Research Guides: Scholarly Communication: Tests & Measurement Resources

Finding Tests through Google

Once you've identified a test from a journal article, you might find the actual instrument through Google.

Getting permission to use a test

Use Google to find the test and to see if you can identify the rights holder.

If the test is commercially available, you may need to purchase rights to use the test.

If the test is unpublished (typically one that you have found in a journal article), you should contact the author of the article to seek permission.

Databases

The following are not databases of actual tests and measurement tools. Rather, they are databases of articles/studies that have used certain tests and tools.

Use some of the same search strategies that you would to find any journal article. To narrow your search to articles that include test or survey instruments, some additional strategies are listed with each database description below.

CINAHL Ultimate
This database includes journals from the fields of nursing and allied health. There are several search strategies to use to find articles that include research instruments. 1. Use the drop-down menu to select IN Instrumentation and enter the most unique word in the instrument name. 2. Do a regular keyword search and then limit the results by Publication Type to: Questionnaire/Scale and Research Instrument(s)
Dissertations & Theses
This is not actually a test database, but it can be useful in the search for appropriate research instruments. The database contains full text of dissertations accepted for doctoral degrees by accredited North American educational institutions and over 200 other institutions. Also contains some masters' theses, although many fewer. If a doctoral student developed an instrument to use in their dissertation research, this will probably give you access. It's often very helpful to see how others approached their graduate research and the instruments they used.

ETS Test Link
The Test Collection at ETS (Educational Testing Service) is a library of more than 25,000 tests and other measurement devices that makes information on standardized tests and research instruments available to researchers, graduate students, and teachers. Collected from the early 1900s to the present, the Test Collection at ETS is the largest such compilation in the world.

Health & Psychosocial Instruments (HAPI)
HaPI identifies tests and measurements that have been discussed in journal articles and other sources. The majority of these are not for sale by commercial publishers. Instead, HaPI includes journal citations which may give you leads to locating the instrument itself. In some cases the test itself is included in the journal article. In other cases, only sample questions are included. Sometimes it will be necessary to contact the author of the test.
Medline Ultimate
A large database of biomedical journals. Helpful MESH headings for the concept of tests and measures include: questionnaires, psychological tests, psychometrics outcome, and process assessment. Database may be searched using keywords from the title of a particular instrument.
PsycINFO & PsycARTICLES
Search your keywords in the PsycInfo database, adding the words "validity" or "reliability" or both. This will find articles that describe the validity or reliability of measurement instruments on your topic. For example: anxiety and children and validity and reliability. NOTE: You can also search for keywords and then use the word "appended" in the "tests and measures" field to find articles that include the actual instrument. Just be aware that you may not find very many appended measures.

Books

The Mental Measurements Yearbook
Call Number: Ref Z5814.P8 B932
Publication Date: Various dates through 2017
A book of test reviews. Use the index to search by subject.

All Mental Measurements Yearbook (MMY) entries contain descriptive information (test purpose, publisher, pricing, population and scores) and edited reviews written by leading content area experts. To be included in the MMY, a test must be commercially available, published in the English language and be new or revised since it last appeared in the series.