PEP | Getting started with PEP

Welcome to the psychoanalytic library

PEP brings journals, books, videos and other psychoanalytic resources together in one place. The size of the archive is one of its strengths, but a quick orientation will help you reach the material you need without feeling overwhelmed.

Let’s begin on the home page. The main Search field is at the centre of the page, with a link to Advanced search just below it. The navigation at the top gives you direct routes to Search and Explore, while Resources opens links to the glossary, statistics, support and the main collections.

The signed-out PEP home page showing the main navigation, search field and featured collection cards. — The home page gives you a central search field and direct routes to journals, books, videos and the wider Explore area.

You do not need to sign in to explore the public parts of PEP. Access to complete documents depends on your personal or institutional entitlement, and some recent content may remain subject to an embargo.

Sign in to PEP

Select Sign in in the header when you want PEP to recognise your access or save research to your account. The first screen offers three methods.

Select PEP account if you have a PEP username and password.
Select Institutional access to find your organisation and continue through its sign-in service.
Select OpenAthens if your library manages access through OpenAthens.

The PEP sign-in page offering PEP account, Institutional access and OpenAthens methods. — Choose the sign-in method supplied by PEP or your library.

If you select PEP account, enter your Username and Password, then select Sign in. Use Forgot your password? if you need to recover a PEP account. The Back to sign in methods control returns you to the three access choices.

The PEP account form with empty Username and Password fields, a Sign in button and password-recovery control. — The PEP account form accepts your PEP username and password; no credentials are shown here.

After a successful sign-in, the Register and Sign in links are replaced by your account control. Notice that this is also where My research becomes available.

Find the main destinations

Open Resources when you want to move beyond the primary Search and Explore links. Its menu brings together About PEP, Support, What’s new, Contact us, Legal, Glossary, Most cited, Most viewed and the main book, journal, preview and video collections.

The expanded Resources menu listing support, discovery, glossary, statistics and collection links. — Resources gathers the principal help, discovery and collection destinations into one menu.

This is useful when you know the kind of task you want to perform but do not yet have a search query. For example, choose Glossary to look up a concept directly, or Most cited to explore documents that have been cited frequently in PEP.

Use your account menu

When you are signed in, open the account control in the header. The menu contains Preferences, My research and Sign out.

The signed-in account menu showing Preferences, My research and Sign out. — Your account menu is the entry point for access information and saved research.

Select Preferences to review the account information associated with the current session. You can check the Access method and whether Archive access is available. Personal values such as the account name and email address are deliberately hidden in this example.

The Preferences dialog with personal account fields redacted and the Access method and Archive access fields visible. — Preferences currently shows account and access information; the personal values in this tutorial image are redacted.

Additional account preferences are marked as coming soon. Reader-specific controls such as text size and reading width are available inside a document under Reader settings instead.

Choose a language and theme

Scroll to the footer to find the display controls. The language selector offers English, German, French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. Choosing a language changes translated interface and CMS content where a localisation is available.

The PEP footer in light mode with the theme toggle and English language selector at the lower right. — The site-wide theme and language controls are placed in the footer.

The open language selector listing English, German, French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. — Select one of the six available interface languages from the footer menu.

Use Toggle theme beside the language selector to move between light and dark themes. The choice changes the site’s colours but not its content or features.

The lower part of the PEP home page and footer displayed in dark mode. — Dark mode keeps the same navigation and content while changing the colour scheme.

Next steps

You can now search from the home page, browse through Explore and find your account and support tools. Continue with Searching the PEP Archive for a guided search, or use Exploring Journals, Books, Videos and Previews when you would rather browse. If you are signed in, My Research: Saving and Organising Articles explains how to build a reading list. For assistance at any point, open Help, Support and Feedback.

Welcome to the psychoanalytic library

Select Sign in in the header when you want PEP to recognise your access or save research to your account. The first screen offers three methods.

Select PEP account if you have a PEP username and password.

Select Institutional access to find your organisation and continue through its sign-in service.

Select OpenAthens if your library manages access through OpenAthens.

Next steps