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 some 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/
When constructing a search question it is helpful to separate out the search terms and phrases from additional criteria that can be used to systematically reduce your database results down to a manageable number of references. Such additional criteria could be the type of publication; a journal article, a review, a case report or even a letter or editorial. Other additional criteria could include narrowing down the result set by language or by time. In the context of searching for information on databases, imposing such additional criteria upon a search is referred to as applying ‘limits’. Whilst the idea of employing limits is common to A&I databases, the variety and scope of the ‘limits’ options available to searchers can differ between databases.
This Focused Search introduces an initial selection of limits available for APA PsycInfo on Ovid.
The limits can be selected and applied sequentially (see lines #11, #12 and #13) or imposed in a single step. The full range of limits available for the database you are searching in, can be viewed and selected by clicking on the Additional Limits option at the bottom of the initial selection display. You can also place the limits, most useful to you, on the initial selection display by selecting the Edit Limits option. Your selection will remain as your initial display selection for the duration of your database session. After which they will return to and re-display the default selection.
For database administrators, please note however, that the default selection can be customized for you by Ovid Technical Support so that the default selection of limits better addresses your users’ needs.
Practice Suggestions
- From the results shown in line #10, how many of them are have a publication years from 2020 onwards?
- In line #8 the search expression locates references with both the US and British spelling of "behaviour". How would you determine the proportion of each?
- Narrow the results in line #10 to clinical trials. Tip: Display the full list of available limits by clicking on Additional Limits. How would you do this for an equivalent search in Ovid MEDLINE?
Search Stategy
adolescent health/ or youth mental health/
(adolescent$ health or youth$ mental health or teenager$ health).mp.
1 or 2
exp major depression/
(depression or depress$ or depressive disorder$).mp.
4 or 5
exp cognitive behavior therapy/
cognitive behavio?r therap$.mp.
7 or 8
3 and 6 and 9
limit 10 to "remove medline records"
limit 11 to open access
limit 12 to test doi
(adolescent$ health or youth$ mental health or teenager$ health).mp.
1 or 2
exp major depression/
(depression or depress$ or depressive disorder$).mp.
4 or 5
exp cognitive behavior therapy/
cognitive behavio?r therap$.mp.
7 or 8
3 and 6 and 9
limit 10 to "remove medline records"
limit 11 to open access
limit 12 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 – Refining Searches Systematically (Limits) [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=116