Beginner's Research Guide | locating article citations in databases;

Selecting a database

When searching for journal articles by topic, you should start with a database. Databases may be interdisciplinary and cover a large scope of topic areas, for example: Periodical Abstracts (also known as Proquest.)  MEDLINE, CINAHLPlus, and PsycINFO, are examples of specialized databases for health sciences topics. Databases provide access to citations for:

Tip: Database citations describe the contents of journal articles; they often link to the full-text of the journal article.

 

Anatomy of a database record: a CINAHLPlus Citation


Below is a sample citation from the CINAHLPlus database. (CINAHLPlus is the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, with indexing for more than 3,800 journals from the fields of nursing and allied health, with selective indexing back to 1937. CINAHLPlus also contains searchable cited references for more than 1,270 journals. Full text material includes nearly 80 journals plus legal cases, clinical innovations, critical paths, drug records, research instruments and clinical trials.)

A citation is the basic building block of the database. The citation below describes an article from the journal Nursing Research. Information is arranged in individual fields:

the AUTHOR field

the TITLE field

the SOURCE field (journal title)

and so forth. Often, the article summary or ABSTRACT will be included. Notice the CINAHL SUBJECT HEADING field.  The subject headings are assigned to the article; they are standardized terms drawn from a thesaurus.  In the example below you can see that the term Postnatal Period is the standardized term assigned to describe the topic "postpartum."Database searchers may search for words in any or all fields. For example, you might search for

Johnson in the AUTHOR field,

Counseling in the SUBJECT HEADING field,

Pregnancy in any field, including the abstract.

Postnatal Period in the SUBJECT HEADING field


A  "keyword" search on the word "postpartum" would retrieve this SAMPLE CINAHLPlus citation, because the word postpartum is present in the TITLE field.

 

cinahlimage

 

Anatomy of a database record: a Medline/Pubmed Citation

Below is a sample citation from the Medline database. (Medline is the premier biomedical database, with more than 16 million records, produced by the National Library of Medicine). The citation below describes an article from the journal BMJ. Information is arranged in individual fields: the author field, the title field, the source field (journal title), and so forth. Often, the article summary or abstract will be included. Notice the MeSH (Medical Subject Heading) field which includes standardized terms drawn from a controlled vocabulary of terms. In the example below you can see that the term Cross Infection is the standardized term assigned to describe the topic: hospital infection.

 

girou

Link to the live PubMed record for above citation

Database searchers may search for words in any or all fields. For example, you might search for

Girou in the AUTHOR field,

Infection in the MeSH (Medical Subject Heading) field,

Handwashing in any field, including the abstract.

Randomized controlled trial in the PUBLICATION TYPE field

 

Selecting a Database

Once you have decided to search the literature for journal articles, you will need to select a database.

Consider the time frame as well as the coverage of your topic. For example, CINAHL Plus (the electronic version of the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health) is the first place to search for nursing literature.

CINAHL Plus provides indexing for 3,802 journals from the fields of nursing and allied health, with indexing for selected journals back to 1937. All searchers of nursing information should always search MEDLINE, also, because MEDLINE (the premier biomedical database) indexes many of the international nursing journals that are not indexed in CINAHL Plus, and contains articles of interest to nurses that are published in biomedical journals.

 

I am looking for...

Start searching in: 

Database description

A sample result:
Recent information about a congressional vote on SCHIP (the State Children's Health Insurance Program) Proquest (Periodical Abstracts)
 A multidisciplinary resource for research on contemporary topics or for the beginning stages of a research project. Offers citations from a wide range of English language academic journals, news magazines, including New York Times and Wall Street Journal.
Jason L. Riley (2008, November 10). The Journal Interview with Rahm Emanuel: 'Do What You Got Elected to Do'. Wall Street Journal (Europe), p. 14.
Evidence of the relationship between dementia and caffeine consumption

Proquest (Periodical Abstracts) (for recent popular newspaper article)

 

Medline/Pubmed (for scholarly biomedical research)

 A multidisciplinary resource for research on contemporary topics or for the beginning stages of a research project. Offers citations from a wide range of English language academic journals, news magazines, including New York Times and Wall Street Journal.

 

Widely recognized as the premier source for bibliographic and abstract coverage of biomedical literature.

Nicholas Bakalar (2007, August 14). Caffeine Helps Women, But Not Men, Stay Sharp. New York Times (Late Edition (east Coast)), p. F.6.

 

Eskelinen, MH, Ngandu, T, Tuomilehto, J, et al. (2009). Midlife coffee and tea drinking and the risk of late-life dementia: A population-based CAIDE study. Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, 16(1), 85-91.
Research on the use of physical restraints in nursing homes
 CINAHL Plus
 Indexes over 3,800 journals from the fields of nursing and allied health, with indexing for selected journals back to 1937. Capezuti E, Strumpf N, Evans L, & Maislin G.(1999). Outcomes of nighttime physical restraint removal for severely impaired nursing home residents. American journal of Alzheimer's Disease, 14(3), 157.
Research on treatment for PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) PsycINFO Indexes more than 2150 titles with abstracts and citations to the scholarly literature in the psychological, social, behavioral, and health sciences.
Feske, U. (2008). Treating low-income and minority women with posttraumatic stress disorder: A pilot study comparing prolonged exposure and treatment as usual conducted by community therapists. Journal of interpersonal violence, 23(8), 1027-1040.
The best evidence available about umbilical cord care

CINAHL Plus

 

Medline/Pubmed

 Indexes over 3,800 journals from the fields of nursing and allied health, with indexing for selected journals back to 1937.

Widely recognized as the premier source for bibliographic and abstract coverage of biomedical literature.

 Zupan J. (2004). Topical umbilical cord care at birth. The Cochrane database of systematic reviews, (3).
       

 

 

So, how would you conduct a database search to retrieve a citation such as the ones above?  Database search screens prompt you for a search string.  You may do a keyword search, a field-specific search, or combine terms using Boolean connectors. The next section will explain the basics of combining terms with Boolean connectors.

 

Boolean Logic

Boolean Logic is a system of using operators (connectors) such as AND and OR to construct a database search statement.  It is a powerful and effective method to limit or expand search results in databases, library catalogs, and internet search engines.

 

OPERATOR    
SEARCH STATEMENT RETRIEVES EXAMPLE  
AND handwashing
AND
cross infection
 citations with BOTH terms Retrieves Pubmed citation above; notice BOTH terms are present
handandcross
OR

cross infection
OR
nosocomial infection
OR
hospital acquired infection
OR
hospital infection

 citations with either/any of the terms expands a search on one term, to capture keywords or synonyms
 crossor
 

handwashing

AND

(cross infection
OR
nosocomial infection
OR
hospital acquired infection
OR
hospital infection)

     handandor
NOT handwashing
NOT
waterless		 excludes citations with irrelevant terms

In the above Venn diagram, the search has been LIMITED by publication type "randomized controlled trial." Limiting a search is covered in more detail in Module 2: limiting your search

 

 

 

 Retrieves citation above, because the word handwashing is present but waterless is not in the citation.

Use "NOT" with caution to avoid excluding relevant records.
 handnotwaterless

 

In the  Venn diagram below, the search  for

handwashing AND (cross infection OR nosocomial infection OR hospital infection)

has been LIMITED by publication type "randomized controlled trial."  Limiting a search is covered in more detail in Module 2: limiting your search

 

slide 5

 

TIP: Getting connected: you will notice that the links below remind you that access to fee-based databases may require that off campus users authenticate themselves. Use the help links for each campus to find out more.

Links to Databases

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