Handout PsycINFO and ERIC (Ebsco)
UBL Oct 2011
Handout PsycINFO and ERIC*
Introduction .................................................................................................3
1. Advanced Search ......................................................................................3
General ....................................................................................................3
Search options ..........................................................................................4
2. Searching by subject .................................................................................4
Searching through thesaurus terms .............................................................4
Searching by subject: through title words or abstract.....................................5
Person as subject ......................................................................................5
Searching for a specific author ....................................................................5
3. Combining searches: Search History............................................................5
4. Presentation of search results .....................................................................6
Setting up preferences ...............................................................................6
Result List: overview of brief records ...........................................................6
Information per record:..............................................................................6
Clustering and Limiters ..............................................................................6
Detailed record..........................................................................................7
5. Saving Results (mail, print, save)................................................................7
6. Expanding search results ...........................................................................7
7. Limiting search results ...............................................................................7
8. Cited Reference Search..............................................................................7
9. Alerts: keeping up with new publications......................................................8
UBL Oct 2011
Handout PsycINFO and ERIC*
Introduction
PsycINFO contains over 3 million bibliographic entries for journal articles,
chapters, books, dissertations and reports on the subjects of psychology and related
disciplines, covering a time frame from around 1800 until the present.
PsycINFO is maintained by the American Psychological Association (APA).
For an overview of the more than 2500 journals contained in PsycINFO, see:
http://www.apa.org/psycinfo/covlist.html. The APA also compiles the thesaurus (list
of approved keywords) which is used to provide publications with Subject Terms.
ERIC provides access to over 1.3 million bibliographic records for journal articles and
other materials related to education. The database is compiled by ERIC (Education
Resources Information Center) and sponsored by the US Department of Education.
An overview of covered journals can be found at:
http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/journalList/journalList.jsp. The thesaurus in
this database is also compiled by ERIC. The database is freely accessible through the
internet, but included in the Digital Library and provided with the possibility to gain
access to full text files.
Note:
• *ERIC and PsycINFO look very much alike. This handout will point out where
ERIC differs from PsycINFO.
• Many articles are available electronically, provided that Leiden University holds
the appropriate subscription, through Full Text PDF, Linked Full Text or SFX as an
intermediary step. This handout starts from the Advanced Search screen by
default and explains the basic steps to searching. For Visual Search,
SmartTextSearching and further information, see the database’s help section or
consult the online manual:
http://support.epnet.com/knowledge_base/detail.php?id=2564.pdf
Context specific help is available on all pages in the databases through
• Knowledge of logical (Boolean) and proximity operators is presupposed; for more
specific explanations of operators search the help pages for the terms Booleans
and proximity searches.
1. Advanced Search
General
Fill in a keyword of choice and choose the correct field from the dropdown
menu. No default operator has been set: so choose the desired operator AND, OR,
NOT to add a further search term in the following search field(s). Terms without an
operator are considered a compound term; do not use quotation marks. When using
several search fields be consistent in operator use. Avoid using different operators
(AND, OR, NOT) in one search to avoid problems with any rules of precedence for
the different operators. Combine searches afterwards through Search History; see
Combining Search Terms.
Terms can be combined in one search field in the format such as used below.
In the Search History this search is rendered as follows:
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TX (confidence or self esteem) and TX (childhood not puberty)
The brackets have automatically been placed correctly; the rules of precedence for
the operators are observed. See also Combining Searches: Search History
Search options
are opened by default, which means that the Search Modes
The
and Limits are directly available. This handout starts from the option Boolean/Phrase.
For more information on this subject, see:
2. Searching by subject
Searching by subject is possible through the thesaurus, through free text
(author terminology), through title words or a combination of the aforementioned.
Searching through thesaurus terms
Start in the screen Advanced Search. Leave the option
checked, choose the search subject as depicted below:
Suggest Subject Terms
Note: ERIC does not have the option Suggest Subject Terms.
Fill out a term of choice; click Search to subsequently choose the correct terms in the
thesaurus.
Click a fitting thesaurus term to explore the term’s composition in broader, narrower
and related terms. Terms with a + added, contain narrower terms in their turn.
Select the desired term(s) through the left column or select Major Concept* to limit
the search to publications which have the chosen term(s) as their main keyword.
