Africa in any order and within a three word radius of one other. Any number may be used to determine the proximity radius.

Near I did a search on women near violenceretrieves records that contain women and

violence in any order and within a 10 word radius of one other

PsycInfo : Helpful Features:ThesaurusAlerts/RSS you can do but you have to set up

an account firstIt has some nifty limiters. You can limit by

population: (human, female, male, animal, inpatient, outpatient)

You can limit by subject area

PsycInfo : Delivery OptionsCannot directly import records to Endnote

from CSA. However, you can save your records in a file like txt and open endnote and go to file import to import, chose the file, and then chose PsycInfo CSA filter.

Additional Information:PsycInfo is part of ProQuest and CSA, these

companies merged in 2007.I used www.charlestonco.com to find a review

on PsycInfo. Several reviews can be found at http://www.charlestonco.com/index.php?do=Scoreboard Quick Demo

According to this source: PsycInfo in Ebsco rates 4.5 on CSA rates 2.75On EbscoHost rates 2.5 etc.

References:The Charleston Advisor located at

http://www.charlestonco.com/index.php?do=Scoreboard

PsycInfo database available from IU Libraries at http://www.libraries.iub.edu/index.php?pageId=1044&mode=alpha&letter=P

Any Questions?