Skip to Main Content

Spark 001 (Avilla)

Library Research Guide for The Psychology of College Life

Comparing PsycInfo, PsycArticles, and Google Scholar

  PsycInfo PsycArticles Google Scholar
Subject Psychology (behavioral and social sciences) Psychology Many subjects including Psychology
Resources Included / Indexed

peer-reviewed journal articles (80%), books, (3%) book chapters (8%), and dissertations (12%)

*may be 1% of items that are not peer-reviewed primarily due to age

peer-reviewed journal articles articles (many peer-reviewed), books, theses, technical reports, abstracts, court options, case law, patents ...
Citations Only or Full-Text or a Mix Mix (leans more towards Citations Only) Full-Text Mix
Scope / Size ~2,500 journals; 4 million records; some historic records ~110 journals; 1/4 million records one estimate - 160 million documents indexed
Functionality date limiter, ability to limit to empirical articles, search in specific fields, citing capabilities including export to RefWorks, cited by and references information date limiter, ability to limit to empirical articles, search in specific fields, citing capabilities including export to RefWorks, cited by and references information date limiter, citing capabilities, cited by and references information

* both PsycInfo and PsycArticles are produced by the American Psychological Association (APA)