Background
APA PsycInfo describes itself as "(T)he premier abstracting and indexiing database covering the behavioral and social sciences from the authority in psychology". (1) A resource produced and made available by the American Psychological Association (APA), APA PsycInfo, along with Ovid MEDLINE and Embase on Ovid, constitute, in their respective fields, the largest and most comprehensive Abstracting and Indexing (A&I) databases for peer-reviewed scientific information.
APA PsycInfo on Ovid – Facts and Figures (1)
- A bibliographic database, APA PsycInfo is made up of over 5.7 million database records.
- Within these database records are over 144 million cited references.
- The database records are derived from 2,400 journals.
- Database records are indexed using the APA Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms (R).
- Content includes not only journal articles but also book chapters and dissertations.
- Spanning 600 years of content, the database is updated twice weekly.
- Additional topics related to psychology, also covered range from AI to education, medicine and sports.
Training Session Programme
This Learning Pathway series of training modules draws upon the content and teaching approaches in and behind the learning resource OvidGO! (2). Constructed around a selection of focused searches, the training programme has been designed to achieve the following two objectives,
- to introduce the database, APA PsycInfo on Ovid, drawing upon where helpful, parallels and comparisons with Ovid MEDLINE,
- to discuss, demonstrate and practice the key features and functionality of the database APA PsycInfo on Ovid.
(1). See https://www.apa.org/pubs/databases/psycinfo/index
(2). See https://tools.ovid.com/ovidgo/
This Focused Search has two parts. The first part involves locating systematic reviews that discuss empathy in medical students in the course of their medical education. The second part is to establish what tests and meaures have been used to assess empathy, its presence or absence, development or decline, and to obtain further information on the relevant tests and measures.
When using the Advanced Search mode in a bibliographic database like APA PsycInfo on Ovid, it is good practice to divide the research question into main concepts, that is ideas that can be expressed in specific terms. These terms can then be used as your search terms.
Where a database has behind it a thesaurus, also referred to as a controlled vocabulary, it is recommended that you start your search by obtaining the thesaurus rendering of your chosen concept search term. In the Focused Search example, these are lines #1 for the ideas 'medical student and medical education' and line #4 for 'empathy' . In each case the '/' after the terms indicating they are theasurus terms.
To complete a full concept search it is further recommended that the thesaurus term be complemented by a free term search. This ensures more comprehensive coverage. For instance, that you capture records that because of their very recent inclusion in the database, have not been fully processed, meaning they have not yet had thesaurus terms allocated to them.
Lines #3 and #6 show the completed concept search for the concepts; medical students, medical education and empathy.
Line #8 draws upon the assumption that publications that are systematic reviews, now state this explicitely in the title of the publication.
Line #10 draws upon knowledge of the fact that in APA PsycInfo records, tests and measures are listed in a database record, word-indexed field called Tests & Measures (TM). Where a test digital object identifier is also avaiable, this is also captured in a phrase-indexed field Test DOI (TD). The Test DOI embedded in the APA PsycInfo records affects a direct link to the APA PsycTests (R) database and further bibliographic information on the test in question.
Practice Suggestions:
- Use the Complete Reference display option to examine the results listed in line #10. Is the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy listed in the Tests & Measures field for all the results? In what other languages is the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy available?
- In lines #2 and #5 how does replacinng .ti,ab. with .mp. impact the results?
- Use the Change option to run this Focused Search through Ovid MEDLINE. Do the concepts 1 and 2 retrieve meaningful results? How does line #10 fare?
Search Stategy
medical students/ or exp medical education/
(medical student$ or medical education).ti,ab.
1 or 2 [Concept 1: Thesaurus and free term search]
empathy/
empath$.ti,ab.
4 or 5 [Concept 2: Thesaurus and free term search]
3 and 6
systematic review.ti. [Publication type as stated in title]
7 and 8
limit 9 to test doi
(medical student$ or medical education).ti,ab.
1 or 2 [Concept 1: Thesaurus and free term search]
empathy/
empath$.ti,ab.
4 or 5 [Concept 2: Thesaurus and free term search]
3 and 6
systematic review.ti. [Publication type as stated in title]
7 and 8
limit 9 to test doi
Reviewers
Primary: Michael Fanning
Secondary: Charlotte Viken
Review Date: 2025-03-17
Expiry Date: 2026-03-17
Original search produced by:
Ovid Training Team
References:
OvidGO! / Skills Videos / General Introduction
What is a bibliographic database?
What is the structure of a database?
What is Ovid MEDLINE?
What are Boolean Operators?
What are wildcards?
Subject heading searching
Citation:
OvidGO! Portal. Focused Searches: APA PsycInfo on Ovid – Knowledge Discovery through Cross Referencing [Internet]. London (UK): Ovid Training Team (Editors); 2025 [updated 2 March 2024; cited 10 March 2025]. Available from: https://tools.ovid.com/ovidgo/searches/view.php?id=114