CINAHL Basic Searching CINAHL - Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature Database

CINAHL indexes information for all of the allied health professions, including: • • • • • • • • • •

Art Therapy Athletic Training Audiology Chiropractic Dental Hygiene Health Administration Midwifery Music Therapy Nursing Nutrition & Dietetics

• • • • • • • • •

Occupational Therapy Optometry Orthotics & Prosthetics Physical Therapy Recreation Therapy Respiratory Therapy Social Work Speech-Language Pathology Surgical Technology

CINAHL Content CINAHL • indexes items from journals, books, audiovisuals, pamphlets, software, dissertations, and research instruments • Can be limited to search by – Age groups – Publication type, e.g. research article, practice guidelines – Gender – More…

CINAHL – Basic Searching This tutorial will cover – How to run a basic search in the CINAHL database – Specifically, the following searches will be demonstrated: • Keyword searching • Narrowing a search • Using a wildcard or truncation mark • Using quotation marks to search for a phrase • Limiting by language • Limiting by publication year • Limiting to peer reviewed articles – How to obtain the material you find in CINAHL

CINAHL – Important Things to Know • Because this is a paid subscription database, if you are searching from anywhere off-campus, you must have your my.emich username and password available to log into CINAHL. •

Although we own over 40,000 journals in full-text e-format, some of the articles may be in journals we only own in hard copy or on microfilm or microfiche. If that is the case, you may have to come into the Halle Library to make a copy the article.

• If the Halle Library does not own the journal at all, and you are a student, staff or faculty member at EMU, it may be obtained through the ILLiad interlibrary loan system. More details on all these topics will come later in the presentation.

Accessing CINAHL from the Halle Library’s Homepage

Go to the Halle Library’s Web page at http://www.emich.edu/ library, and click on the Databases tab.

Finding CINAHL on the List of Databases

Click on the letter C from the alphabetic list at the top of the page.

Finding CINAHL on the List of Databases

Click on the name of the database, CINAHL. If you are off-campus, you will need to enter in your my.emich username & password on another screen that will pop up.

Basic Keyword Search

Type in your search terms. The word ‘and’ to the left of the boxes intersects your ideas together.

Narrowing a Search

Too many articles found! Narrow the search by adding another term in the box below the other terms.

Narrowing a Search, cont.

Adding another term narrows the results to a more manageable set.

Using Quotation Marks to Search for a String of Words or a Phrase

Here is a different type of keyword search. Placing quotation marks around a string of words or a phrase, tells the computer to “find these words exactly in this order”. In this case, the * was also used to retrieve all forms of the word root ‘fluid’. So, this search would retrieve ‘amniotic fluid’ and ‘amniotic fluids’.

Using a Truncation/Wildcard Mark

-A truncation/wildcard mark placed after a word root picks up all forms of that word root. -This database uses the * as the truncation mark. -This search will retrieve the words ‘pregnant’, ‘pregnancy’, pregnancies’.

Limiting Searches

Once a search is run, the results of the search are shown, but the screen with the ability to set limits disappears. The next screen shows how to bring back the limits box.

Bringing Back the Limits Screen

To bring back the limits screen, click on the words, Advanced Search, located underneath the search boxes.

Limiting a Search to English Language Articles

Searches can also be narrowed by applying limits, such as year or language parameters, on the search. Place a check mark in the box next to the English Language limit. This will limit your search to English language articles only.

Limiting a Search by Publication year

To limit by year, type in the year span you are interested in focusing on into the boxes next to the limit, Publication Year from.

Limiting to Peer Reviewed Articles What is a Peer Reviewed Journal? • A peer reviewed journal requires that, prior to publication, submitted articles be approved by a board of reviewers and/or peers in the subject area in order to evaluate the quality, validity and reliability of the article • This review process is often done ‘blindly’, meaning the reviewers do not know the names or academic affiliations of the authors, and the authors do not know who is reviewing their work

Limiting to Peer Reviewed Journals

Place a check mark in the box next to the Peer Reviewed limit.

Obtaining Materials Using the Find Text+ Button • Now that you know how to search the CINAHL database, let’s talk about how you get your hands on the articles you located. • The easiest way to locate articles is to use the button located under most of the citations in CINAHL.

Find Text+ Button

-Clicking on the Find Text+ button allows you to see if and how the Halle Library owns a journal. -The button works using popups, so make sure the pop-up blocker on your computer is turned off. (Pop-up blockers are usually found under the settings or tools of search browsers such as Internet Explorer or Firefox.)

Find Text+ Button • Follow this link to watch a video that shows how to use the button, and shows how to order materials the Halle Library does not own via the ILLiad interlibrary loan system http://brand.emich.edu/video/thelibrary/findtext/ • Follow this link to see a print explanation on how to use the button and ILLiad http://www.emich.edu/library/help/findtext.php

Need More Help? Click on this link to point you to ways to ask a librarian for further help. http://www.emich.edu/halle/askalibrarian.html

EBucciarelli, 9/09