Library Guides: CINAHL Complete - Basic
CINAHL Complete - Basic
Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature
WHAT IS CINAHL?
The Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) is a database
indexing literature related to all aspects of nursing, midwifery and allied health.
CINAHL is international in scope with almost 5 million records from 5,400 journal
titles, including full text for more than 1400 journals.
HOW DO I ACCESS CINAHL?
Search on iFind, the library catalogue for CINAHL Complete and click on the
link to take you to the database. You will need to log in with your Swansea
University username and password.
HOW DO I GET STARTED SEARCHING?
Plan your search before you start typing!
This is an important first step. A few minutes determining what it is that you are
really looking for will save you a lot of time when you do your actual search. Write
down what it is you are looking for (e.g. articles on compliance with handwashing).
Split the search into topics (e.g. one topic is handwashing and the other is
compliance). Now, think of alternative spellings, terms and synonyms for your
search terms (e.g. handwashing, hand hygiene, hand washing).
SEARCHING
Enter your search terms. Keep to one topic per line (e.g. use the top line for
handwashing and the next line for compliance). Link words used for the same topic
using OR (e.g. handwashing OR hand washing OR hand hygiene).
Your topics will then be linked using AND (i.e. handwashing AND compliance) so
that the database knows to look for articles related to both topics.
Library Guides: CINAHL Plus with Full Text - Basic
USING WILDCARD AND TRUNCATION SYMBOLS
You can extend your search terms quickly and easily by using truncation and
wildcard symbols. The wildcard is represented by a question mark (?). To use the
wildcard, enter your search terms and replace each unknown character with a ?
e.g. wom?n will find woman and women, organi?ation will find organization and
organisation
Truncation is represented by an asterisk (*). To use truncation, enter the root of a
search term and replace the ending with an *. For example, type nurs* to find the
words nurse, nurses or nursing.
SEARCH OPTIONS /LIMIT YOUR RESULTS
Often you will want to limit your results to articles published in the last 5 years and
published in English. You may also wish to limit to research articles. You can do this
before you start searching. Under the search boxes, you will see Search Options.
Use this to choose how you want to limit your search. If you have already started
searching, you can still set some limits and re-run the search. To do this, use the
menu to the left of the results. Under the heading Refine Results, you will see that
you can enter a date range, or limit by age-group, etc.
VIEWING RESULTS
Once you have run your search, your results will appear underneath the search
boxes. These are citations giving you brief information. You can look at the abstract
by clicking on the title of the article or mousing over the
icon.
NARROW RESULTS BY SUBJECT
If you have a lot of results, you can use the side menu to narrow To the left of the
list of results you will see suggestions to narrow your results using Subject: Major
heading. Clicking on this link reveals a list of subject headings. If you click on one
of these, your search results will be limited to articles where that topic (subject
heading) is a major aspect of the article.
GETTING THE FULL-TEXT OF ARTICLES
If you see these symbols:
you can get the full-text
straight away. Otherwise, click on the Use this link to locate the item at Swansea
University and follow the links to see if the item is available from the Library, either
in print or electronic.
DOWNLOADING AND PRINTING RESULTS
Search results can be printed, saved to disk or emailed by adding items to a
Folder. Click on
beside the reference that you wish to save. You can see
what items you have saved to your folder by clicking on Folder (top right of screen)
, or Folder View to the right of results. Items can be
viewed or removed from this folder. Once you have made selections to the folder,
you can choose to save, print or email the items.
For alternative formats please contact
Tel: 01792 295697 Email: [email protected]
June 2016