APA Presentation at CCALD Meeting 5/4/2012 at Middlesex Community College

1. APA Databases
Global Links to the World of
Psychology and Behavioral Sciences
CCALD
Rob Kolton
Neil Lader
May 2012

2. Discussion Topics
• APA Background & Mission
• APA’s Newest Family Members
• Family of Electronic Products
• Librarian’s Resource Center
• Questions & Answers

3. American Psychological Association
• Founded in 1892
• Its mission is to advance
the creation, communication,
and application of
psychological knowledge
to benefit society and
improve people’s lives
• The largest psychological
organization worldwide

4. For APA as a Society,
Two Major Constituencies
APA Members Libraries
• 137,000 members, • Very supportive of
affiliates, and APA publications
student members
• Partners in delivering
• 46% academic
professional knowledge
• Subscribe to journals
to researchers, students,
in large numbers
and others
• Now buy access to
electronic products

5. APA’s Family of Databases
• PsycARTICLES ®, full text of essential journals
• PsycBOOKS ®, full-text scholarly titles from APA
and other publishers
• APA Books® E-Collections, full-text scholarly titles
from APA only-ownership model
• PsycCRITIQUES ®, APA’s database of book reviews
• PsycEXTRA ®, APA’s gray literature solution
• PsycINFO ®, the discovery and finding tool
• APA Handbooks in Psychology™, a new reference
series covering emerging subdisciplines

6. New and Now Available
• PsycTESTS™, a research database that provides
access to psychological tests, measures, scales, and
other assessments as well as descriptive and
administrative information for each instrument
• PsycTHERAPY™, a database of more than 300
therapy demonstration videos featuring master
clinicians working with individuals, couples, and
families

7. PsycTESTS ™

8. PsycTESTS
Comprehensive Test Coverage
• Primary focus is on unpublished tests—those developed
by researchers but not made commercially available
• Covers not only tests in psychology, but those in related
disciplines such as education, social work, human
resources, marketing/advertising, and others
• About 76% of the content contains full text of tests
• Commercially available tests indexed by APA are also
included, with links to purchase the instrument from the
publisher

9. PsycTESTS
Comprehensive Test Coverage
•Now providing access to over 3,300 actual test
instruments from more than 4,700 total records. APA is
nearly halfway to its goal of 10,000 records by the end of
2012.
• Most records link to a variety of materials describing the
test in peer-reviewed literature, technical reports, or
dissertations as well as links to related peer-reviewed
literature describing test development, review, or use
• All records include a summary that describes the test,
with its purpose and some history of its development

10. PsycTESTS
High-Quality Records and Search Features
• Each record includes data on the scope of the test, test
implementation, a high-level overview of the test's
development, and reliability and validity data (when available)
• Browse tests using the test name or acronym, author,
construct, or year and get directly to the test record
• Or, create detailed searches across a variety of customized
fields such as construct, index terms, author, format,
population, and so on
• Search results integrate with other APA databases, offering
a unified display for improved discoverability

11. PsycTESTS
Authoritative Sources
• Tests include those compiled from:
 A systematic review of peer-reviewed journals published by APA,
Hogrefe Publishing Group, and other large publishers;
 Technical reports from PsycEXTRA®;
 Contributions from individual test authors;
 Collections from the Archives of the History of American Psychology;
• Records are created by skilled indexers with deep
knowledge of the psychology literature
• Links provided for each instrument to source documentation
containing a full citation, DOI for the full text, and a link to the
PsycINFO® or PsycEXTRA® record

12. PsycTESTS
Content Coverage
Some examples of the diverse array of subject areas and the types of
measures, scales, inventories, questionnaires, and tests included:
•Aptitude and Achievement • Personality Assessment
Measures • Aggression, Coping, or
•Neuropsychological Assessment Functional Status Questionnaires
•Educational Measures • Occupational Measures
•Intelligence Tests • Racial/Ethnic Identity Scales
•Developmental Measures • Resilience, Anger Response, or
•Competency Measures Substance Abuse Inventories
• Military Testing
•Scales for Beliefs,
Relationships, or Expectancies • Tests from the Archives of the
History of American Psychology
(AHAP)

