Guides and databases: Psychology: Databases

Key databases for Psychology

The essential indexing and abstracting database for literature searching for Psychology, is PsycInfo. Depending on your topic it will be important to search other databases too.

A number of databases are highlighted on this page, but this list is not exhaustive. It may be useful to reference other subject guides, such as; Computer Science for Human Computer Interaction, Management, Language and Speech Sciences, Education or Neurology.

PsycINFO
See the LibrarySkills@UCL guide to Ovid. Index of literature in psychology and psychological aspects of related disciplines.

Interdisciplinary databases

Web of Science
See the LibrarySkills@UCL guide to Web of Science. Defaults to a ‘Core Collection’ search, covering the main Web of Science journals database; select 'All Databases' option from the drop down menu to cross-search all of UCL's subscribed Web of Science products, including Biosis, MEDLINE etc.
SCOPUS
See the LibrarySkills@UCL guide to Scopus. Multi-disciplinary database containing references to journal articles, conference proceedings, trade publications, book series and web resources. Please use IE 8 or higher, Google Chrome or Firefox browsers.

I would advise searching at least one of these databases as part of any literature search. Both are significant in terms of content and subject scope. Remember to check 'help' pages provided in each database, as the search operators and defaults for combining your search terms differ. Expect a large number of duplicate papers if you search both.

These services offer citation searching features and are key for bibliometrics.

Medical databases

Medline (or the freely available PubMed) would be key for the majority of literature searches for Psychology topics. Other databases may be relevant according to your research or topic area. This list is not comprehensive. See the A-Z database list for more.

The Medicine Subject Guide has a section on literature searching that covers techniques and resources that will be useful for a number of Psychology related topics and professionals.

AMED (Allied and Complementary Medicine)
See the LibrarySkills@UCL guide to Ovid. This database can be accessed by no more than 4 users at a time. Contains references to articles on allied and alternative medicine. Many of the journals covered are not indexed by any other biomedical sources.
CINAHL Plus
See the LibrarySkills@UCL guide to EBSCOhost. This database can be accessed by no more than 4 users at a time. The authoritative source of information for the professional literature of nursing, allied health, biomedicine, and healthcare.
EMBASE
See the LibrarySkills@UCL guide to Ovid. Comprehensive pharmacological and biomedical database renowned for extensive indexing of drug information.
Emcare
See the LibrarySkills@UCL guide to Ovid. Covering all nursing specialties and nursing healthcare professions Emcare includes international coverage and includes unique content not found in other nursing and allied health databases including more than a thousand journals not covered by Embase.
LILACS
LILACS is the most important and comprehensive index of scientific and technical health literature of Latin America and the Caribbean. For 26 years contributing to increase visibility, access and quality of health information in the Region.
MEDLINE (Ovid version)
See the LibrarySkills@UCL guide to Ovid. Index of journal articles from the National Library of Medicine. Covers medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, and the preclinical sciences. Includes EPub Ahead of Print citations.
PTSDpubs
PTSDpubs (previously named PILOTS) indexes articles on post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental-health consequences of traumatic events.

Services for systematic reviews

Cochrane Library
See the LibrarySkills@UCL guide to The Cochrane Library. The Cochrane Library is a collection of databases that contain different types of high-quality, independent evidence to inform healthcare decision-making. Cochrane Databases include: Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR) and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL).

EPPI-Centre
"The EPPI-Centre is a specialist centre for: (i) developing methods for systematic reviewing and synthesis of research evidence; and (ii) developing methods for the study of the use research... research synthesis and research use is across many areas of social policy including education, health, social care, developing economies, sport, environment, and crime."
more...less...
Based in the Social Science Research Unit in the Department of Social Science, UCL Institute of Education, University College London.

The website includes a knowledge library that indexes systematic reviews conducted by and supported by the EPPI-Centre.

PROSPERO: international prospective register of systematic reviews
An international database of prospectively registered systematic reviews in health and social care, welfare, public health, education, crime, justice, and international development, where there is a health related outcome. PROSPERO aims to provide a comprehensive listing of systematic reviews registered at inception to help avoid duplication and reduce opportunity for reporting bias by enabling comparison completed review with what was planned in the protocol.

Prospero is hosted by The Centre for Reviews and Dissemination, University of York. CRD is a "research department that specialises in evidence synthesis, assembling and analysing data from multiple research studies to generate policy relevant research." They provide a range of resources and publications useful for those undertaking systematic reviews.

Education (for educational psychology)

British Education Index (EBSCO)
See the LibrarySkills@UCL guide to EBSCOhost. Database of information on research, policy and practice in education and training in the UK. Particular strengths include aspects of educational policy and administration, evaluation and assessment, technology and special educational needs. Useful resource for museum education.
ERIC (EBSCO)
See the LibrarySkills@UCL guide to EBSCOhost. The Education Resource Information Center provides access to educational literature and resources. This database provides access to information from journals included in the Current Index of Journals in Education and Resources in Education Index.
ERIC (ProQuest)
Index to journal articles and research reports in education, including citation and abstract information from over 750 educational journals and related documents.

What is a database?

Library Databases

Library databases A-Z
Browse or search our databases by title, or use the Subject drop down box at the top to narrow down to databases in your subject area.

Guides for searching databases

Evidence based resources for NHS staff.
Guide to using Ovid databases
UCL subscribes to PsycInfo through the Ovid platform. See the Ovid guide for search techniques for PsycInfo, and other databases including Medline.
LibrarySkills@UCL for NHS staff
Incudes information that will be useful for a number of Psychology related topics and professionals.
LibrarySkills@UCL PubMed guide
LibrarySkills@UCL Scopus guide.
LibrarySkills@UCL Web of Science guide.
ProQuest databases

FindIt@UCL

Where you see the Findit@UCL icon, click on it to link to the full text.

Sometimes you will see a link to the publisher's site. Unless the article is open access, you might find that you can't reach the full text.

Clicking on the Findit@UCL link instead will link you to the full text via UCL's subscription access, if available.

TIP: Removing duplicate papers

When searching multiple databases, it is likely that you will find some papers multiple times. To save time, export your search results from each database search into reference management software, then remove duplicate records before reviewing the titles and abstracts. This is an important technique for systematic searches.