APA PsycInfo on Ovid – Limiting Searches To Time Spans (Date Range Searching)

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,

1. to introduce the database, APA PsycInfo on Ovid, drawing upon where helpful, parallels and comparisons with Ovid MEDLINE,
2. 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 looks at ways in which searches can be limited to general or specific spans of time.

Limiting by a Range of Complete Years
The easiest way to limit a search to a range of complete years is to use the Year of Publication (YR) field. This field is marked and populated by the indexers as soon as the processing of the original document begins.  The database’s Limits function provides the option for the user to enter the wished for date range. Alternatively, set ranges, i.e. 3 Years, 5 years etc. can also be selected. All the records in APA PsycInfo on Ovid, bar two references, have a year of publication. See lines #1 and #2 of the accpmpanying Focused Search. But note this is distinct from the dates connected to the document’s record being processed for inclusion in the database.

Limiting by Parts of Years
For searches across parts of years, down to months and even days, Ovid recommends using the Update Code (UP) field. This field marks the date when the document’s record was added to APA PsycInfo. As the date reflects the date on which the citation was added to the database, this is not the date of either the original document’s publication or even its electronic publication in the database. Also as a phrased-indexed field (compare lines #6 and #7 in the accompanying Focused Search), the Update Code (UP) field lends itself well to truncation. So for example in the expression limit 1 to up=202501*-202502* will yield results from all of January 2025 to all of February 2025.

Practice Suggestions

1. How many records are there in APA PsycInfo on Ovid whose publication date is in the 1700s? Is the search syntax the same for a similar search in Ovid MEDLINE? 
2. Is the last record in APA PsycInfo on Ovid the oldest record in the database? Is the last record available in full text? How could you establish this?
3. How could you use date range searching to illustrate the rapid rise of articles in APA PsycInfo on Ovid that discuss the role of ChatGPT in health care?

Search Stategy

Copy Strategy Launch Search

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:

Ovid Support: How can I limit search results by a date range in Ovid?
https://wkhlrp.my.site.com/ovidsupport/s/article/Limit-by-date-range-in-Ovid

---

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 – Limiting Searches To Time Spans (Date Range Searching) [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=117