This document provides an overview and evaluation of the PsycInfo database. PsycInfo covers topics in psychology and related disciplines. It indexes thousands of academic journals, books, dissertations and other materials in many languages from 1887 to present. Users can search by keywords, authors, titles and other fields. PsycInfo is regularly updated and is a comprehensive resource for psychology professionals, students and researchers. While it does not directly export to citation management tools, records can be saved and imported. Overall, PsycInfo is evaluated highly as a key database for work in psychology and related fields.

1. A Database Evaluation
By Nina Collins and Emily Bean

2. 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.

3. PsycInfo : languages covered
A whole bunch!
Unlimited, Afrikaans, Arabic, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chines
e, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, Ge
orgian, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Ita
lian, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian, Malaysian, Non-
English, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Ru
ssian, Serbo-
Croatian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish,
Ukrainian

4. PsycInfo : Type of
documents/materials covered
 The 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.

5. PsycInfo : Type of documents
covered
 abstract collection
Again a lot of different items! This is a very comprehensive
Database!
 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

6. What kind of patrons find this
useful?
 Psychology professionals
 Nurses and Doctors
 Child Development Professionals
 Students/Researchers of Psychology related fields
 Librarians!!
 There is also a juvenile section

7. PsycInfo: Time Coverage and
Updates
 1887 to present
 Updated quarterly

8. PsycInfo: Search Capabilities
 You can search by:
keyword, author, title, descriptor, abstract, age, ac
cession
number, affiliation, classification, conference, corporat
e author, contact individual, DOI, dissertation
number, electronic ISSN
 Default Fields:
Keyword, Title, Author, descriptor

9. Phrase searching capability:
Sample search
 Put the phrase in quotes
 Example: 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”

10. PsycInfo: Search Capabilities
 Can 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 Search
 Sample search : teen* and hyperactivit* and high
school*
• Truncation helps retrieve items on teen and teens
Combine search terms with AND

11. PsycInfo: Boolean Operators and
Truncation
 AND, NOT, OR
 Truncation= *
 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.)

12. 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*

13. 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.

14. Proximity Operators: Sample Search
 Within “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 violence
 retrieves records that contain women and violence in
any order and within a 10 word radius of one other

15. PsycInfo : Helpful Features:
 Thesaurus
 Alerts/RSS you can do but you have to set up an
account first
 It has some nifty limiters. You can limit by population:
(human, female, male, animal, inpatient, outpatient)
 You can limit by subject area

16. PsycInfo : Delivery Options
 Cannot 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.

17. 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=Scorebo
ard Quick Demo
 According to this source:
 PsycInfo in Ebsco rates 4.5
 on CSA rates 2.75
 On EbscoHost rates 2.5 etc.

18. References:
 The Charleston Advisor located at
http://www.charlestonco.com/index.php?do=Scor
eboard
 PsycInfo database available from IU Libraries at
http://www.libraries.iub.edu/index.php?pageId=1044&
mode=alpha&letter=P

19. Any Questions?