PsycINFO is a database of abstracts of literature in the field of psychology. It is produced by the American Psychological Association and distributed on the association's APA PsycNET and through third-party vendors. It is the electronic version of the now-ceased Psychological Abstracts. In 2000 it absorbed PsycLIT which had been published on CD-ROM.
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