Using The PILOTS Database To Find Information On Assessment Instruments For
Traumatic Stress
About the PILOTS Database
The PILOTS database is an electronic index to the Published International
Literature on Traumatic Stress. It contains over 21,000 bibliographical records
and represents the world's largest bibliographic resource for traumatic stress
studies. It is available to users worldwide and may be searched free of charge,
with no account or password required. As part of the Dartmouth College Information
System, the PILOTS database combines a user-friendly search interface with
a powerful range of search commands, offering researchers, clinicians, and
students as well as librarians and other professional literature searchers a
shortcut to the traumatic stress literature.
Like most bibliographic databases, PILOTS provides a bibliographic citation
of each paper it indexes, an abstract of its content, and a list of descriptors
indicating its subject matter. In addition, each record includes an "Instruments" field
listing the psychological and medical assessment instruments used in the research
or clinical work reported in the document. This feature enables PILOTS database
users to:
determine which instruments were used in the work described in a particular
paper;
determine which published papers have used a particular instrument;
locate papers whose focus is the description, validation, or use of a particular
instrument.
The PILOTS Database Quick Reference explains how to access and search the
database, and the PILOTS Database Users Guide provides
detailed instructions. Use the supplementary instructions below to find information
on assessment instruments.
Finding references for studies that have used a particular measure
When you log on to the PILOTS database, the "PILOTS Catalog - Basic Search" screen
will appear. You will see two empty boxes with the label "Author" to
the left of one and "Title" to the left of the other. Click your
mouse over the first label, and a menu will appear, from which you can select
the field "Instruments" to search.
To search for measures reviewed on this site, Click on the box next
to the label and type in the exact name of the measure as it appears in the
table on this site (but do not include the acronym for the measure if one is
given in parentheses following the title). Scroll down to the "Submit
Search" button and click on it. PILOTS will then return a list (in reverse
chronological order) of publications describing studies that used the specified
measure.
To search for measures not reviewed on this site, consult
the PILOTS Database
Instruments Authority List to find the standardized form of its name to
enter in the box. (If you do not wish to entire the entire name, enter unique
or significant words from the name.)
What to do if your search does not return any results
If your search does not return any results, try searching for the measure
name under the "Topics" field. For some measures, no citations will
be listed in PILOTS because the publications using the measure are not cited
in the database.
How to narrow your search
To narrow the list of references to those on a particular topic that used
a measure, you can leave the first box as is, change the label of the second
box on the search page to "Topic", and type in a topic name. PILOTS
will then return a list of publications of studies on that particular topic
that used the specified measure. Exact terms for topics used in the PILOTS
database are available in the PILOTS Thesaurus, where you can check for particular
topics of interest.
Finding references on a topic connected with assessment instruments
To find papers on a topic connected with assessment instruments, set the pull-down
menu to read "Descriptors" and type in the adjacent box one of the
following:
Assessment Instruments
Interview Schedules
Projective Techniques
PTSD Assessment Instruments
Self Report Instruments
Trauma Assessment Instruments
Finding references that discuss the details of a specific instrument
To find papers that discuss details of using of a specific instrument (as
opposed to those in which the instrument is merely noted as having been used),
combine these two techniques using both pull-down menus. For example,
to look for papers that discuss the use of the Mississippi Scale for Combat-Related
PTSD, type
Mississippi Scale in the "Instruments" box and PTSD Assessment Instruments
in the "Descriptors" box.
The PILOTS Database Instruments Authority List
To make searching for specific assessment instruments possible, we have established
a standard form of the name of each instrument. This form represents, to the
best of our knowledge, the official name of the instrument as given by its
author or publisher. We attempt to use that form consistently, regardless of
the form of name used by the author of a particular paper. These standardized
names are assembled in the PILOTS Database Instruments Authority List. This
list includes all projective tests, self-report questionnaires, structured
interviews, and other instruments that have been used in papers indexed in
the PILOTS Database. Each entry includes:
the name of the instrument;
the surnames of its creators (this information is intended primarily to
indicate which instrument is meant there are several with similar names and
should not be taken as a definitive ascription of authorship);
a bibliographic reference to one or more publications cited as the source
of information on the in- strument by those reporting use of it;
a bracketed reference to the 5-digit PILOTS ID number of the document referenced
or of the document citing it.
In addition, many entries also include a brief description of the nature of
the instrument or its relationship to other instruments. There are also many
cross-references, linking alternate names for instruments with the form used
in the PILOTS database.
(It should be understood that the Authority List does not purport to be a
complete bibliography of psychological and medical assessment instruments used
in traumatic stress work. We have not attempted to maintain the standards of
accuracy and completeness that we hope characterize the PILOTS database itself.
The bibliographic citations in the Authority List are taken without revision
from a wide range of publications in the traumatic stress literature, and several
years of experience has shown us that many writers give deplorably incomplete
information about the instruments they use in their work. The PILOTS Database
Instruments Authority List represents our best efforts at bringing consistency
to a chaotic bibliographical environment without diverting our attention substantially
from our primary mission: the indexing of the worldwide traumatic stress literature.)
We would encourage anyone publishing an assessment instrument, a paper about
the assessment of trauma or the effects of traumatic stress, or any other literature
within the scope of the PILOTS database to send us a copy to ensure that it
is indexed in the database. Please send these to:
PTSD Resource Center
National Center for PTSD (116D)
VA Medical Center White River Junction, VT 05009
Internet ptsd@dartmouth.edu
For more information
For more information about the PILOTS database, see the "Help" menu
in the left-hand margin of the "PILOTS Catalog - Basic Search" page.
More detailed information may be found in the PILOTS Database Users Guide
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