Topic: Systematic Searching for Evidence Synthesis

APA PsycInfo is the core database for research in psychology. Our access to this database is on a searching platform called EBSCO. On this platform, you use the the drop-down menus next to each search box to tell APA PsycInfo where in the information about the source (the database record) you want it to search.

APA PsycInfo, like many research databases, has its own controlled vocabulary, or standardized language, that it uses to label sources. The controlled vocabulary in APA PsycInfo is called the APA Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms. You can find a link for it in the navigation bar at the top of APA PsycInfo. In the database records, these terms are displayed in the subjects field

Some important notes:

1. The APA Thesaurus defaults to an alphabetical search. Be sure to select the Relevancy Ranked radio button underneath the thesaurus search box to do a keyword search of the controlled vocabulary.
2. If the thesaurus has a preferred term, you'll see what words it does not prefer under "Used for." You can incorporate those alternative terms as keywords in your search to ensure you capture as many potentially relevant results as possible.
3. The Thesaurus is hierarchical. Sources in APA PsycInfo are typically labeled with the narrowest relevant subject. When searching the Thesaurus, you can see where a subject falls in the hierarchical tree, and you may wish to include as subjects or keywords the broader, narrower, or related terms you see there.

Truncation

Truncation is searching for any ending of a word. In APA PsycInfo, use an * (asterisk) to replace one or more characters at the end of a string of letters. For example, mindful* finds mindful or mindfulness.

Wildcards

Wildcards can replace one or more characters. APA PsycInfo offers three different wildcard options.

* (asterisk): In addition to truncation, the * can be used within a word to find multiple characters. For example, hea*one finds headphone, headstone, or hearthstone.

# (hash or pound sign): The # can be used for words where an alternate spelling may have one extra character. For example, p#edatric finds pediatric or paediatric.

? (question mark): The ? replaces only one unknown character in a word. For example, ne?t finds neat, nest, or next. The ? can't be used at the end of a string of characters; for that, use the * to truncate. 

Single Words

In APA PsycInfo and other databases on the EBSCO platform, a single word should be enclosed in quotation marks to avoid the database automatically searching for plural, possessive, and some other forms. For example, teach will search for teach OR teaches. "teach" searches only that exact string of characters. 

Phrase Searching

APA PsycInfo requires you to use quotation marks around phrases to ensure the words are searched next to each other in that exact order. For example, if you're interested in low back pain, you need to search for "low back pain" if you want that to be the exact phrase found in your results. You can use truncation and other special characters inside the quotation marks, so you can also try "low* back pain" to ensure you get articles about lower back pain.

Proximity Searching

In proximity or adjacency searching, you can tell the database to look for words near each other in a variety of ways. It's essential when you do this type of searching that you use parentheses to group terms accurately!

Near, which uses the letter N, is one proximity operator. Near finds words if they are a maximum of a certain number of words apart from one another, regardless of the order in which they appear. You decide the number. For example, teaching N3 strateg* will find results that have a maximum of three words between the beginning and ending terms. You'll find results that mention teaching strategy, teaching strategies, or strategies often used for teaching. Note that you can use truncation and other syntax when employing proximity searching. That means you could also try something like mindfulness N5 "classroom management" or even, using parentheses to properly group your keywords, mindfulness N5 (anxiety OR depression).

Within, which uses the letter W, finds words if they are within a certain number of words of one another, in the order in which you entered them. For example, class* W2 manag* would find classroom management, classroom must be managed, but not managing your class.

You don't have to do proximity searching! But it can save you a lot of typing and create cleaner searches that are easier to read.

Some helpful terminology here: a database includes many records. Each record is a collection of information about a single item, such as an article. Records are made up of fields, sections of the record that provides a specific piece of information about the item described (the title, the author, the abstract, etc.).

Which fields interest you, and how they're searched, differs from database to database. In APA PsycInfo, you'll likely want to search the following fields:

• Abstract (or AB) searches the abstract summaries
• Keywords (or KW) searches in the author-supplied keywords
• Title (or TI) searches in the document title
• Subjects (or SU) searches within the Thesaurus's subject headings*

In general, your best strategy is to set up each main idea as a single search, then combine the ideas with AND. The approach below has you use OR to look for the exact same terms in each desired field. In this case you need a fourth search box to include all fields, so click the plus sign slightly below the Search button to add a row. Then compose your search like this, generally using the exact same search statement (this OR this OR this) in each box.

After you've completed all your main idea searches, go to the Search History (directly under the final search box in the image above) and combine all the main ideas using AND. In APA PsycInfo, each search as an S (for Set). Clear all your search boxes and drop-downs at the top and then type, for example, S1 AND S2 AND S3.

*There are two ways to build the part of your search that looks at APA PsycInfo's controlled vocabulary. One is to follow the steps listed above, which searches for all your terms within the Subjects field, but doesn't require an exact match. It's less complex to execute, but is not as precise and may not be as thorough. The other approach is to use the Thesaurus to add terms to the search box, and then combine that search with your title/abstract/keyword search using OR between the two. After that, you'll use AND to link your concept searches together. You can consult your librarian for guidance on that approach.

To export all results from an APA PsycInfo search, up to 25,000 citations, tap the Share button at the top right of your search results. At the bottom of the pop-up box, choose the link under Export results.

Leaving the Email from box as is, enter your email in the Email to box. Under E-mail a link to a file with citations in: choose RIS Format. Then tap the Send button.

Shortly you'll receive an email containing a link to a zip file. When you download and extract the zip file, the RIS file will be inside. You can import the RIS file into the citation management tool of your choice.

To view your search history during an APA PsycInfo session, select Search History under the search boxes.

On the Search History/Alerts page, choose Print Search History.

Once it's displayed for printing, you can copy the text on the page and paste it into a document or spreadsheet. It may require some cleaning up to be conveniently readable.