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PsycINFO provides access to the world's literature in psychology and related disciplines. Over 2,000 domestic and foreign journals are indexed from 1887 to the present plus English language book chapters, books, and dissertations from the 1800s to the present. The PsycINFO database's content is produced by the American Psychological Association.

    Searching    Better Searching   Viewing Results   Finding Full Text   Additional Help

Searching    top

The default screen is the Advanced Search screen.

1.  Type a word or phrase in one or more of the search boxes and click Search. 

2.  Combine two words or phrases by placing them in separate search boxes.

  • Use the drop down menus to the left of the search box to choose an operator.
          Topical search
  • Enter a word or phrase and click Search.
    • Example: alcoholism
  • To broaden your search (get more, but less specific results) use OR.
    • Example: alcoholism OR substance abuse
  • To narrow your search (get fewer, but more specific results) use AND.
    • Example:  alcoholism AND homeless
  • To eliminate irrelevant records, use NOT
    • Example: (alcoholism AND homeless) NOT mental disorders

(More about AND/OR/NOT searching)

Author, Title, or Journal Search
  • Use the pull down menus to the right of the search boxes to look for a known Author, Title or Journal Title.
  • When searching for an author, enter the last name first
    • Example: Brown, Joseph
  • An author, title, and journal search can be combined using AND to look for a specific article. 

 

Better Searching   top

There are a number of ways to optimize a search.

Refine the search
  • You may limit your results before or after performing a search by clicking the tab below the search boxes.
  • You may limit by:
    • Date of Publication: useful for weeding out old information
    • Source:  to search within a particular journal or book
    • Peer Reviewed: Peer reviewed articles come from scholarly journals and have gone through a very rigorous editorial process by several experts in the field.  These sources are best for research papers.
    • References available:  If this option is checked, only records with a reference list will be retrieved. Some records also indicate how many times they have been cited in other papers. 
    • Publisher: Name of the publishing company; most useful for searching books
    • Population group: Refers to the subject of the work: Human, Animal, Male, Female, Outpatient, or Inpatient 
    • Age Groups: Refers to the subject of the work: Childhood (birth-12 yrs) through Very Old (85+)
    • Form/Content Type:    Choose from Biography, Case Study, Empirical Study, Clinical Trial, or 50 other types.
    • Publication Type: Book, Journal Article, Dissertation, etc.
    • Intended Audience: General Public, Juvenile, or Psychology: Professional and Research
    • Language: the language of the document
Use the thesaurus or index

Many records are tagged with Subjects that identify the major concepts in an article. Using the official Subject will produce better results than keyword searching.

The Thesaurus contains official Subjects and shows relationships between Subjects.
  • Select the button  from the top of the page.
  • Type a term in the browse box.
    • If a term is not found, the closest alphabetical equivalents will be displayed.
  • Click on a term to see broader, narrower, or related terms.
  • To search with a term, check the box next to it and click Add.
  • Thesaurus terms and keywords may be combined on the advanced search page.

The Index will tell you how many records are available for each Subject.  

  • Select the tab from the top of the screen.
  • Using the pull down menu, select Subjects (All) or Subjects (Major).
  • Click browse to view an alphabetical list of all Subjects or type a particular term and click browse. The number of available records for each term is displayed. 
  • To search a Subject, check the box next to it and click Add. The click Search.

*hint*   While there are many other indices available for browsing, most are the same as the those on the Refine the Search screen. 
Search hyperlinked terms within records
  • View the Complete Record of a citation. 
  • Click on one of the hyperlinked terms in the record to reveal all records with the same term in the same field.
    • Fields with hyperlinks include Author, Source, Subjects, and many more.

    *hint*  Many of the hyperlinked words are words from the thesaurus. An easy way to perform a quality search is to do a quick keyword search, find a relevant record, and then use the hyperlinked words to perform a more sophisticated search.  

Combine searches using Search History
  • Select the tab from the middle of the search page.  
    • Previous searches are displayed with the search string used and the number of results. Results can be viewed by clicking the number of results.
  • To combine previous searches, select two or more lines and click Add. Then click Search. 
*hint*  Search History is useful for combining Index searches with keyword searches.

Viewing Results   top

  • Use the scroll bar to move through records.
    • If more than 10 records are available, use arrow at the bottom of the page to move to the next page.
  • Click Complete Record to view the abstract and additional  information.
  • Select records to Save, Print, or Email by clicking next to the record.
Save, print, or email results

After selecting  records, click 

  • Then select one of the following:
To return to results hit the browser back button. To start and new search, select the Advanced search tab.

 

Finding Full Text  top

DO NOT select Full text from the Refine Search screen. This will always result in no hits.

  • Linkfinder: This utility searches other databases (such as Infotrac and Project Muse) to see if full text is available.  To use it, click .  Full text options will appear in a new window.
  • Voyager Catalog: The library may own print copies of the resource. If a Linkfinder search yields no full text results, click Voyager: check Walker Library holdings (ISSN) from within the Linkfinder box.  Voyager will automatically search for the periodical and tell you where it is located in the library.
  • Interlibrary Loan: If MTSU does not have a digital or print copy of the resource you need, you may borrow it from another library.  Select ILL request, if no holdings from the Linkfinder box, or select from the results list.  Follow directions to set up an account if you are a new user.  

Additional Help   top

Click Help at the top right corner of the screen for more assistance.  

Library Research Guide (ACY 11/03)
James E Walker Library
Middle Tennessee State University
Murfreesboro, TN 37132

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