Australian Public Affairs Information Service

See also: APAIS Thesaurus

Scope

APAIS is a subject index to scholarly articles in the social sciences and humanities published in Australia, and to selected periodical articles, conference papers, book and newspaper articles on Australian economic, social, political and cultural affairs.

APAIS has been compiled by the National Library since 1945. Print volumes were produced from 1945 to 2000. Online coverage is predominantly 1978+ (except for a small number of earlier records). It consists of over 390,000 records, with about 12,000 new articles being indexed annually. APAIS is available via subscription to the Informit service from RMIT Publishing

An enhanced version of the APAIS database, Australian Public Affairs Full Text (APA-FT), is also available via subscription to Informit and provides full text coverage of selected articles. Researchers in the National Library's Reading Rooms can access APA-FT through the NLA's eResources page.

Comments and suggestions are welcome and should be emailed to apais@nla.gov.au.

Subject scope

Australian economic, social, political and cultural affairs. Within this broad statement of scope the following subject areas are recognised in APAIS:

  • Aboriginal studies, Anthropology and Archaeology
  • Agriculture - economic, social, and political aspects
  • Arts, including Graphic arts, Architecture, Music and Theatre
  • Banking, Finance, Taxation
  • Business, Accounting, Management
  • Commerce and Trade
  • Communication and Transport
  • Conservation and Environment
  • Computer applications
  • Cultural affairs
  • Defence
  • Economics
  • Education
  • Ethnic groups and Demography
  • Geography, Environment
  • Health - including Occupational health, Drug abuse, and social aspects of Medicine
  • History
  • Industry and Industrial relations
  • Language, Linguistics and Literature
  • Law
  • Libraries and Archives
  • Politics, Government, Local government, and Public administration
  • Philosophy
  • Psychology
  • Religion
  • Science, Technology, Research - social, economic, legal, political and cultural aspects
  • Social issues - including Welfare, Employment and Crime
  • Sociology
  • Town planning and Urban affairs
  • Women, Youth and Family

Materials covered

  • Material published within the previous two years
  • Australian scholarly journals (of which over 200 titles are indexed in depth)
  • Selected Australian non-scholarly journals
  • Selected chapters or papers from books and conference proceedings which are about Australia
  • Selected Australian electronic journals archived in PANDORA
  • Selected feature articles from Australian capital city newspapers

Materials not covered

  • Material more than 2 years old
  • Annual reports
  • Directories
  • Encyclopaedia sets
  • Statistical reports
  • Government gazettes
  • Parliamentary papers
  • Draft/final standards
  • "This week in…" brochures
  • Foreign language material entirely in non Roman script
  • Catalogues
  • Car/boat magazines/manuals/handbooks
  • Cooking/knitting/gardening books
  • Newsletters that have no feature articles

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Subject specific subsets for APAIS

APAIS-Health subset

APAIS-Health covers literature on the legal, social, economic and ethical aspects health and medicine in Australia. Clinical articles are not indexed in APAIS-Health.

APAIS-ATSIS subset

APAIS-ATSIS covers literature on the historical, social, cultural, economic and political aspects of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Index compilations which include APAIS

AUSTROM

Covers literature in the social sciences, law and education in Australia.

ATSIROM

Covers literature on the historical, social, cultural, economic and political aspects of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

AUSThealth

Covers literature on the legal, social, economic and ethical aspects of health and medicine in Australia.

Please note: APAIS materials which are included in the above subsets and compilations are identical to those items indexed in the complete APAIS database.

Locating indexed articles

All articles indexed in APAIS are held by the National Library. Individual researchers can order copies through the National Library’s Copies Direct service. Libraries can send requests to the Library's Document Supply Service.

Many APAIS records contain links to full text articles on journal websites. The Australian Public Affairs - Full Text version of APAIS contains scanned images of articles from over 200 journals.

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APAIS Thesaurus

Articles in APAIS are indexed using subject headings in the APAIS Thesaurus which is available online. The Thesaurus is also available in printed form and on diskette. Orders for the diskette version should be emailed to apais@nla.gov.au. Orders for the print version can be placed with the National Library.

Sample record

Sample record from Informit Online's Australian Public Affairs - Full Text database

Title: Does prison work?
Author: Saunders, Peter ; Billante, Nicole
Source: Policy (St Leonards, NSW), v.18, no.4, Summer 2002-2003 : 3-8
Journal Title: Policy (St Leonards, NSW)
Publication Year: 2003
Full Text Indicator: Yes
Full text: http://search.informit.com.au/fullText;res=APAFT;dn=200302200
URI Indicator: Yes
Uniform Resource Identifier: http://www.cis.org.au/Policy/summer02-03/polsumm0203-1.htm
PI Indicator: Yes
Persistent Identifier: http://nla.gov.au/nla.arc-13678
Subject (Major):
Crime
Crime prevention
Prisons
Subject (Minor):
United States
Statistics
Great Britain
Australia
New Zealand
Economics
Collation: graphs, table
ISSN: 1032-6634
Entry Month: 200303
Document Number: 200302200

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