CINAHL
Basic Searching
CINAHL - Cumulative Index to
Nursing and Allied Health Literature
Database
CINAHL indexes information for all of the
allied health professions, including:
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Art Therapy
Athletic Training
Audiology
Chiropractic
Dental Hygiene
Health Administration
Midwifery
Music Therapy
Nursing
Nutrition & Dietetics
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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.
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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