13. PsycTHERAPY
™

14. PsycTHERAPY
Authoritative Content for Learning Excellence
•Contains only unscripted, spontaneous therapy
sessions taped in the last 10 years
• Designed for students, faculty, and professionals in
psychotherapy and counseling
• Specifically developed to show how master therapists
use different approaches and techniques with individuals,
couples, and families
• Includes both most frequently practiced approaches
currently and lesser-known therapeutic models
•More than 300 streaming videos—230+ topics /

15. PsycTHERAPY
Authoritative Publications
• APA has produced highly regarded educational therapy
demonstration videos since the mid-1990s
• All videos in PsycTHERAPY were originally taped in
conjunction with the APA Psychotherapy Video Series and
will only be available in PsycTHERAPY
• Allows viewers to observe unique qualities each therapist
brings to applying a given therapeutic approach in a
clinical setting, including his/her successes and near-misses
in doing so

16. PsycTHERAPY
Completely Searchable
• Each video is coded with index terms and metadata
about participants, session content, and therapeutic
approaches demonstrated
• Cross-searchable with other APA databases
•MARC records can be downloaded from the
Librarian’s Reference Desk in the Administrative
Tools section of the platform.
Growing Collection
• Content to be added biannually

17. Synchronized Video Transcripts
Each video has a synchronized transcript that scrolls
along as the session progresses, highlighting the
content being spoken. Viewers can skip to desired
sections by clicking on the corresponding text.

18. PsycTHERAPY
Other Flexible Tools for Functional Content
• Users can tag and customize content to create short clips
• Playlists can be shared within a class or smaller group or
the user’s immediate institution
Access
•Available only to institutions via APA PsycNET
•Access available only to authorized, authenticated users
•Users will be required to enter a validating code or
password for access

19. PsycINFO
®

20. What Is PsycINFO?
• The largest resource devoted to peer-reviewed
literature in behavioral sciences and mental
health published worldwide
• Over 3 million abstracts and nearly
50 million cited references
• Updated weekly
• Data from 1800’s to present
• Virtually 100% of records from 1967 to
present have abstracts

21. PsycINFO Coverage
Journals Books
• 80% of database • 8% of database
• Nearly 2,500 titles • 3%: authored/edited books
covered • 5%: edited book chapters
– 99% are peer-reviewed • Psychological relevance
– Cover to cover indexing
of 1,500+ journals
– Articles from remaining Dissertations & Other
journals selected for • 12% of database
psychological relevance • From Dissertations
• 40 titles added Abstracts Intl.
since 2011 (A and B)

22. Breadth of Coverage
• Psychology • Linguistics
• Psychiatry • Medicine
• Business • Nursing
• Criminal Justice • Social Work
• Education • Sociology
• Human Resources • Psychopharmacology
• Law • Physiology

23. Thesaurus of
Psychological Index Terms
• Foundation of all APA databases
• Ensures precise retrieval
• Annual update with new terms
• Indexers & subject experts identify new terms
• 8,400 + controlled terms and cross-references
• Hierarchical, alphabetical, & subject
arrangements
• Emerging trends, new areas of research

24. PsycINFO Quality Standards
• Careful evaluation
– Relevance
– Standards of presentation
– Regularity of publication, etc.
• Nearly 50% of journals submitted for
inclusion in PsycINFO are rejected

25. PsycINFO Abstract Quality
• Professional information analysts
– PsycINFO staff write or edit abstracts to
accurately reflect content
– Indexers use of controlled thesaurus vocabulary
that ensures precise retrieval
– Rigorous quality-control checks

26. PsycINFO
2012 Reload
•A new identifier will be inserted into the current
Tests and Measures field in PsycINFO, allowing
seamless transition from a test in the Tests and
Measures field in PsycINFO to the test records in
PsycTESTS®
•A new field has been created and PubMed ID
numbers will be added to PsycINFO records.

27. PsycARTICLES
®

28. PsycARTICLES
PsycARTICLES is a database of full-text articles
from peer-reviewed journals published by the APA,
Canadian Psychological Association, and Hogrefe
& Huber
– Covers 85 journals and contains more than
159,000 articles
– Updated weekly as issues are released to the
database
– Average currency is about 3 days after print
issue is mailed

29. APA Journals Program:
ISI Impact Factor ®
• 100% of all APA journals (peer reviewed)
have Impact Factors
– Psychology-Multidisciplinary: 5 journals in
the top 10 of 111 journals
– Psychology-Clinical: 3 journals in the top 10
of 93 journals
– Psychology-Applied: 2 journals in the top 10
of 63 journals
– Psychology-Educational: 2 journals in the
top 10 of 44 journals

