"PsycINFO is the American Psychological Association's (APA) renowned resource for abstracts of scholarly journal articles, book chapters, books, and dissertations. It is the largest resource devoted to peer-reviewed literature in behavioral science and mental health, and contains over 3 million citations and summaries..., with one of the highest DOI matching rates in the publishing industry." (About the Database: APA PsycINFO, n.d.)
"Ninety-nine percent of its content is peer-reviewed." (APA PsycINFO, n.d.)
Because of the interdisciplinary nature of research in the behavioral sciences, APA PsycINFO's coverage (in addition to its thorough coverage of psychological research) includes references to research in the following disciplines:
• "medicine,
• psychiatry,
• nursing,
• sociology,
• education,
• pharmacology...,
• anthropology,
• business,
• law...." (PsycINFO, n.d.)
This database provides substantial coverage of behavioral instruments and possesses excellent tools for locating references in the record.
Where comprehensiveness of results is desired, the best strategy for searching this database for instruments is an All Text nested "OR" search.
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References
The Tests & Measures limiter screens for the presence of instruments in records corresponding to your search strategy.
To use,
1) Scroll though the Limit your results section of the Search Options menu (in Advanced Search)
2) Locate the Tests & Measures search box
3) Enter your topic search terms in the Tests & Measures search box
4) Click the Search button to initiate your search
To nested "OR" Abstract-search APA PsycINFO for instruments,
1) Enter your topic search terms in the first search box
2) In the next search box, enter the following search strategy: "Survey* OR Questionnaire* OR Scale* OR Inventor*"
3) In the adjacent drop-down menu (to the strategy you just entered) scroll down and select (click to highlight) AB Abstract.
4) Click the Search button to initiate the search.
To Subject search APA PsycINFO for instruments using the "Measurements" broad subject term,
1) Enter your topic search terms in the first search box
2) In the next search box, enter the subject term "Measurements"
3) In the adjacent drop-down menu (to "Measurements") scroll down and select SU Subjects.
4) Click the Search button to initiate the search.
To nested "OR" All Text-search APA PsycINFO for instruments,
1) Enter your topic search terms in the first search box
2) In the next search box, enter the following search strategy: "Survey* OR Questionnaire* OR Scale* OR Inventor*"
3) In the adjacent drop-down menu (to the strategy you just entered) scroll down and select (click to highlight) TX All Text.
4) Click the Search button to initiate the search.
The best place to locate instrument references in a APA PsycINFO record is the Tests & Measures field of the record.
The Tests & Measures field itemizes every behavioral instrument used to collect data as identified by study authors in the methods section of the article.
This information is also frequently presented in the Abstract field. But the Instrumentation field is generally more thorough and presents the information in a more structured, less cluttered format than the abstract.
Above is the Tests & Measures field data for the record Yeun, E. J., Baek, S., & Kim, H. (2013). Health promotion behavior in middle-aged Koreans: A cross sectional survey. Nursing & Health Sciences, 15(4), 461-467. doi: 10.1111/nhs.12056
Notice the Tests & Measures field lists the three instruments used to collect the data and provides searchable DOI links to instrument full text (where available).
Where DOI links are not available, Google search the titles of the instruments and you will frequently locate the custodial research agency or institution that manages access to the instrument.