Choose Explode to include the underlying terms in the search. Note: this command
only includes the first tier of underlying terms. The second tier’s narrower terms will
have to be selected separately.
Explore the thesaurus carefully to find and select the correct keywords. If necessary,
use a keyword table to note the used terms.
After selecting your terms, choose the desired operator and click
to construct
the search and then hit Search.
* In a publication’s description the thesaurus terms are found under the label
Subjects. Major Concepts are marked with a *. A maximum of 5 Major Concepts are
assigned. The asterisk is lacking for the less important thesaurus terms:
Note: ERIC does not make this distinction between Subjects and Major Subjects and
uses the term Descriptors instead of Subjects.
Naturally, the thesaurus can also be explored through the menu bar. Another way to
approach the thesaurus is through the Indexes; choose Subjects All or Subjects
Major.
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Tip: Through these indexes the numbers of results per thesaurus term can be found:
Other ways to find thesaurus terms:
• Execute a search with your own devised keywords in the field TX All Text, find
a relevant publication, open the complete record and look at which keywords
are contained in the field Subjects (PsycINFO) or Descriptors (ERIC).
• Fill in title words for a known publication and note the used thesaurus terms.
• Search directly for thesaurus terms using the fields SU Subject PART OR
EXACT THESAURUS TERM), MJ (Word in Major Subject Heading) and DE
(Exact thesaurus term).
Tip: When thesaurus terms give too few results, use free terms.
Searching by subject: free terms
free terms denote technical terms: the terminology used by authors. Fill in
the term(s) and select the fiels TXT All Text. The filled-in terms are searched for in
the publication’s title, abstract and subject fields.
Note: both databases automatically search for plural –s and possessive –s. The use
of quotation marks can circumvent this:
brain structure = brain structure and/or brain structures while “brain structure”
searches for the exact term without the plural –s.
Tip: deselect the option Suggest Subject terms when using free terms.
Searching by subject: through title words or abstract
Chose the search field TI Title or AB Abstract; choose the operator AND or fill
it in manually if the terms do not have to be found as a phrase in the title: crime and
prevention has more results than crime prevention.
Person as subject
Searches for publications on a specific person can be performed directly
through the search field SU (Subjects) or DE (Descriptors), through the thesaurus or
through the index Subjects (All) in PsycINFO or Desprictors in ERIC.
Tip: Consult the list of famous psychologists in the thesaurus through the related
terms for the term psychologists (only in PsycINFO).
Searching for a specific author
Search through
for the Author index and find the desired name.
Note: English–language databases lack a consequent approach to prefixes. The
author name van ijzendoorn, vanijzendoorn en ijzendoorn exist simutaneously. So
keep these variants in mind: search with and without prefix and as one word. Select
all the correct variants; choose Add (+ operator OR) and then hit Search to execute
your query.
Searching through the search field AU Author is also an option: again, keep in mind
the different variants. Always search through the index to gain the most complete
results.
3. Combining searches: Search History
The search history can be saved and is used to create alerts by email or RSSfeed. The edit function in the search history opens the Search Options screen.
To combine searches proceed as follows:
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If necessary, use
to remove the previous search query in the search box
above the Search History. Select the searches you wish to combine and choose the
desired operator. Remember the rules of precedence: And precedes OR; NOT
precedes both.
Check the brackets: (confidence OR self esteem) AND (childhood OR puberty)
For more information on creating alerts, see Alerts.
4. Presentation of search results
The search results refer to publications that may be available full text in
either pdf or html format. In other cases you can retrieve the publications by using
, provided that Leiden University has access to the document.
Setting up preferences
Create an account (Sign In to My Ebsco host) to save your preferences for a longer
duration. Next choose the button Preferences >> to set up and save your
preferences. For example, set the number of results per screen to maximum of 50.
Result List: overview of brief records
Records are sorted by relevance by default; open Relevance Sort for more options.
Page options offers the possibility to change the page layout, the way the results are
shown and the number of records per page.
