Business Source Complete (FTD)
CINAHL Complete (FTD)
Cochrane Library (FTD)
ERIC (selective FTD)
Health and Psychosocial Instruments (HaPI) (IOD)
Health Business Elite (FTD)
Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition (FTD)
MEDLINE (selective FTD)
Mental Measurements Yearbook (FTD)
ProQuest Digital Dissertations and Theses (FTD)
PsycINFO (FTD)
SPORTDiscus with Full Text (FTD)
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Use the links above to navigate to instructional pages for each resource.
This guide will show you how to locate information about survey instruments and questionnaires using the resources available to you through the UT Tyler Library.
Many databases contain behavioral instrument references.
It's important to bear the following points in mind as you work your way through this guide:
The Importance of Searching Multiple Databases
No single database covers the literature of survey instruments and questionnaires exhaustively or comprehensively.
All of the databases listed in this guide have gaps in their coverage.
So, you will most likely need to search across several of them to ensure that you don't miss important resources.
Different Levels of Access
Some of the databases listed on this guide may provide full text access to the instruments themselves. Some only index these resources.
So it's important to understand the distinction between Full Text and Index Only databases.
• Index Only Databases (IOD) make research literature "discoverable" or "findable," but they don't bring the documents to you.
Like a radar array, they make resources 'visible' by showing you what has been published on a topic.
But you have to go and find the text of the documents yourself.
• Full Text Databases (FTD) both make resources "discoverable" and make them immediately accessible to you...usually through a pdf or html full text link embedded in the record.
1) Discovering relevant instrument references.
2) Locating instrument full text.
3) Determining the copyright status of instruments.
4) Securing permission for use of the instrument.
The table below indicates the instrument information each resource is best suited to supply.
| Instrument References | Instrument Full Text | Psychometrics | Corresponding Author Information¹ | |
| APA PsycINFO | yes | no | yes | yes |
| Business Source Complete | yes | no | yes | yes |
| CINAHL Complete | yes | no | yes | no |
| ERIC | yes | no | yes | no |
| Google (Web Crawler) | yes² | yes | no | no |
| Health and Psychosocial Instruments | yes | no | yes | no |
| Health Business Elite | yes | no | yes | no |
| Health Source: Nursing/Academic Ed. | yes | no | yes | yes (2013-) |
| MEDLINE | yes | no | yes | yes |
| Mental Measurements Yearbook | yes | no | yes | n/a |
| ProQuest Digital Dissertations and Theses | no | yes | no | no |
| SocINDEX | yes | no | yes | yes |
| SPORTDiscus | yes | no | yes | yes |
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¹ Itemized in the bibliographic record for the article. Authors of joint-authored studies will usually stipulate a corresponding author in their title page. But going through full text of each article to locate this information can be time consuming. This criterion specifically rates the databases on the degree to which they assist researchers in readily finding this information. Some databases are exceptionally helpful to researchers by embedding this information in their bibliographic records.
² Extremely variable content. Google search will retrieve instrument references. But the formats vary so widely (from PubMed records to web pages to book chapters) that it can be hard to follow. Furthermore, Google search results display is plagued by ergonomic issues that render it visually difficult to navigate.