PsycINFO Tutorial

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PsycINFO Tutorial

• Gorgas Memorial Library
• October 2002

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Objectives

• Database overview and access
• Become familiar with search interface
• Learn basic features
• Be able to run a search
• Be able to save a search
• Be able to print a document

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Produced by American Psychological Association,
PsycINFO is a database collecting psychological
and related disciplines of behavior literature
from 1887 to the present. It includes worldwide
journal articles, book chapters, technical
reports and dissertations.
To access PsycINFO from WRAIR, we use Ovid, the
third party provider. From the Ovid home page
(http//gateway.ovid.com/), enter Ovid ID and
password and click Start Ovid to login. To
receive the Ovid login ID and password, provide
the library a memorandum or an email from your
department chief, director of division or
directorate requesting an account.
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Click Continue after login.
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At the Choose a Database page, scroll down to
locate PsycINFO. The coverage of databases is
indicated right next to each entry. Select one
to access. To view more detailed information on
scope, searching fields, sample document for each
of database, click in the front.
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This is the PsycINFO search screen. Notice 1.
On the top of the screen, a notation dictates the
coverage of current database. The online help
button is located on the right.
2. Below the notation, a list of icons across
the screen provides you with options to approach
a search. You may select the Author icon to
locate an author name or click Title to search an
article by title.
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3. In the middle of the screen, a list of boxes
will display search steps, search terms and
number of returned search hits accordingly.
4. Enter the search terms here.
5. At the bottom, various conditions in the
Limits area allow you to manipulate a search
result.
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• Lets run a search to see how this database
  works. But before entering a search term, we
  need to
• Determine what the search topic is.
• Identify concepts from the search topic.
• Recognize and group search terms associated with
  concepts.
• Select operators (AND, OR, NOT) to combine
  groups.
• Here is our search topic
• The impact of mental disorders on military
  personnel.
• In this case,
• The first concept from this statement is mental
  disorder, therefore enter mental disorder as an
  associated term.
• The second concept is military personnel,
  therefore enter military personnel.
• Then, we use AND to join the two terms
  together.

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Enter the first concept mental disorder into
the search box. Click Perform Search on the
right.
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Check box in front of the subject term. Click
Continue to go to the subheading screen.
Notice Hints at the bottom of the screen which
explains the feature of each check box on the
screen.
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You may check a box in front of each subheading
for a selection. To include all subheadings, just
click Continue. It will include all subheadings
by default.
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On the following screen, the first search concept
along with its number of returned hits are shown
on the screen. Lets enter the second search
term, and click Perform Search.
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After both results are displayed on the screen,
Click Combine at the top.
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At the Combine Searches screen, --Check the
boxes in front of the terms that need to be
combined. -- Select combine operator (AND) from
the dropdown box at the top. -- Click Continue.
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Notice that after combing two concepts, there are
468 hits. To add further conditions to the
search, click limit on the top.
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On the limit search screen, check each box of
limiting conditions that applies to your search
(e.g. limits to English language, human,
publication year)
Notice the difference between a limit to the Ovid
Full Text or to the PsycARTICLES Journals is that
the Ovid Full Text includes the articles in the
field of psychology plus articles from other
journals, but the PsycARTICLES Journals is only
psychological full text articles mainly from
American Psychological Association.
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You can also add more specific limitations by
selecting an entry from various condition boxes
(e.g. age). Then click Limit Search.
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After adding conditions, the final hit becomes 2.
As a reference, the conditions that have been
added is displayed in the bracket under the
Search History column next to the hits. If you
want to add additional terms to run the search
again later, you can save the current search
strategy without reentering it by clicking Save
Search History below the Search History column .
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To view specific records, click Display.
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On the display screen, select and click to view
abstract, reference or full text article. See
sample records at the back of Tutorial.
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• -- To print a record, click Print Preview on the
  right.
• -- To save records
• Check box in front of the selected hits.
• Select displayed information from Fields column.
• Select preferred format from the Citation Format
  column.
• Choose sort fields from the Primary box at the
  Sort Keys area.
• Click Save.

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Select the system that applies to your PC to save
records. Click Continue.
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On the Save Citations screen, if you choose Open,
it will be saved as a text file displayed in the
Notepad shown below.
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If you click Save, a window will be pulled up as
shown from the left, it allows you to select a
path to save.
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After saving your selection, click Logoff to
close PsycINFO.
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Sample Record -- Abstract
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Sample Record Complete Reference
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Sample Record Ovid Full Text