Welch Medical Library Guides: Finding Research Instruments: Databases

Library Databases

There are many databases that provide access to research tools and instruments. The databases below are just some of the great resources available to Johns Hopkins University community members.

Databases

PsycINFO This link opens in a new window PsycINFO covers behavioral sciences and mental health literature for psychiatry, psychology, management, business, education, sociology, neuroscience, law, medicine and social work.

APA PsycInfo has over 1,000,000 citations from journals, books, book chapters, and technical reports on Psychology and psychological aspects of related disciplines of medicine, nursing, psychiatry, and others.

There are multiple ways to locate research tools and instruments in APAPsycInfo. Consider:

Using subject terms such as Surveys, Questionnaires, others
Setting the Index Terms to Tests & Measurements
Combining either or both of the methods above with topical subjects/keywords

APA PsycInfo is best used to see if a test exists for your search concept. If a study used any instruments or tools, they will be identified in the citation record in the Tests & Measures field.

APA PsycTests This link opens in a new window PsycTESTS®, produced by the American Psychological Association (APA), serves as a repository for a growing selection of psychological tests and measures, including thousands of actual test instruments and test items that are available for immediate download and use in research and teaching. International in scope, PsycTESTS® also provides access to an increasing number of tests that are available in languages other than English. PsycTESTS® is an authoritative source of structured information about tests of relevance to psychologists and professionals in related fields such as psychiatry, management, business, education, social science, neuroscience, law, medicine, and social work. While focused on contemporary instances of test use, coverage spans more than a century.

APA PsycTests is a repository for psychological tests and measures, including thousands of test instruments, available immediately for download and use.

There are multiple ways to locate research tools and instruments in APAPsycTests. Consider:

Searching by instrument type, methodology or administration method.
Combining those filters with keyword or subject searching

APA PsycTests can be used to identify tools for a topical area, but its greatest value lies in that the text of many of the tools can be found in the database. All records, whether they have the tool or not, will have information on availability of the tool, any costs, where to go to request permission.

CINAHL Plus with Full Text This link opens in a new window CINAHL Plus covers a range of topics on nursing and allied health with over 5.7 million records.

CINAHL is a comprehensive source for nursing and heath professions literature with over 770 journals indexed. Also included are dissertations, book chapters, other materials.

There are multiple ways to locate research tools and instruments in CINAHL. Consider:

Using CINAHL subject headings to search for ‘Research Instruments’ or ‘Research Measurement’
Set the search field to [Instrumentation], and enter keyword text into the search box.
Set the publication type to [CEU]
Set the publication type to [Questionnaire/Survey]

CINAHL is often a first choice when searching for instruments and tools. Like APA PsycInfo if an article reports using any tool, there is a field record (Instrumentation) which lists the tool(s) used.

PubMed This link opens in a new window Access to the biomedical literature provided by the National Library of Medicine (NLM).

PubMed is a biomedical database of over 30 million citations from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books.

There are multiple ways to locate research tools and instruments in PubMed. Consider:

Searching by concept and combining with:
MeSH terms such as “surveys and questionnaires”
The broader concept of “data collection”
And/Or keywords for tools and instruments
See the Search Tips page of this LibGuide for example MeSH terms and keywords.

Like APA PsycInfo or CINAHL, you can use MEDLINE/PubMed to identify if a tool exists. It can be more difficult to tease out of any given record the names of any tools used. In many cases, you may need to pull the full text to see the names of the tools.

Mental Measurements Yearbook This link opens in a new window Produced by the Buros Institute of Mental Measurements at the University of Nebraska, the Mental Measurements Yearbook™ (MMY) provides users with a comprehensive guide to over 2,700 contemporary testing instruments. Designed for an audience ranging from novice test consumers to experienced professionals, the MMY series contains information essential for a complete evaluation of test products within such diverse areas as psychology, education, business, and leadership.

Mental Measurements Yearbook is a comprehensive guide to over 2700 testing instruments. In most cases, the full instrument is not available, but contact and pricing information for the tool is provided

Keyword searching is the best method for finding research tools and instruments in Mental Measurements Yearbook.Generally, you will want to use the Mental Measurements Yearbook with Tests in Print to find contact information once you've identified a specific test. Refer to the Search Tips page of this LibGuide for example keywords.