30. PsycARTICLES
• New Titles added in 2011:
-Law & Human Behavior
-Peace & Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology
-International Perspectives in Psychology: Research
Practive & Consultation
-Psychology of Popular Media Culture
-Sport, Exercise & Performance Psychology
-Psychomusicology: Music, Mind and Brain

31. PsycARTICLES
• APA implemented its archiving policy in 2002
in response to libraries’ desire to retain access to
digital repositories of journal articles
• Customers retain the right to access only those
articles added to the database during the years
they licensed PsycARTICLES (but not access
to any other content in the database)
• In addition, the 1894-1984 archive collection that
was added to PsycARTICLES in 2005 is not
covered by the archiving policy

32. Portico Perpetual Access
• APA has designated Portico as an official
delivery platform to provide perpetual access to
APA journals to participating libraries
• APA journals available through PsycARTICLES
are covered

33. PsycBOOKS ®
or
APA Books ®
E-Collections
You Now Have a Choice!

34. PsycBOOKS or E-Collections
• Single access point to a complete collection of
authoritative titles in a subject area
• A response to the growing demand for electronic
book content, especially in library sector
• Electronic access to content expands its
research value

35. PsycBOOKS or E-Collections
• All the content and functionality of each book as
published—tables of contents, front matter, back
matter, illustrations, look and feel of the printed
page
PLUS
• All of the added value of a database classified
and indexed by PsycINFO

36. PsycBOOKS or E-Collections
• Indexed by PsycINFO information analysts using the
Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms
• Classified with the same subject classification scheme used
for other APA electronic products
• Abstracts for all chapters are informative
– Complete summary of major points
• Licensees retain right to access new titles from the
previous copyright year entered into PsycBOOKS during
each year that the license was active, but not the backfile
of releases from prior to active license period

37. APA Books
PsycBOOKS
E-Collections
• 882 APA-published
scholarly and professional
books
• APA-published scholarly • Nearly 2,300 classic
Content
and professional books resources in psychology
• Exclusive electronic
release of Encyclopedia
of Psychology
Full-Text
Yes Yes
PDF
Annual One-time purchase with
Annual subscription
Requirement renewable access fee

38. APA Books
PsycBOOKS
E-Collections
• APA PsycNET
Search • EBSCO
• APA PsycNET
Platform(s) • Ovid Technologies
• ProQuest
License Type Own Lease
Time Period Copyright years 2001 From 1620 through
Covered through 2012 2011 copyright year*
*12-month embargo on content. Copyright year runs July 1 - June 30 of each year. Monthly
updates to PsycBOOKS will include content from 2011 copyright year on a rolling month-to-month
basis following the embargo period.

39. APA Books
PsycBOOKS
E-Collections
12-Month
Embargo on Newly No Yes
Published Books
Updates Annual (full copyright year) Monthly
MARC Records Yes Yes
Single fee, site-based Tiered by institution
Pricing Model
pricing type and FTE level
Consortia Discounts Yes Yes
Total # of Chapters Over 7,000 Nearly 46,000

40. PsycCRITIQUES ®

41. PsycCRITIQUES
• Searchable database of full text reviews of current
books and popular films, videos, and software,
written by subject experts
• Approx. 9-12 reviews released weekly, and more
than 500 reviews published annually
• Includes over 40,000 reviews from 1956 to present
• Includes Contemporary Psychology backfile from
1956 to 2004
• Licensees retain right to access books entered into
database during the period license was active, but
not the back file of releases from previous years

42. PsycCRITIQUES
Applications
• Use for collection development by librarians &
course work by faculty
• Introduce students to the literature
• Track the impact of important books on the
evolution of psychological topics

43. PsycCRITIQUES
Functionality
• Links from PsycINFO record for the review to
actual review
• Searchable database provides access to
bibliographic references, abstracts, and
full-text reviews
• Links from review to PsycINFO record to view
table of contents

44. PsycEXTRA
®

45. PsycEXTRA
Gray literature is incredibly valuable to the research
process
• Access to the increasing amount of scientific
information now published outside of traditional
peer-reviewed scholarly journals or books
• Provides access to content for professional or lay
audiences that might otherwise be missed
• Materials include conference papers, research
reports, policy statements, standards, newsletters,
magazines, newspapers, brochures, fact sheets,
annual reports, and more