Alert/Save/Share shows a number of options to temporarily save results; to create
an alert o to share through social bookmarking. The persistent link can be
copy/pasted into a document or email, but will only work inside the Leiden University
network. In addition a link can be send via email to save the selected references (up
to a maximum of 5000) as a text document later (within 36 hours; using the righthand mouse button: view with Notepad), so they can be exported to a bibliographic
manager such as Endnote or Reference Manager. See, p. 7: Save results.
Information per record:
Use the Add to folder button to temporarily save records.
Consult the cited references through Cited References:(n) and see the citing
references through Times cited in this Database: (n) if present. For more information
see the paragraph Cited Reference Search.
Note: These links are not available in ERIC. The references used in the ERIC
database are only visible in the article’s full text.
Clustering and Limiters
The left-hand column shows all the possibilities available to cluster and refine the
search results. Open Show more to see all the options and click Update to confirm
changes. The subsets are added to the Search History. These possibilities differ per
database. The folded out “bread box” shows the current search:
To change a search more fundamentally, you can open the
Search History > Edit.
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Detailed record
Open the detailed record view from the results list by clicking the title. In
some of the fields links are included so searches by author, source title and Subjects
or Descriptors (thesaurus terms) are easily managed. Note: These searches will not
be added to the Search History, to add them click Search again.
To limit the search go to Refine Search in
The left-hand column contains the links to the full text (pdf, html) or to the SFX and
to the Cited References. The right-hand column Tools shows the options for saving,
exporting to bibliographic managers, printing etc.
To create a Note an account is required. The button Cite shows the layout of the
publication in different styles. Check these with the official style guide.
5. Saving Results (mail, print, save)
From the Result List: in the result screen select one or more records and click
Next open the
for the following options
which are: print,
mail, save and exporting to Endnote or Reference Manager.
From the full record: click the desired function in the right-hand column.
Tip: to export large numbers of references to Endnote or Reference Manager you can
click the option email a link to download exported results (up to…) which is found in
the results list via Alert/Save/Share > under Export Results. Next choose Endnote,
Procite, or Reference Manager format and fill in your email address. De link you
receive in your inbox will be valid for 36 hours. Open the link and right-click with
your mouse; choose view with notepad and save the document - the extension is .txt.
Choose to import the references the filter Reference Manager/RIS (Endnote) or
Ris.cap (Reference Manager).
6. Expanding search results
Use more synonyms, broader or related terms and combine with the operator
OR. Use free terms if thesaurus terms give too few results.
Use the option Apply related words (found through Search Options) to expand the
search with synonyms and plurals. Note: the function Suggest Subject Terms
(PsycINFO only) does not work when using this option.
Use ? (wildcard) or * (truncation sign). The ? replaces every unknown letter:
organi?ation searches for organization and organization. De * is placed after a word
stem to find all derived forms: infect* finds infectious, infection, infective, infected.
7. Limiting search results
Search results can be limited in several ways. For example, use the operator
AND to capture all the aspects of a search query.
Use proximity operators (proximity search) such as N (near) and W (within).
Use the Search Options for a new search query, Refine results from the search result
or the edit function in the Search History. For example, in PsycINFO you can use the
option to exclude dissertation abstracts and/or the option to search for publications
on a specific age group (PsycINFO) or educational level (ERIC). Click Save to save
the limiters; click Reset to undo the limitations.
8. Cited Reference Search
Using the button Cited Reference Search (PsycINFO) publications are found
through searching cited references which cite a specific author, preferably in
combination with a specific journal title or publication. Select the desired references
and choose Find Citing Articles to finish the search.
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9. Alerts: keeping up with new publications
Execute the desired searches and in the Search History hit
Note: An alert can only be created from the last search query. This last, usually
combined search can not consist of set numbers!
Create a personal account through Sign In to My Ebsco host or log in to an existing
account. Fill in the required fields and choose Alert, hit Save and further fill in the
form. Pick a limited period or No Limit for the question Articles published within the
last … An alert stays valid for the maximum duration of a year. Choose the
bibliographic and plain text layout; undo the selection of Limit EBSCOhost access to
only the articles sent. Fill in your email address and click Save.
Note: A maximum of 1200 records will be sent after mailing an alert.
To import emailed records into Reference Manager use filter located at
http://www.library.leiden.edu/help/manuals-demos/manuals-demos-searching.html
under bibliographic software.
UBL Oct 2011