Quick Reference Guide PsycINFO on Ovid

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1 Quick Reference Guide PsycINFO on Ovid PsycINFO is an electronic bibliographic database that provides abstracts and citations for the scholarly literature in the field of behavioral sciences and mental health. It contains more than 2.2 million references of peer-reviewed literature from early 1800s present. PsycINFO American Psychological Association Ovid, a Wolters Kluwer business support@ovid.com About this Guide Access Ovid through your library s webpage. If you need assistance, contact your librarian. This quick reference guide will demonstrate how to search PsycINFO on the Ovid Platform in Advanced Search mode. Select the Advanced Search tab to get started. Starting Your Search Keyword Search Click the Keyword tab above the search box. Enter a word or phrase in the search box, for example hippocampus. To perform a keyword search you must first uncheck the Map Term to Subject Heading box (leaving this box checked will search the term you enter to an IndexTerm). Search. Citations with hippocampus in default fields (title, abstract, subject headings, table of contents, key concepts) are displayed.

2 Index Term/Subject Heading Search Click the Keyword tab. Leave the box checked for Map Term to Subject Heading (this is the default setting). Enter your search term(s) into the box. For example, searching OCD will map your term to the most relevant Index Terms, in this case Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. The Mapping display appears. For example, select Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Auto Explode (if you want a broader term), and/or Focus (if you want a narrower term). Then click Continue. Author Search Click the Author tab above the search box. Enter the Author s last name, a space, and first initial, if known, in the search box. For example Maslow A or just Maslow. Search. 2

3 An alphabetical list of names, with last name first, will appear including Maslow, Abraham. Put a check next to the author(s) you want and then click Perform Search. You may need to check more than one if you are unsure of the author s first name or middle initial. Title Search Click the Title tab above the search box. This searches for title of an article, book, book chapter, or dissertation. Enter a word or phrase to be searched in the title. For example, if you type amygdala you will be told how many results are available with amygdala in the title and you have the option to display the results or narrow them further. If you know the complete title, you can type that into the search box (such as The role of the amygdala in human fear). Journal Search Click the Journal tab above the search box. Enter the first few letters of a full journal name or the entire name, for example American Psychologist. Do not use abbreviations. Select Search.

4 Source Search The Source subfields are Journal Name (JN), Parent Book Title (BT), Year of Publication (YR), Issue/Part (IP), Publication Month/Season (MO), Translated Parent Book Title (OP), Translated Book Series Title (OS), Parent Book Author (PA), Pagination (PG), Parent Book Institutional Author (PI), Publisher Location (PL), Publisher Information (PU), Reprint Year (RY), Book Series Title (ST), and Volume (VO). Click More Fields. Enter term, or phrase, from any of the above subfields, in search box at top of screen, for example Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. Check the box for SO Source. 4. Results: Records from the publication Psychology of Addictive Behaviors are retrieved. How to Limit Your Search After you perform a search, you will see the More Limits icon. Click on it for a list of possible limits.

5 The following are some of the many ways you can limit your search: Publication Year: allows you to set a date range. Publication Type: limit your search to specific publications, such as peer reviewed journal, authored book, encyclopedia, etc. Age Group: limit your search to the age of participants in a research study (this applies to humans). Population Group: limit your search to the group of participants in a research study (human, animal, female, male, etc). Document Type: limit your search to specific document types, such as bibliography, editorial, review, etc. Methodology: limit your search to the methodology used in a research study, such as clinical case study, literature review, meta analysis, etc. There are many other ways to search or to limit your search available, more than will fit in the quick reference guide. Click on More Fields to access the complete list. How to Combine Your Searches Click on Combine Searches. This will allow you to combine any of the searches you have performed.

6 For example, you can find articles about drug therapy in the journal American Psychologist by combining search #2 and 3. Definitions of Selected Fields Keywords: common language terms describing document s content Abstract: brief summary of the article Affiliation: institutional affiliation of authors Publisher: organization/company that publishes the journal or book Table of Contents: book table of contents, go here to find chapter titles Tests & Measures: indicates if a test is used in the methodology of a study or featured as the subject of discussion Classification: Classification Code numbers (available at Search Basics Boolean Operators (And, Or, Not) combine search terms to narrow or broaden results. Wildcard (?): The? replaces one character for example ne?t finds neat, nest or next, but will not find net. Truncation ($): The $ replaces any number of characters and will find all forms of a word root, for example, therap$ finds therapy, therapies, therapist, therapists, therapeutic, therapeutically.

7 Print/ /Save While in the results display, scroll down to Results Manager. Under Actions you can select Print Preview. Then select Print from your web browser s tool bar. This will print the record. Go to to send it to yourself or others. Go to Save to save it. PsycINFO American Psychological Association 750 First Street, NE Washington, DC psycinfo@apa.org Ovid, a Wolters Kluwer business Global Headquarters: 333 Seventh Avenue, 20 th floor New York, NY support@ovid.com