CINAHL is an authoritative EBSCO database that indexes 1,835 journals from the fields of nursing and allied health. It contains over 1,000,000 articles dating back to 1982.
Choose the CINAHL database. You have three ways to search this database:
- Basic Search
- Advanced Search
- Choose Databases
Basic Search. Type topic in the search bar. If you wish to limit your search, scroll down to phrase "Limit your results.”
LIMITING THE SEARCH (OPTIONAL)
· Full Text. Check this box if you want to retrieve articles that contain the entire full text. (Remember that even articles for which there is only a citation might be available in hard copy at TTC OR one of the CALC [Charleston Area Library Consortium] libraries--CofC, CSU, The Citadel, Charleston County Public Libraries, MUSC. If the article is available at another library, it can be obtained through Interlibrary Loan.
· References available. Check this is you want articles that have related articles fully cited within the article.
· Publication Year. Check for articles published only within a given year.
· Publish date. Use this for articles published within a range of dates.
· Author. Check for articles published by one specific author.
· Peer reviewed. Check this if you wish to retrieve only articles that have been read and reviewed by experts within the same field.
· Journal subset limits journals by field, geographic location, etc.
· Publication type limits by type of article: book, biography, editorial, cartoon, etc.
EXPANDING THE SEARCH (OPTIONAL)
You could expand your search to include:
· Searching through the full text of the article
· Searching related words
· Automatically adding “AND” to your search terms
After you have added your limiters/expanders, click on Search. A list of results in citation form will appear, the most recent articles at the top of the list. You have the option of sorting the results by Date, Source, Author, or Relevance by using the pull-down menu above and to the right of the results.
RETRIEVAL OPTIONS
Click on the shortened title of the article by the PDF icon to view the full-text article. You have three options:
- Disk icon. Click on this to save to a disk.
- Printer icon. Click on this to print out article.
- E-mail icon. Click on this to e-mail the article to your home computer. A window will pop up asking if you wish to e-mail a link/URL to the PDF file/article or wish to send “a copy of the entire PDF file as an attachment.” If you want the article itself, click on the button that says Send copy. Click on SEND.
If you only wish to send an abstract of the article, either click on the full title or click on Linked full text. This will bring up the abstract. You may e-mail only the abstract by unchecking “PDF as separate attachment when available.” By checking this box you can send both abstract and article.
Note that you can move from the abstract screen to the entire PDF article (if you used Linked full text to get to abstract), by clicking on the “PDF Full Text” icon.
Advanced Search. This is a more powerful search and gives more limiters than the Basic Search. The “extras” include Language, Pregnancy, Age Groups, and more. Choose the Advanced Search by clicking on its green tab at top of page.
Type your topic in the search bar.
Add limiters/expanders if desired.
Unclick_“Suggest Subjects.” This appears to the right of the search bar.
Click on Search. A list of results will appear. Retrieval is the same as in the Basic Search.
Choose Databases. This tab gives a list and brief explanation of all the EBSCO databases and allows you to choose and search one particular database instead of several.
OTHER FEATURES
Sign in to My Ebsco Host. This enables you to mark and keep lists of articles. Click on I’m a new user if you have not registered before. Registration is free and fast. Simply log in if you already have an account.
To make a list of articles simply click on “Add” to the right of the citation in your results list. Notice that the word changes to “Added” and your “folder” now says “My folder has items.” Click on the folder to view the items, print out, or e-mail to your home computer.
Publications. This button lists in alphabetical order all the journals indexed by CINAHL. Check the box by the journal title to search that journal.
CINAHL Holdings. This button allows you to browse CINAHL’s subject headings by typing a term in the search bar.
Indexes. This buttons allows searching specified fields within a database
Cited References. This helps you trace articles cited within a CINAHL article.
Preferences is a hyperlink (to the left of the Help link) that allows you to customize how you customize your results list.
Help provides tips and hints for efficiently searching the database.
