PsycINFO

PsycINFO is a database of abstracts of literature in the field of psychology. It is produced by the American Psychological Association and distributed on the association's APA PsycNET and through third-party vendors. It is the electronic version of the now-ceased Psychological Abstracts. In 2000 it absorbed PsycLIT which had been published on CD-ROM.^[1]

It contains citations and summaries from the 19th century to the present of:

• journal articles
• book chapters
• books
• technical reports
• dissertations

General facts:

• More than 2.5 million records as of July 2008
• More than 129,000 records added to the database in 2007
• Updated weekly

Journal coverage:

• More than 2,150 titles covered
• 98% are peer reviewed journals
• Currently covered journals at www.apa.org/psycinfo/about/covlist.html
• Journal records—78% of database
• Accepted for coverage if archival, scholarly, peer-reviewed, and regularly published with titles, abstracts, and keywords in English
• Comprehensive coverage of more than 1,200 titles ("cover to cover") as of June 2007
• 300 journals with a 100% selection rate
• Articles selected for psychological relevance from remaining titles

Book coverage

• Chapters from authored and edited books—7% of database
• Authored and edited books - 4% of database
• English-language, published worldwide
• Selected if scholarly, professional, or research-based; all with psychological relevance

Dissertations and other secondary publications

• Selected from Dissertation Abstracts International (A and B)
• 11% of database
• Abstracts in dissertation records starting 1995
• Selected on basis of classification in DAI in sections with psychological relevance

Geographical coverage

• Publications from more than 49 countries
• Journals—more than 27 languages
• Non-English titles in Roman alphabets included 1978–present

Record contents

• Bibliographic citation
• Abstract
• Table of contents for books
• Index terms from the Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms
• Keywords
• Classification categories
• Population information
• Geographical location of the research population
• Tests and measurements used in the research
• Cited references for journal articles, book chapters, and books mainly from 2001 to present
• More information

Abstracts

• 1995 to present, virtually 100% of records have abstracts (0.007% no abstracts)
• For non-dissertation documents added from 1967 to present, 99.2% contain abstracts

Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms

• 11th Edition (print) released in July 2007 with 200 new terms
• More than 8,400 controlled terms and cross-references
• Hierarchical, alphabetical, and subject arrangements
• Records indexed with most specific term applicable
• Major and minor terms assigned
• Maximum of 15 total terms, 5 major terms.
• More information

Classification system

• 22 major categories and 135 subcategories
• Each record assigned to one or two classifications
• List of Codes

Cited references

• More than 23 million references in 600,500+ journal articles, books, and book chapters as of June 2007
• Retrospective to 2001 and earlier, where available (APA to 1987)
• APA-style format
• More information

Historic records

• Sources

Psychological Abstracts 1927–1966; Psychological Bulletin 1921–1926; American Journal of Psychology 1887–1966; All APA journals back to first issue of publication; Psychological Index (1894–-1935); citations to English language journals only;Classic Books in Psychology of the 20th Century and the Harvard Book List, 1840–1971

• All records published in Psychological Abstracts are now in PsycINFO
• More than 335,000 historic records in PsycINFO
• Historic records differ from 1967–present records

No controlled vocabulary (descriptor) field; index field may contain descriptor terms, but they are not controlled; other indexing fields, such as Age Groups, form/Content are not present; classifications are broad only

References

External links

• PsycINFO