Literature Searches
& Using Databases

To get to the primary databases in clinical psychology, use this link: PGSP Clinical Psychology Databases

To access the DSM online and the free Book of the Month, use this link: www.psychiatryonline.com

Psychology Databases

The main database for doing literature searches to find journal articles in psychology is PsycINFO.

When you go to PsycINFO through the link above, all of the databases related to psychology will be linked into PsycINFO, and all of the fulltext online articles will also be linked into PsycINFO.

As you do your search, if you see a link that says "Check LinkSource...", click on it, because it will show you additional fulltext online sources for the article or will show you the PGSP journal list so you can check to see if we have the journal on the shelves in the library.

You can also choose to include Medline in your search. Medline, which is the same database as PubMed, includes medical and psychiatry journal citations, though some psychiatry journals are also covered by PsycINFO. To include Medline in your search, click on the link above that goes to PsycINFO, then check the box next to Medline and then click the Continue button.

For a more complete guide to using the Psychology databases, see the Tutorial on doing a lit search (PDF).

To Find a Dissertation

If you see a citation in PsycINFO or in a book or journal article that refers to a dissertation (you’ll know because it will have the word dissertation in the citation), then you can sometimes download the entire dissertation to your computer in Acrobat PDF format.

Dissertations written after 1996 are often available for download in PDF format in the database called ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Fulltext

If you want to find a PGSP dissertation in the ProQuest database, simply type some keywords into the first box, then enter Pacific Graduate in the second box and choose School name/code in the drop down menu next to the second box.

You can also borrow a printed copy of any PGSP dissertation in the library.

To Find Legal and Business Articles and Legal Cases

PGSP Library also offers access to the LexisNexis legal and business database

To Find Tests and Measurement Instruments

We have many tests and measurement instruments in our library collection – to see if we have a test or measurement instrument, use the library catalog or consult with the PGSP librarian Scott Hines

If PGSP does not own the test or measurement instrument, you can use other sources to get information:

Some tests and measurement instruments are published by test publishers and you can find information on those tests by using the database called Mental Measurements Yearbook

Mental Measurements Yearbook database lets you search by a keyword or name of the test and gives you a description of the test and sometimes a review of the test, but since it covers tests that are published by test publishers who make money by selling the tests, you won’t find the actual test in this database.

We do have one book in the library called Measures for Clinical Practice that does present actual tests with administration and scoring information, but it covers only a small number of tests.

Usually the only way to get a test is to do a search in the PsycINFO database and find the journal article in which the test was originally described or find at least the author’s name and affiliation and then email the author to request a copy of the measurement instrument.

Other Databases

ProQuest Research Library
For research outside the area of Psychology, use ProQuest Research LibraryT. This database covers many academic subjects, including arts and humanities, business, social, physical, and biological sciences, history, law, political science, and literature, and also includes popular magazines and newspapers. It includes fulltext articles in all of these areas. (For research within psychology or medicine, use the psycINFO link at the top of this page.)

ebrary Electronic Books
ebrary Academic Complete is a book database from ebrary that offers full-text online access to over 20,000 authoritative titles with concentrations in Business & Economics, Computers & Technology, Humanities, the Social Sciences, and more.

ProQuest Psychology Journals Full Text Database
This database is linked into our PsycINFO database, so there's no need to search it separately unless there is a problem with PsycINFO.

PubMed Database
PubMed, a free service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine, includes over 15 million citations for biomedical articles back to the 1950's. These citations are from MEDLINE, which we provide to you along with PsycINFO through the PsycINFO link above on this webpage.