PsycINFO is a database

Bibliographic database

A bibliographic database is a database of bibliographic records, an organized digital collection of references to published literature, including journal and newspaper articles, conference proceedings, reports, government and legal publications, patents, books, etc...

 of abstract

Abstract (summary)

An abstract is a brief summary of a research article, thesis, review, conference proceeding or any in-depth analysis of a particular subject or discipline, and is often used to help the reader quickly ascertain the paper's purpose. When used, an abstract always appears at the beginning of a...

s of literature in the field of psychology

Psychology

Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...

. It is produced by the American Psychological Association

American Psychological Association

The American Psychological Association is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States. It is the world's largest association of psychologists with around 154,000 members including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. The APA...

 and distributed on the association's APA PsycNET and through third-party vendors. It is the electronic version of the now-ceased Psychological Abstracts

Psychological Abstracts

Psychological Abstracts was an abstract and index periodical and the print counterpart of the PsycINFO database. It was published by the American Psychological Association and was produced for 80 years, ceasing publication at the end of 2006...

. In 2000 it absorbed PsycLIT

PsycLit

PsycLIT was a CD-ROM version of Psychological Abstracts. It was merged into the PsycINFO online database in 2000. PsycLIT contained citations and abstracts to journal articles, and summaries of English-language chapters and books in psychology, as well as behavioral information from sociology,...

 which had been published on CD-ROM

CD-ROM

A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....

.

It contains citations and summaries from the 19th century to the present of:

• journal articles
• book chapters
• books
• technical reports
• dissertations

General facts:

• More than 2.5 million records as of July 2008
• More than 129,000 records added to the database in 2007
• Updated weekly

Journal coverage:

• More than 2,150 titles covered
• 98% are peer reviewed journals
• Currently covered journals at www.apa.org/psycinfo/about/covlist.html
• Journal records—78% of database
• Accepted for coverage if archival, scholarly, peer-reviewed, and regularly published with titles, abstracts, and keywords in English
• Comprehensive coverage of more than 1,200 titles ("cover to cover") as of June 2007
• 300 journals with a 100% selection rate
• Articles selected for psychological relevance from remaining titles

Book coverage

• Chapters from authored and edited books—7% of database
• Authored and edited books - 4% of database
• English-language, published worldwide
• Selected if scholarly, professional, or research-based; all with psychological relevance

Dissertations and other secondary publications

• Selected from Dissertation Abstracts International (A and B)
• 11% of database
• Abstracts in dissertation records starting 1995
• Selected on basis of classification in DAI in sections with psychological relevance

Geographical coverage

• Publications from more than 49 countries
• Journals—more than 27 languages
• Non-English titles in Roman alphabets included 1978–present

Record contents

• Bibliographic citation
• Abstract
• Table of contents for books
• Index terms from the Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms
• Keywords
• Classification categories
• Population information
• Geographical location of the research population
• Tests and measurements used in the research
• Cited references for journal articles, book chapters, and books mainly from 2001 to present
• More information

Abstracts

• 1995 to present, virtually 100% of records have abstracts (0.007% no abstracts)
• For non-dissertation documents added from 1967 to present, 99.2% contain abstracts

Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms

• 11th Edition (print) released in July 2007 with 200 new terms
• More than 8,400 controlled terms and cross-references
• Hierarchical, alphabetical, and subject arrangements
• Records indexed with most specific term applicable
• Major and minor terms assigned
• Maximum of 15 total terms, 5 major terms.
• More information

Classification system

• 22 major categories and 135 subcategories
• Each record assigned to one or two classifications
• List of Codes

Cited references

• More than 23 million references in 600,500+ journal articles, books, and book chapters as of June 2007
• Retrospective to 2001 and earlier, where available (APA to 1987)
• APA-style format
• More information

Historic records

• Sources

Psychological Abstracts 1927–1966; Psychological Bulletin 1921–1926; American Journal of Psychology 1887–1966; All APA journals back to first issue of publication; Psychological Index (1894–-1935); citations to English language journals only;Classic Books in Psychology of the 20th Century and the Harvard Book List, 1840–1971

• All records published in Psychological Abstracts are now in PsycINFO
• More than 335,000 historic records in PsycINFO
• Historic records differ from 1967–present records

No controlled vocabulary (descriptor) field; index field may contain descriptor terms, but they are not controlled; other indexing fields, such as Age Groups, form/Content are not present; classifications are broad only