cinahl: tips and tricks
TRANSCRIPT
CINAHL TIPS & TRICKS:FOLLOW-ALONG
TUTORIAL
This presentation will teach you more about
the helpful, time-saving features of
this database.
To get the most out of the experience, open up CINAHL and follow along!
Publications
Lists all the journals, magazines, etc. that are
included in CINAHL.
Click on publications
This page lists all the journals that are included within CINAHL.
It’s a helpful page because:• You can see what journals will be included
in your searches • You can see what years are included for
each particular journal• You can search by subject and see what
journals cover your topic and will be likely to come up in your searches
You can also use the Publications tab to search within one specific journal.
Let’s try a sample Publication search for the American Journal of Nursing.Type American Journal of Nursing into the search box and click Browse.
We can see that bibliographic records (citations for articles) of the American Journal of Nursing are available from 1937 to present.
Click on the blue hyperlinked title of this journal.
You can also click on a year and then a volume to browse through any given journal, just like you would browse through the print journal.
You can click here to search all volumes and issues of this journal. It will bring up a normal search box with the title of the journal written in. Just add the word “and” followed by your subject keywords.
To Return to the Main Search Page
Click New Search to return to the main search page.
CINAHL Headings
Think of this as the “behind the scenes” section of the database. It’s basically a terminology dictionary; you look up a subject and see what terms the database uses to describe your subject.
Seem confusing? The next slide helps explain…
What you call a soda, I call a pop and others call Coke. That’s the problem with database searching – if the people that organized things use a different vocabulary than you do, your searches are going to be very frustrating! This section can help. Think of it as your guide to CINAHL’s language.
Run a sample search for therapy (type therapy into the box and click browse). Make sure that relevancy ranked is selected.
therapy
You can see what terms the database assigns to your topic; using these terms will bring back the best search results. For more perspective about search terms, click scope.
You can select more than one term by checking the boxes. If you want your search to look for BOTH or ALL terms, select and from the drop-down box. If you want your search to look for one term or another, but not necessarily both, then select or. Then click Search Database.
therapy
Feel free to explore more or try some sample searches! When you’re ready to move on, click on New Search at the top to return to the home
page.
Evidence-Based Care Sheets
Search by subject or browse alphabetically for evidence-based
care sheets
Feel free to explore more or try some sample searches! When you’re ready to move on, click on New Search at the top to return to the home
page.
Search by subject keyword or scroll through alphabetically.
Once you find the topic that interests you, click to check the box to the right of your topic and click search.
More
There are several helpful tools hidden under the More tab:• Quick Lessons: Short fact sheets on various procedures
and conditions• Cited References: Cool feature that lets you see who has
cited a given article• Images: Search for images that have been included in
articles• Indexes: The ultimate list of what is included in the
database
Let’s explore the Cited References option a little further. Click on Cited References.
Let’s see if any other articles have cited the article “Oxygen consumption of exercise hyperpnea: implications for performance” from the Journal of Applied Physiology in 1992. We can enter the information we know and then search until we find the correct article.
Click to check the box to the left of the correct article, and then click Find Citing Articles.
This search will list out all of the articles that cite the article we searched for (Oxygen Consumption).
You can click Find It to locate the full text of these articles, or you can add them to a folder for future use or easy emailing. This feature can help you see how esteemed or influential an article has been. Remember, though, that it only references articles within CINAHL.
Feel free to explore more or try some sample searches! When you’re ready to move on, click on New Search at the top to return to the home
page.
This search will list out all of the articles that cite the article we searched for (Oxygen Consumption).
You can click Find It to locate the full text of these articles, or you can add them to a folder for future use or easy emailing. This feature can help you see how esteemed or influential an article has been. Remember, though, that it only references articles within CINAHL.
Sign In
Registering for an account with EBSCO CINAHL can be a great way for you to keep your research process organized. Plus, signing in gives you some great additional features.
When you create an EBSCO account, you’ll be asked to give your name and email address. Then you’ll create a username and password that you’ll use to log into your EBSCO account. It’s that easy!
Why register and log in?
• When you don’t log in, the database can’t remember who you are and what you’re searching for – so if you accidentally close the window, you lose all your work! Logging in can prevent this.
• You can easily save your progress to a folder and return later; the database will help you stay organized during your research process.
• You can create alerts to notify you when your favorite journal issues a new volume, or you can create and save a search and have the database notify you when it retrieves something new.
This is an example of an EBSCO folder. Options to the left help organize saved settings and make it easy to retrieve past research.
Individuals articles that have been added to the folder are listed in the middle. These articles can be easily printed, emailed, or saved in lists
simply by marking the check box to the left of the article title.
Folder
Once you’re logged in, it’s very easy to create alerts or save or share your search
results. Click on the Alert/Save/Share link to get started!
You can also easily save an article by adding it to your folder – just click Add to Folder!
To access your folder at any time, click on the Folder tab in the title bar.
Ask-a-Librarian & Help
When in doubt … seek help!
Choose Databases
CINAHL is provided by a company named EBSCO. EBSCO actually provides dozens of databases to Defiance College. You can normally tell when you’re searching an EBSCO
database because they look very similar to CINAHL.
The Choose Databases feature allows you to select and search in more than one of these databases at
one time.
Click on Choose Databases!
This lists out all of the EBSCO databases. To search more than one database with one search, simply click and check the box next to the databases you wish to add.
This is a great way to broaden a search or find information for multi-disciplinary topics. To learn what a database includes, hold your mouse over the little speech bubble to the right of the database’s name.
Since different databases have different features, the search options may change a bit when you search multiple databases.
When you’re ready to move on, close the window (click on the X) to return to the home
page.
Advanced SearchFor the most effective CINAHL searching,
the Advanced Search option is key.
To learn more about Advanced Search, see the Effective Searching tutorial.
CONGRATULATIONS!
YOU SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED THE CINAHL TIPS AND TRICKS
TUTORIAL.
We highly suggest that you also view the CINAHL
effective searching tutorial.
If you have further questions or comments about this tutorial please contact [email protected]