46. PsycEXTRA
• Scope
– Covers psychology, behavioral science & health
– Includes digitized content from the Archives of the
History of American Psychology (AHAP) collection
• Hybrid database
– Includes abstracts, citations, and indexing, plus full text
for a portion of the records (over 70%)
• Selection standards
– Providers and content evaluated for credibility and
subject expertise

47. PsycEXTRA
• Size of PsycEXTRA database
– More than 247,000 records
– 30,000 + records added yearly
– Updated biweekly
• PsycEXTRA is a complement to PsycINFO® and
there is no overlap of records
• Licensees retain right to access books entered into
PsycEXTRA during the period license was active,
but not the backfile of releases from previous years

48. APA Handbooks
in Psychology ™
Series

49. APA Handbooks in Psychology Series
• Industrial & Organizational Psychology—
Available
• Ethics—Available
• Educational Psychology—Available
• Research Methods in Psychology—Available
• Addiction Syndromes—May 2012
• Counseling Psychology— June 2012
• Behavior & Analysis—August 2012

50. APA Handbooks of Psychology
• Ideal resources for libraries and institutions
• One-stop shop for both overviews and in-depth
analyses of a variety of sub-fields within
psychology.
• Different purchase options for electronic and
print versions are available to institutions
• Contains vital resources and thoughtful analysis
to satisfy educational needs of beginners as well
as those more advanced in their studies.

51. APA Handbook of Industrial and
Organizational Psychology
• Studying and affecting behavior within and
between individuals and organizations
• International group of contributors, thereby
offering a global view of organizational
development and work life
• Theoretical and applied perspective
• Relevant information in both core and
emerging literature
• One-time purchase of 3-volume set
•

52. APA Handbook of
Ethics in Psychology
• Investigates the complexities of ethical behavior in
clinical, educational, forensic, health, and “tele-”
psychology
• Reflects important recent advances in research and
technology that present new opportunities and
challenges for practice and scholarship
• Takes a serious look into some burgeoning new
areas such as life coaching and providing services
over the Internet.
• One-time purchase of 2-volume set

53. APA Educational
Psychology Handbook
• Includes state-of-the-science reviews of diverse critical
theories driving education research and practice
• Investigates in-depth the range of individual differences
and cultural/contextual factors that affect student
achievement, motivation, and beliefs
• Closely examines research driving current assessment,
decision making, teaching skills, teacher prep, and
promotion of learning across life span and with special
populations
• One-time purchase of 3-volume set

54. APA Handbook of Research
Methods in Psychology
• Opens with the broadest questions related to research
design, including which designs are most appropriate
for which question, and how to think about research
design ethicality and feasibility
• Describes types of data most often collected and how
to determine the best measurement techniques for the
research purpose
• Also covers issues of research design and design
options, as well as techniques for data analysis
• One-time purchase of 3-volume set

55. APA Addiction Syndrome
Handbook
• Background and History of Addiction
• Distal and Proximal Influences on Addiction
• Characteristics and Consequences of Addiction
• Recovering from Addiction
• Prevention of Addiction
• One-time purchase of 2-volume set

56. APA Handbook of Counseling
Psychology
• Reviews traditional areas of counseling psychology
including human strengths, well being and prevention.
• Insight into new & emerging areas of counseling
• Emerging areas include cultural context, dimensions of
diversity and the role of work in people’s lives
• Also covers expanded roles for counseling
psychologists in new settings, contexts and with new
populations

57. APA Handbook of Behavior
Analysis
• Reviews most important areas of contemporary
laboratory research in behavior analysis
• Comprehensive coverage of the logic, clinical utility
and methods of single-case research designs
• Guides the reader through design, data collection and
data analysis phases
• Also includes chapters devoted to particular behavioral/
development disorders with reviews of what works and
where additional research is needed
• Appropriate for students, researchers and clinicians
concerned with best practice

58. APA
Librarian’s
Resource
Center
www.apa.org/pubs/
librarians.index.aspx

59. APA Librarian’s Resource Center
• Product descriptions, updates, & coverage lists
• Licenses & policies (archiving, appropriate
use, course packs, and ILL)
• Pricing & vendors
• Training & user support (tutorials, etc.)
• Application guides provide database search
hints & sample searches by topic—available in
English and several other languages

60. Thank you!