e‐psyche

Linda Oliver (Peterson AFB Library, USA)

Online Information Review

ISSN: 1468-4527

Article publication date: 1 August 2001

51

Citation

Oliver, L. (2001), "e‐psyche", Online Information Review, Vol. 25 No. 4, pp. 271-279. https://doi.org/10.1108/oir.2001.25.4.271.9

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited


e‐psyche is a searchable database which provides access to records from over 4,000 psychology‐related journals. Designed for use by academic and research libraries and updated weekly, e‐psyche has a source list that includes a wide variety of scholarly journals that should be useful to students and professionals alike. Some “popular” (as opposed to scholarly) titles are also included; these can provide information for individuals who wish to read for personal rather than research purposes. Planned additions to the database include records for newsletters, dissertations, technical reports, conference proceedings and indexed Web sites. More information can be obtained from the database producers at http://www. e‐psyche.net.

The user interface is open, straightforward and uncluttered. Directions are clear and simply stated, and the search engine works efficiently, supporting keyword, natural language, advanced, and “expert” search modes. Boolean operators can be used, and results can be limited by journal, population group, age group, publication year and more. While e‐psyche contains only bibliographic records (including abstracts), if the library also subscribes to one of EBSCO’s full‐text databases, such as Academic Search Elite, links will be provided between the two databases so that full‐text articles can be retrieved directly from within e‐psyche. For example, searching on the keywords “obsessive‐compulsive disorder” yielded a list of 61 journal articles, six of which can be retrieved in full‐text via links to Academic Search Elite. Clicking on a title leads to a detailed citation and abstract, along with a list of related topics, which link to additional articles. Related subject links in this case included “obsessive‐compulsive neurosis”, “personality disorders”, “disabilities” and “anxiety”.

The best known source with similar topic coverage is the American Psychological Association’s PsycINFO database. While e‐psyche does not possess as large a backfile as PsycINFO, it has a wider array of titles, since it does include popular titles. For this reason, e‐psyche can be a more cost‐effective source, particularly if the backfile is not needed. (PsycINFO contains records from as far back as the nineteenth century; e‐psyche goes back to 1998.) While the e‐psyche producers are not currently planning to provide full‐text articles, EBSCO will continue to develop links to full‐text items in their other databases. It is recommended for academic libraries for which e‐psyche’s features meet user needs.

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