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Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health (CINAHL) via EBSCOhost | |||
The EBSCOhost and OVID platforms have many features in common. You will find that you can still search using subject headings and fields, email or save individual citations, and download citations into citation management software programs such as EndNote. Moving to the EBSCOhost platform for CINAHL has a number of advantages for the UNC health sciences community:
When you open CINAHL via EBSCOhost from an HSL link, you will see this screen:
We are directing you to an "Advanced Search" (note the green tab) because this option allows you more control over what you search in the database. In particular, you can select record fields to search, set limits or expanders to change the number of articles you retrieve, and perform a Boolean search. The default type of search is a keyword search, but you can browse or search publications, CINAHL subject headings, or the EBSCO image database by clicking on the appropriate button in the green bar below the tabs.
The Search Tips and Help sections of CINAHL via EBSCOhost are particularly useful if you get stuck while searching.
You may wish to search for a particular word in the title, abstract, author's name or address, table of contents, subject headings, or any one of the other options for "fields" in article records. The default search is title, abstract, author, and subject headings. Select a field to search by highlighting it in the pull-down menu to the right of each search box.
Your first search may get you too many or too few articles. Click on the "Refine Search" tab (just below the search boxes on the screen) to limit or expand your search. You will see that you have quite a lot of options for limiting your results, including options for full-text articles only, restrictions to particular dates and/or journals, journal subsets, publication types, languages, gender and age of study participants, and "special interest" groups. You can select more than one option in each section by holding down the "Control" key.
There are two options for expanding your search. You can ask the database to search for your keywords within the full text (as available) of articles, and/or to look for related words. According to the help pages, related words are synonyms and plurals of your keywords.
CINAHL subject headings are probably easier to manage in the EBSCOhost system than in OVID. To get to the subject headings search, click on the "CINAHL Headings" button below the Advanced Search tab at the top of your screen:
You will see a search box and options for type of search. It is best to do a "relevancy ranked" search unless you are sure that your term appears exactly the way you typed it in the subject heading:
At this point you will see the suggested terms for your keyword. You can choose to "Explode" the term, which makes the database search not only for your term but also for all terms more specific than it. You can also make the term a "Major Concept", which declares that you are only interested in articles that are significantly about this term. Check the box(es) next to the term(s) you want, then add it/them to your search by clicking on the "Add" button.
If you would like to specify subheadings for your subject heading, click on the hyperlinked heading of interest to open a more extensive view of the heading. This screen includes tree views so you can explore terms that are more general or more specific than your heading, explode and major concept options, subheadings appropriate for the term, and a description of the scope (or definition) of the heading.
The results from each search appear, ten articles at a time, on the screen below the search boxes. You may be trying several searches in a short period of time, many of which overlap both in topic and in results. You can mark articles and temporarily store them in a "folder" to keep track of them.
To the right of each article record you will see a small grey file folder icon, with the word "Add" below it. To mark an article to go into your folder, simply click on Add. The icon for the article will turn yellow, and the word will change to "Added". You can add all of the articles on a page by clicking the "Add (1-10)" link at the top of the results section.
The status of your folder is noted above the results list on the right side of your screen:
You can view the contents of your folder by clicking on the "Folder has items" link. The easiest way to save, print, or email articles (see below) is to first add them to your folder.
When you perform a search in CINAHL via EBSCOhost, you will see your results in tabular format below the search boxes. Results show up in batches of ten. Each record includes information such as the article title, author, and source, and whether the complete article is available through EBSCOhost.
To see a more detailed record for an article of interest, click on the hyperlinked article title. You will get a screen with the citation information, subject headings, and an abstract if available. You can add articles to your folder or print and save them individually from this screen if you wish.
If the article is available in full-text, you will see a link below the main citation information in the results page. Most full-text articles are available in HTML and/or PDF format. These are marked "Linked Full Text."
Click on the full text link to open the full text. If you opened the detailed record for an article that is available in full text, you will see the full text link at the top of the screen.
When you open the full text of an article you will see the citation information at the top of your screen. Scroll down slightly to get to the table of contents (where available) and text of the article. If there are references and/or figures in the article they will be hyperlinked from within the article. When a PDF version is available you will see a link to that option at the top of the screen (labeled "Formats:"). Note that the results table does not indicate if a "Linked Full Text" article is available in both HTML and PDF formats.
CINAHL via EBSCOhost allows you to view the searches that you have performed recently, and to modify and save them for later use. To see the searches you have run, click the "Search History/Alerts" tab just below the search boxes.
From here, you can see the text of your search, any limits you might have added, and the number of articles the search found. You can modify or delete each search from your history if you choose.
To save the search, click "Save Searches/Alerts." Note: Your entire search history will be saved - not just one particular search out of the history. You will need to have registered for this service, which is free. If you have not registered and/or logged in, the database will prompt you to do so. At this point you can give the search history a name and description, and you can choose whether you want it saved permanently, temporarily, or as an alert. If you save it as an alert, EBSCOhost will automatically run your search on a regular basis and will email you the results.
If you have previously saved search histories you can retrieve them in the "Search History/Alerts" section.
As you work in CINAHL via EBSCOhost, make sure you are adding items to your folder (see above), so that you have everything you need when it comes time to save, print, or email the items you find. From the search/results screen, click on the folder status link ("Folder has items.") to open your folder. From this page you can choose to print, email, or save the items in your folder.
Each option will open a "Manager" to walk you through the steps required. If you need to save records in a format suitable for uploading into EndNote or ProCite, please see below.