Libraries
A Brief Guide to Searching CINAHL
CINAHL, the Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied
Health Literature, provides coverage of the professional literature
(journals, books, pamphlets, dissertations, audiovisuals, etc.) in nursing,
biomedicine, alternative/complementary medicine, consumer health, and 17 allied
health disciplines. It includes
indexing and abstracting for over 1,700 current English language nursing journals
and other publications dating back to 1982 and is updated monthly.
Note: the full-text material in CINAHL is
extremely limited (state nursing journals and newsletters primarily). Mercy
subscribes to many of the indexed journals, however. Check the Periodical Holdings list on the library
web page to see what journals the library carries and the Books and Media Catalog for our book holdings.
PreCINAHL, listed
separately on the library web page, updates the material in CINAHL with brief
bibliographic information (no subject indexing) about new journal articles that
are not yet in CINAHL. Once the
bibliographic records for these new articles are complete, they are added to
CINAHL and removed from PreCINAHL.
To improve the quality
of your research: check for and use standardized CINAHL terms (subject
headings) in your searches; examine and use the “Cited References” at the end
of relevant articles; select and use database limit features to help focus your
search results
Searching CINAHL using keywords
Step 1
Determine the key
components of your topic
For example, if you are interested in finding recent information on the effectiveness of group therapy for breast cancer patients, your key elements would be breast cancer and group therapy.
Step 2
Enter your search term(s) in the “Find” box (es) near the top of the Advanced Search screen, putting each search word or phrase in a separate box. Keyword “default fields” in CINAHL include title, abstract, and subject headings, so your term(s) will be searched in each of these fields.
Step 3
Scroll down the screen in order to see the various search limits. Select the limits you want and click on the “Search” button near the top of the screen. (Do not select “full text,” as CINAHL includes very little full-text material.)
For example, if you wanted research articles only, you could select “Research” from the pull down menu for “Publication Type.”
Step 4
If items are found that match your term(s) and limit(s), a list of results will display, with the number of results indicated at the top of the list. They will be in order of date, but you can reorganize them by relevance ranking, author, or source publication by making your selection from the “Sort by” box just below the top of the Results list.
When you see an item of interest, click the title to see all the available information about the item, including subject headings and abstract, if one is available. Many items include a link for “Cited References.” Click on this link to see a list of the references that appear at the end of the article.
NOTE: To limit a
search at any point during the search process, click “Refine Search” near the
top of a screen, make your limit selections, and click the “Search” button
located at the top of the page.
Step 5
You can print, email, or save individual items to a folder by selecting “Print,” “Email,” or “Add to folder” near the top of the screen where the item is displayed. You can also save a group of items to print or email together. To save a group of items, click “Add” next to each item of interest to you in the “Results List.” To view and print or email the items in your folder, click “Folder has items” at the top of the Results List on any screen and follow the on screen instructions.
Searching CINAHL using subject headings
Although there may not always be a subject heading in CINAHL that describes your search concept, a search using standardized subject terms from the CINAHL Thesaurus (“CINAHL Headings”) will often produce more accurate and relevant results than a search using keywords.
Step 1
Check for CINAHL
subject headings for your key terms
Click in the box “Suggest Subject Terms” near the top of the Advanced Search screen above the search boxes, enter one of your search elements in the “Find” box, and click the “Search” button. You will be taken automatically to a listing of relevant subject headings. (The “Scope” next to a subject term provides a definition of the term.) If you had entered breast cancer as your search element, the next screen would provide you with the CINAHL subject heading for it—breast neoplasms, as well as related terms. Write down the term(s) of interest to you.
For each additional search term, use your browser to go back to the search screen, erase the previous term, enter a new one (in this example, group therapy), and click “Search.”
Step 2
Type your search
terms in the “Find” boxes on the search screen
After you have searched for subject headings for your terms, go back to the main search screen, press the “Clear” button next to the search box to clear out all boxes and remove the check mark on “Suggest Subject Terms,” and enter each of the subject headings you found, putting each word or phrase in a separate box. In this example it would be breast neoplasms and then psychotherapy, group.
Follow Steps 3-5
listed above.
A link to brief
“Search Tips” is below the search boxes on the main CINAHL screen. “Database Help,” which provides more in
depth explanation and guidance for using CINAHL, is a link above the search
boxes on most screens.
A detailed guide to
CINAHL, with screen shots of search screens, is available at
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