PSYC INFO VOLUME 24 NUMBER 2 SPECIAL ISSUE

PsycEXTRA™, the Gateway to Gray Literature, Crosses the Threshold to New Sources of Research ray literature has been used by organizations in the sciences for many years. Since the advent of the Web, large and small groups like societies, universities, and government agencies, have identified information and have classified small “collections” for use on their proprietary Web sites. Today, with millions of Web sites, and an equal amount of “unpublished” literature, finding gray literature in specific subject areas has become more challenging. Searching a topic on a Web search engine brings up hundreds, if not thousands of results, but how does a researcher determine the credibility of the publishing organization or source?

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Discovery Reliability Availability

PsycEXTRA™, the gray literature resource from the American Psychological Association, was developed to overcome these hurdles in the areas of psychology and the behavioral sciences. Because the database encompasses a vast pool of material published outside the traditional peer-reviewed publication, it provides a gateway for hard-to-find resources.

Research Challenges Gray literature, by its very nature, poses three major research challenges that PsycEXTRA can help overcome. It’s often difficult to learn about these information items and they may elude the researcher if not widely available. PsycEXTRA incorporates the precise indexing that PsycINFO users are accustomed to, which makes the discovery process easy. Another challenge searching for gray literature poses is the reliability of the source. PsycEXTRA

content is selected according to criteria established by PsycINFO to assure that it comes from reputable sources. Often material appears on a Web site one day, but may disappear without notice. PsycEXTRA addresses the issue of availability because it includes and permanently archives the full text whenever possible. Researchers can be assured that any content they find one day will be there when they go back the next time. This special issue was published to help you learn more about PsycEXTRA and how you can use this rich resource to enhance research.

Pinpointing Content “As we’ve been talking with academic and public librarians, they tell us that this kind of literature is very valuable to researchers — but it’s hard to find because it’s scattered on hundreds of Web sites and in print publications from organizations

PSYCINFO like yours. It’s like finding a needle in the haystack. Our members, especially the academics, tell us the same thing,” said Linda Beebe, Senior Director of PsycINFO. When the materials are organized in collections, the content is frequently unavailable to the research public. Putting them in one database and classifying and indexing them with psychological terms makes it much easier for researchers to find the content they’re looking for.

Selection In the March 2004 issue of the C&RL News, Brian S. Mathews addressed the fact that gray literature, while it has its place, is still part of the uncharted world of the Internet.

“The greatest challenges involved with these items [gray literature] are the process of identification, since there is limited indexing, and acquisition, since availability is usually marred with uncertainty. Added to this is the absence of editorial control, raising questions about authenticity and reliability.” — Brian Mathews, Resources for Locating Unpublished Research, C&RL News, March 2004, Vol. 65, No. 3 The author pointed out that without appropriate process for selection and evaluation, gray literature can be a relatively questionable resource. As researchers pursue the Internet as a source of material for papers, credibility and reliability of the data have become real concerns. To alleviate this, PsycEXTRA follows the strict selection standards established by APA. APA carefully selects content providers well-respected for research in specific areas relevant to the behavioral sciences and the related disciplines. The content management team evaluates content based on its quality, relevance, and provenance.

Full-text Availability In the database’s initial release, 45% of the content will be available in full-text content. That percentage will grow dramatically over time as new sources are added. At launch, PsycEXTRA included more than 40,000 records the equivalent of over 100,000 PDF pages. The database will be updated bi-weekly through the end of 2004 and weekly beginning in 2005. In addition, each bibliographic record will also include a link to the content provider Web site, which is particularly useful to find other relevant information about the source of the documents.

Scope of Coverage This robust database comprises content from a wide array of credible material issued by private research institutes, corporations, government and military agencies, scientific societies, health organizations, and more. PsycEXTRA provides a gateway to volumes of materials from research documents to policy statements, consumer brochures, conference papers, curricula, daily newspapers, directories, fact sheets, newsletters, pamphlets, position papers, professional magazines, standards, videos, and reports. It also includes selected articles from popular magazines and newspapers, as well as APA’s Monitor and gradPsych. A complete list of document types can be found below. Because this information is disseminated outside of peer-reviewed journals, there is no overlap with the PsycINFO database. PsycEXTRA differs from the PsycINFO database in its format as well, because it includes abstracts and citations plus the full text for many records.

Document Types

Reports — Annual , Government, Te chnical Conference Abstr acts and Papers Curricula Data Sets Standards Fact Sheets and Pa mphlets Newsletters Policy Statements and Amicus Briefs Bibliographies Directories Newspapers and Po pular Magazines (a bstracts only except for APA pu blications) Videos (nearly 4,00 0 from the PsycVI DEO database)

Precise Search and Retrieval PsycEXTRA uses the familiar search interface PsycINFO users know, eliminating the need to learn a new interface. The precise indexing that PsycINFO users are accustomed to makes the discovery process easy. All records include a bibliographic citation, an original abstract of the content and, if available, the full text. In addition, the database includes a number of search features that make your retrieval as precise as possible.

PSYCINFO Search Your Concept in the Following Fields All Fields Author Author Affiliation Document Title Content Owner Abstract Keywords Index Terms Unique Identifier Classification Code Language Availability Geographic Location Limit Your Concept by Document Type Brochures, Pamphlets, Fact Sheets Bibliographies Directories Conference Abstracts or Papers Data Sets Amicus Briefs, Standards, Policies, Press Releases Newsletters Magazines, Newspapers Reports Curricula Videos

Limit Your Concept by Population Human Animal Female Male Inpatient Outpatient Limit Your Concept by Age Group Childhood (birth to 12 yrs) Neonatal (birth to 1 mo) Infancy (2-23 mo) Preschool Age (2 to 5 yrs) School Age (6 t o12 yrs) Adolescent (13 to 17 yrs) Adulthood (18 yrs & older) Young Adulthood (18 to 29 yrs) Thirties (30 to 39 yrs) Middle Age (40 to 64 yrs) Aged (65 yrs & older) Very Old (85 yrs & older)

PsycEXTRA Allows for Precise Search and Retrieval

Use Boolean Operators AND OR NOT

Parent and Child Records PsycEXTRA also has the ability to link parent and child records. For example, a parent record for a newsletter will include the table of contents and related articles, allowing the researcher to find their selection or browse additional articles that may be of interest. If the researcher finds an article from a serial or a monograph in a search, there is a link to the parent record in case they want to see the rest of the content in that document.

PSYCINFO American Psychological Association 750 First Street, NE Washington, DC 20002-4242 800-374-2722 or 202-336-5650 [email protected]

Site Licenses Available PsycEXTRA will be available on an annual site license basis on APA and EBSCO. To learn more about PsycEXTRA and how you can start your free trial, visit the APA Web site at http://www.apa.org/psycextra/.