Tests and Measures: How to Locate

Tests that are widely used in education, counseling, and industry tend to be published and sold commercially from test publishers. While these complete tests are not easily available and are frequently prohibitively expensive to acquire, sample questions or reviews can sometimes be retrieved.

There are many tests and instruments that are created primarily for research purposes and these are embedded within research sources.

Use the databases listed below to locate tests, instruments, questionnaires, surveys, scales, and other measures.

Tests and measures used for research purposes are sometimes published in journal articles.  Here are scholarly databases you can use to locate specific tests or more general testing information.

• Mental Measurements Yearbook / Tests in Print [EBSCO]

  A directory for all known commercially available tests that are currently in print in the English language. Includes full-text information about and reviews of all English-language standardized tests covering educational skills, personality, vocational aptitude, psychology, and related areas.

• PsycINFO [EBSCO]

  Since 2005 PsycInfo has used a "Tests and Measures" field. This enables you to search for a particular test used or mentioned in a PsycInfo record. Enter the name of the test in a search box. From the "select a field" menu scroll down alphabetically until you reach "Tests and Measures" and select that field for your search. You can also search for a TYPE of test, for example: "self esteem."

• ERIC (EBSCO)

  If you are looking for a specific test, enter the title of the test with quotation marks: "child behavior checklist." If you are looking for a type of test, from the Advanced Search enter keyword(s) that describe your topic in one search box, entering either "tests" or "questionnaires" as a "Publication Type" search

• Sociological Abstracts [ProQuest]

  An international database of book review citations and journal article and dissertation abstracts in the field of sociology as well as related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences.

• MEDLINE [EBSCO]

  A database of authoritative medical information that covers medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, and related topics.

• CINAHL Complete [EBSCO] 

  A database of nursing and health journals. Provides full-text access for more than 1,300 journals, and indexes more than 5,000 additional journals.
  Tip:

  Use the CINAHL heading search to find the best terms to locate sources.