Frequently Asked Questions About PsycEXTRA®
What is PsycEXTRA?
PsycEXTRA® is a bibliographic and full-text database of content from a variety of highly regarded sources for "gray" literature in psychology, behavioral sciences, and health. It provides key information for clinicians, researchers, information professionals, policy makers, and consumers.
What is "gray" literature?
Gray literature is generally material for professional or lay audiences that is often difficult to find because it is disseminated outside the traditional peer-reviewed journal or scholarly book. Librarians have called this literature "ephemeral" or "fugitive" because it often appears only fleetingly. Materials include conference papers, research reports, policy statements, standards, newsletters, magazines, newspapers, brochures, fact sheets, annual reports and more.
This literature is diverse, ranging from brief consumer education materials to very substantive, rigorously researched, and lengthy documents. Some are peer reviewed and some are not. The work of many researchers is found in gray literature well in advance of any formal, peer-reviewed publication. Some researchers do not submit their work to scholarly publications; consequently, the results of their research can be found only in the gray literature.
Who produces PsycEXTRA?
PsycINFO®, a division of the APA, produces PsycEXTRA. PsycINFO is the most comprehensive and authoritative publisher of bibliographic reference sources that cover scholarly and peer-reviewed publications in psychology and related disciplines. The division also produces the electronic versions of APA journals and books in the PsycARTICLES® and PsycBOOKS® databases, as well as the PsycCRITIQUES® database of book and film reviews.
How does PsycEXTRA differ from the PsycINFO database?
PsycINFO includes bibliographic data and abstracts from scholarly, peer-reviewed sources. PsycEXTRA does not contain data from scholarly, peer-reviewed journals, so there is no overlap with PsycINFO. In addition to bibliographic data and abstracts, PsycEXTRA also contains full-text content for a large percentage of documents covered.
Who is the intended audience for PsycEXTRA?
The potential users of PsycEXTRA include major research libraries, public libraries, community colleges, secondary schools, community mental health centers, hospitals, major psychological associations, information professionals, researchers, and the general public.
How much retrospective coverage does PsycEXTRA have?
Many of the document types covered in PsycEXTRA such as conference papers, technical reports, brochures, and facts sheets are one-time publications. No retrospective coverage can be provided for these, although original documents are retained in the database along with any updated or revised editions. There is a growing body of historical material in PsycEXTRA, including all issues of the APA Monitor to volume 1. The database also includes many important early studies.
What search capabilities are available?
Each document in PsycEXTRA is indexed precisely using the Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms® to help pinpoint accuracy in retrieval. PsycEXTRA is searchable using a number of fields: Bibliographic data, abstracts, index terms, keywords, and limit fields. The full-text content is searchable for most documents in the database.
How long has PsycEXTRA been available?
PsycEXTRA was launched at the end of the second quarter of 2004.
How often is PsycEXTRA updated?
As of 2007, PsycEXTRA is updated on a bi-weekly basis.
What does access to PsycEXTRA cost?
The price of PsycEXTRA for institutions is tiered depending on the size and type of institution. Academic, K–12, public library, corporate, government, and hospital pricing are available. APA believes the data fees are very affordable. Find more details on the Site License Fees for Institutions page.
Pricing for individuals depends on whether you want an annual subscription or on-demand access. Read more on our APA Databases Access for Individuals page.
If I have relevant content to contribute, how do I submit my content to PsycEXTRA?
Just email PsycEXTRA and we will help you with the submission process. We will forward a coverage agreement for signature to be faxed or emailed back to us. Then just send us your documents. APA will evaluate your content to determine whether it can be included in PsycEXTRA.
Paper documents will be scanned, and a pdf file returned to you if you wish. Organizations that contribute a substantial amount of information will be given a single user license to PsycEXTRA to monitor their material in the database.
Is PsycEXTRA COUNTER compliant?
COUNTER is a statistics standard for reporting online usage statistics. APA PsycNET, the APA delivery platform, is fully compliant with COUNTER Release 3.
For more information visit the COUNTER Compliance page of the Librarian's Resource Center. We also have a tutorial (3 minutes, 49 seconds) that gives a detailed overview of the APA PsycNET usage statistics reports we provide and the formats in which they are available.
