IPA adds approximately 18,000 records annually and draws from a global selection of health care journals. The following methods of indexing are applied to each record:

• IPA Thesaurus - A unique index of terms for pharmacy-related concepts
• MeSH Terms - NLM index used in MEDLINE
• AHFS Therapeutic Classification System - Used in ASHP's Drug Info database
• Drug Trade Names - IPA index of trade names
• United States Adopted Names - Index of generic drug names
• CAS Registry Numbers - Unique chemical entity identifiers
• IPA Natural Products Index - Links common plant names to scientific names
  

Researchers choose to access IPA because it covers international literature in applied pharmacology. Each IPA record is accompanied by an English-language abstract produced by a four-person multi-lingual in-house editorial staff or outsourced translators.

IPA is used by a variety of researchers in the life sciences. Although its focus is on supporting methods and practice for pharmacists, topics covered are appealing for all life science researchers. IPA has digitized backfiles to 1964 and offers the backfile as part of its subscriptions.