PsycINFO (OVID)

Produced by American Psychological Association, PsycINFO covers academic and professional literature in psychology and in related disciplines, e.g. neuropsychology, psychiatry, education, sociology, etc. The database has international coverage of almost 2000 periodicals, academic dissertations, and reports in 25 languages, as well as books and book chapters in English. The database is updated each week.

Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms

PsycINFO is indexed by means of a thesaurus. The descriptors (accepted terms or "controlled vocabulary") of this thesaurus are gathered in a hierarchical way (broader terms, related terms,  and narrower terms).

Type the term(s) sought in the search box and click on the button.  It is preferable to seek only one term at a time without combining terms with OR or AND, unless you know the thesaurus descriptors well. By keeping the Map Term to Subject Heading option checked, the database will provide you with thesaurus descriptors that are most relevant to the search term(s) entered.

Once you click on the Search button you will be brought to the Mapping Display screen . If your term(s) corresponds exactly to a thesaurus descriptor the term will appear in the Mappping Display screen. However, if your term(s) does not correspond to an exact thesaurus descriptor or if your term(s) is included in other thesaurus descriptors, PsycINFO will suggest a list of terms from which you can choose one, a few, all, or none.

 
 

The term. mp. search as Keyword option allows you to search your term(s) in "free" vocabulary, i.e., looking for any mention of a word, it does not matter the field in which it is found (title, key words, abstracts, etc.). This option should chosen if no relevant or appropriate thesaurus descriptors are suggested in the  Mapping Display screen. It may  also be a useful option to supplement the results identified using the thesaurus descriptors because sometimes the terminology of the thesaurus is not sufficiently precise to describe and locate specialized concepts or topics outside the field of psychology.

By clicking on the bold hypertext descriptor link, you can identify accompanying terms, e.g. Narrower Terms, Broader Terms and Related Terms.

You can browse the thesaurus decriptor list alphabetically by clicking on the or button.

The number of documents corresponding to the descriptor appears under the Hits column.

If you chose to Explode the thesaurus descriptor (it will appear as "exp Marriage/" in the search results display screen), all documents indexed under the descriptor, including broader, narrower, and related terms will be identified. The Explode function generally widens research but often gives less relevant results; this is why it is suggested not to check the Explode function, but rather to click on the specifically relevant terms oneself.

The Focus option makes it possible to restrict your search only to documents where the thesaurus descriptor you have chosen is regarded as the principal subject of the document.

Once you've chosen all the descriptors that you are interested in, you can then combine them with AND or OR using the Combine selections with: dropdown menu

Results Display Screen

All your search history and number results will be displayed at the top of the main result display screen.  You can combine some or all of your searches and save or delete searches. 

Limiting research

The More Limits function makes it possible to restrict the quantity of results obtained by applying limitations to a specific search query. The options of limitation are divided into two categories: selected simple limits that can be chosen just by checking a box (e.g.: Tests & Measures) and limits activated by drop-down menu with multiple choices (e.g.: under Age Groups one can select 200 Adolescence < Age 13 to 17 yrs > ). You can chose multiple items in a drop-down menu by simultaneously pressing the Ctrl key and the item(s) of our choice (e.g. CTRL + French + English to limit to the English or French documents). Once you are finished selecting your limits click on the button to run your refined search. 

IMPORTANT NOTE: You will not obtain the same results if you identify a concept as a term in the thesaurus versus as a search limit.  For example, you will not obtain same the results by selecting the term "Literature review" in the thesaurus and by applying the Methodology limit - 0800 Literature review.  It is best to test both ways to be certain you have obtained all the relevant results.

Access PsycInfo (OVID)

Using

 Click on the 'Databases/Newspapers' link from the USF Libraries home page

Search by Database Name for 'Psycinfo'

Select PsycInfo (Ovid)

Using the USF Libraries Catalog

Click on the 'Library Catalog' link from the USF Libraries home page 

Browse Organized List -- Title begins with 'Psycinfo'

Select 'PsycInfo'

Click on the link to ONLINE: OVID

Connecting From Home 

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