Library databases and Google can't be searched the same way so take a few moments to come up with a search strategy before diving into a database.
Step 1: Think about the key concepts of your topic and search those instead of an entire phrases or sentences.
Step 2: Think of other terms you could use that are synonyms or related (they could be a broader or narrower aspect). This often requires that you do a little background research to learn more.
Step 3: Connect your terms using AND and OR:
Remember -
See screenshots for better searches.
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Updated monthly. The Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health (CINAHL) database provides authoritative coverage of the literature related to nursing and allied health disciplines. Includes indexing for more than 5,100 journals with coverage as far back as 1937 and full text coverage for more than 700 journals. In addition to journals, includes healthcare books, nursing dissertations, selected conference proceedings, standards of professional practice, and educational software.
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Updated daily. Offers researchers looking for answers to nursing or allied health questions millions of articles found in over 1,100 journals from 1980 to the present. Provides full-text coverage of many of the titles cited in CINAHL.
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Updated monthly. Provides bibliographic indexing from the National Library of Medicine (NLM) covering the fields of medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, and the preclinical sciences. Contains bibliographic citations (e.g., authors, title, and journal reference) and author abstracts from 4,500 biomedical journals published in the United States and 70 foreign countries.
Journal articles are indexed for MEDLINE using NLM's controlled vocabulary, MeSH (Medical Subject Headings). Citations are created by the National Library of Medicine, International MEDLARS partners, and cooperating professional organizations.
MEDLINE has worldwide coverage, but 88% of the citations in current MEDLINE are to English-language sources and 76% have English abstracts.
NLM provides free access to MEDLINE through PubMed.
If you don’t see a .pdf of the article you want, click Find it at UT to find it in another database or in print in the Libraries.
If it is only in print in the Libraries or we don’t own the article, click Get a Scan to have the article emailed to you.
Peer-reviewed journal articles, sometimes known as scholarly, refereed or academic articles, have the following characteristics:
1. Written by researchers/scholars
2. Reviewed by other researchers/scholars - this process is called peer-review
3. Published in scholarly, peer-reviewed journals
4. Written for an audience of other researchers/scholars
5. Created to share research with others in the scholarly discipline
If you can't tell whether or not a journal is peer-reviewed, check Ulrichsweb.
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