Quality assurance at PsycINFO involves ensuring the accuracy, consistency, and usability of information in the database. The QA specialist corrects errors reported by internal staff and external customers, tracks corrections, provides training, and performs cleanup projects. Errors come from journals staff, bibliographic production, full text staff, systems team, authors, and researchers. The correction process involves verifying errors, determining their scope and cause, and implementing corrections through the corrections module or with help from the systems team. The QA specialist produces weekly, monthly, and annual reports on corrections and quality assurance activity.

1. Quality Assurance, PsycINFO

3. What makes our users happy? Quick responses to their inquiries Thorough attention to their needs Professional responses

4. Major QA Tasks Correct errors in the database reported by internal staff and external clients. Produce a weekly serial corrections report in conjunction with the Content Development team. Track corrections weekly (via weekly corrections log), monthly (via monthly QA reports) and annually (via annual report). Provide feedback and training, as needed, to staff in order to improve quality practices. Perform large scale cleanup projects as needed, typically in conjunction with the Systems team. Other duties as assigned 

5. Who Reports Errors? External Customers Customers (authors, researchers, publishing staff, etc.) report errors to psycinfo@apa.org, also referred to as the Email App. The customer relations team fields those emails and routes those that need QA attention to the QA Specialist. The QAS will research and correct the error, respond to the customer, and log the correction in the corrections log. External customers typically report errors in author name and article title, as well as missing journal content. Additionally, Alvin will provide a monthly report of EBSCO–reported errors, also to be researched and reported by the QAS.

6. Who Reports Errors? Internal Staff Journals Department – Elizabeth Bruce and other members of the Journals Staff will periodically report errors in APA Journals content, most often title or author typographical errors. Bibliographic Production Staff – Bib Prod staff will periodically report errors they have found during their QC process. These will typically be errors in Journal Publication Month/Year or Vol/Issue. Bib Production is also instructed to report any changes they have made to erratum statements at the QC level, so that the QAS can make equivalent changes to the original record.

7. Who Reports Errors? Internal Staff PI Managers – Managers will often encounter errors in the course of their various functions and report those to the QAS. Full Text Staff – The Full Text team (Led by Kathleen) will perform a pdf-full text matchup that will often uncover errors in the database. Svetla will typically report these to the QAS for correction. Systems Team – Sabina and her team will work jointly with the QAS to correct errors in the database. Systems is responsible for larger-scale corrections and will often enlist the QAS for assistance if necessary corrections can be done via the corrections module.

9. The Correction Process Replicate the error. Verify that the error originated within PsycINFO Identify the specific cause of the error. Determine the scope of the error. Implement corrections. continued…

11. Make recommendations to staff and managers in the interest of prevention.

13. Weekly Serial Corrections Every week, typically by Wednesday, the QAS produces a report that lists any serial-level corrections that have been reported by the Journals Content team. This report will include the Journal name and code, the type of correction, a description of the correction, the number of affected released records, and the number of related records still in workflow. This report is sent to staff in Product Development, Content Development, and Systems. Systems then marks the records for correction at the end of the week.

14. Corrections Log The weekly corrections log is housed here: S:ustomer Relationsuality Assuranceorrectionsost-Release Correctionsost-Release Error Logs This log contains every correction that has been made via the corrections module, as well as corrections made by systems as noted on the weekly serial corrections list and the systems-generated weekly corrections log.

15. Weekly External Error Report The weekly external error report tracks the number of errors that have been reported via the email app. The report can be found here: S:ustomer Relationsuality Assuranceeekly External Error Reports Michael Miyazaki accesses this report to track email app activity.

16. Monthly and Annual QA Reports Each month, the QAS produces a monthly report, synopsizing the quality assurance activity. An annual report is also produced, examining trends for the year. Previous reports can be found here: S:ustomer Relationsuality AssuranceA Reports These reports have taken various forms over the years, and it may be prudent to rethink how they should be used going forward and what format would be most beneficial.

17. Large Scale Projects Occasionally, particularly around the time of reload, Systems may enlist the help of the QAS in completing large scale clean-up projects. Last year, this included correcting erroneous characters in author name and title data in over 4,000 records. Projects of this magnitude are infrequent, but they do occur. Systems will alert you to any large scale projects for which they need assistance.

18. Keys to Success Ask Questions Stay as Organized as Possible Be Patient…there’s a Learning Curve Remember Your Colleagues are Your Greatest Asset Have Fun!