Back in 1984 when I got everything done for my dissertation,
I submitted a copy of the bound volume to Dissertation Abstracts
International (DAI) at the University of Michigan. In subsequent
years, DAI was purchased by a variety of companies (see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissertations_Abstracts )
and its present form is Proquest Dissertations (at NYU there is
a "Plus" version plus some specialized area databases).
In the earlier version of DAI my dissertation has 1985 as the
date of "publication" but the Proquest database correctly
lists it as 1984.
However, when I use PsycInfo, it lists 1985 as the date for the
dissertation. Now, outside of a small circle of friends, I don't think
anyone cares that there is a discrepancy. But I've just finished
a book review of a Festschrift for Richard Shiffrin and cited his
dissertation in the context of discussing the Atkinson & Shiffrin
model. Below are the two references for Shiffrin's dissertation
that I found:
Shiffrin, R. M. (1968). Search and retrieval processes in long-term
memory. (Order No. 6908266). Available from ProQuest Dissertations
& Theses Global. (302384613).
Shiffrin, R. M. (1969). Search and retrieval processes in long-term
memory. Dissertation Abstracts International, 29(11-B), 4414. (from
PsycInfo)
NOTE: In the second ref I have "(from PsycInfo)" as a reminder for where
I obtained the reference -- it's inclusion would be a violation of APA
style.
The Shiffrin entry has the same problem that my dissertation has. I had
included both in my reference list and would decide which to use later.
But I forgot about this issue until a copy editor contacted me about
which
reference should be used. I went with the Proquest 1968 version
because articles by Atkinson & Shiffrin in the late 1960s use 1968 for
the Shiffrin dissertation.
The question remains as to why the discrepancy exists. The PsycInfo
entry says the dissertation is in DAI which should be the entry of
record
but the date is wrong (does 1969 reflect when it was published in the
paper version of DAI in contrast to the year that dissertation was
accepted for the Ph.D., usually representing the graduation date as
well?).
I've pointed this out to APA but I'm not sanguine about anything being
done to reconcile the two sources.
So, which source do you use and tell your students to use? I don't
know how wide spread the problem is but I do know it affects citing
my dissertation. Without additional information, how is one to know
which year is correct?
On a sidenote: APA originally had book reviews published in the
journal "Contemporary Psychology" but Wikipedia says that in 2004
the name was changed to "PsycCritiques". This was more than just
a name change because PsycCritiques is actually a database of
book reviews that is indexed like a journal but is not exactly treated
as a journal.
Web of Science (WoS) is often used to identify "official
publications" (as defined by meeting criteria for inclusion in
the WoS database of sources) and provide citation statistics
(e.g., h-number, number of citations, etc.) includes "Contemporary
Psychology" in its database (a 1990 book review I wrote reliably
pops up) but it does not include book reviews published in
PsycCritiques.
When queried, I was told by WoS that PsycCritiques is not a
journal, hence, not included. This means that old "Contemporary
Psychology" book reviews are included in the publication
count but recent reviews in PsycCritiques are not.
PsycInfo includes all book reviews in PsycCritiques and
"Contemporary Psychology" but APA has recently changed
the title of "Contemporary Psychology" entries to PsycCritiques.
So, my 1990 book review is identified as being published in
PsycCritiques. I understand the desire for consistency but
I think this is just wrong. If you were citing a book review,
would you use the current citation version in PsycInfo or the
more accurate WoS version?
Morale: Don't accept entries in publication databases as
definitive because they may be off in one or more details.
-Mike Palij
New York University
[email protected]
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