There's a new fast lane for researchers and scholars on the information super highway. The American Psychological Association (APA) has added a new electronic feature called PsycREF to its two major databases, PsycINFO (abstracts) and PsycARTICLES (APA full-text journal articles from 1988). PsycREF will speed and facilitate the way psychological research is conducted on the web.

Thanks to a this electronic innovation, PscyINFO and PsycARTICLES can now offer researchers the seamless web of information that has long been one of the promises of the information age. All abstracts and articles in these two databases are now actively linked to each other as well as to the publishing world outside APA. APA is one of the first scholarly publishers to transform its large repositories of static information into dynamic research tools. The electronic process that creates these links is called PsycREF.

PsycREF automatically adds links within each abstract in PsycINFO and at the end of each reference citation in PsycARTICLES to related primary and secondary literature. Researchers with access to these databases can now click their way from the reference list in an electronic article, to the PsycINFO abstract of a reference, and then to its APA full-text article - and back.

Enhancing Research in Psychology

By dynamically linking two of the largest repositories of information in psychology, APA has enabled psychological research to be faster and more complete than ever before. This new system will also encourage broader and more enhanced research capabilities in psychology since APA also now provides links to related primary and secondary literature published outside of APA. For instance, if PsycINFO does not have an abstract of an article cited in a reference list, it will link to the Medline abstract of that citation.

This new dynamic linking system promises to transform the way psychological research is done on the web. Until now, researchers could retrieve the information they needed through APA's databases, but if they wanted to see another article cited within the text, they would have to note the publisher, search for the publisher's web site, then click through to find the journal, and then the article -- a time-consuming process, or the web equivalent of searching though stacks of books in a library.

Now the new electronic feature of PsycREF allows APA's databases to, in most cases, include links to related material published outside of APA. These links will connect users to a page on the publisher's website showing a full bibliographical citation of the article, and, in most cases, the abstract as well. The reader can then access the full text article through the appropriate mechanism; subscribers will generally go straight to the text, while others will receive information on access via subscription, document delivery, or pay-per-view.

The Building Blocks of PsycREF: CrossREF

APA is able to embed these links in PsycINFO and PsycARTICLES through its participation in CrossRef -- a consortium of the world's leading scientific, technical, and medical publishers. CrossRef was formed out of scholarly publishers' desire to build electronic bridges among the vast stores of scholarly information that have traditionally been housed within separate publishers. CrossRef acts as a type of digital switchboard, and currently houses the electronic access information for material from over 50 publishers.

APA is one of only a handful of publishers to fully integrate the information reposited in the CrossRef system into its databases. As the primary source for electronic information in psychology, this puts APA in a position to be the central hub of research in psychology, giving scholars the ability to follow the linkages of related primary and secondary literatures across the field of psychology.

According to Linda Beebe, Senior Director, PscyINFO, making APA's databases of information more dynamic was the next step in APA's efforts to expand database performance to meet psychologists' needs. "We knew that providing links between PsycINFO and PsycARTICLES was part of a natural progression to make these critical products perform in a way that researchers want. The fact that we can now also link to the world of scholarly publishing outside of APA is an added bonus," Beebe said.

New Web Technology

In delivering this information, APA and CrossRef take advantage of a powerful new web technology known as DOI (Digital Object Identifier) technology. DOI technology is an electronic tagging system. Much like the well-known ISBN system used in book publishing, the DOI provides each abstract, journal article, book, or book chapter with a unique number. The DOI then enables each segment of information to be tracked through the web's linking system.

DOI technology avoids one of the web's most taxing problems -- broken links. Placement on the web is usually driven through URLs or "addresses," which can easily change. Because DOI technology identifies an object, and not an address, the information is permanently locatable. DOI technology enables, for the first time, the permanent recording and retrieval of information on the web.

"We're proud to be one of the first publishers to integrate this new web technology into APA's huge store of material. It took a lot of effort to figure out how this information could be integrated into our databases in a seamless manner. At the same time it's been very exciting too - this is how everyone dreamed of information delivery when the web first started. And now it's here," said Hal Warren, Director, Internet Services, APA.

According to Warren, during 2000, APA Online spent countless hours creating and electronic system (PsycREF) that would both create links between PsycINFO and PsycARTICLES and merge the linking information from other publishers into these databases.

PsycREF does not change the inherent structure of APA's databases; instead, it adds power and flexibility to them by automatically embedding links to related primary and secondary literature into APA's electronic abstracts and journal articles. These links are located at the end of each reference in an APA journal article reference list and at the bottom of PsycINFO abstracts.

Automatic Electronic Citations

The new PsycREF system also solves the problem of citing electronic material -- one of the great barriers to scholars' use of electronic information. At the beginning of each paragraph in an APA full-text article, a small gray paragraph symbol appears. When clicked, the full citation information for that paragraph will appear in a "cut and paste" screen, and in correct APA style.

Taken together, all these new features of APA's major databases have the potential to transform web-based research in psychology by giving researchers quicker access to the materials they want, a more integrated delivery system, and easily navigated connections to other scientific disciplines.

"Although some of this may seem relatively simple, the implications of linking information in this way will have a profound affect on psychology and science. Now researching will be faster, more complete, and fields will become more closely integrated. Psychology has become such a big field, that it seems like it's becoming more segmented every year. Making a true web out of scientific information will enhance mutual influences across fields like never before," said Gary VandenBos, PhD, Executive Director, Publishing and Communication, APA.

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