CINAHL Database Guide

Database Overview

The CINAHL database includes citations and abstracts for journal articles and other materials on nursing, communication sciences and disorders, nutrition, and allied health. CINAHL covers literature from 1981 to present.

Getting Started

Using CINAHL off campus? Activate your MaineCard at the library first. See Remote Access Troubleshooting.

1. On the Fogler Library page, click Indexes and Databases.
2. Click CINAHL with Full Text.
3. Click Advanced Search.

Search Steps

1. Define your topic--what is the question you want to answer? Example: How are nursing students socialized into the profession?
2. Identify the individual concepts within your topic (and express them as nouns). Example: nursing students, socialization (expresses the concept of getting socialized).
3. Search each concept separately.
   • Click CINAHL Headings.
   • Type in the first concept: nursing students and click Browse or press the "Enter" key.
   • Look at the CINAHL subject headings and find the best match to the first concept: Students, Nursing. You might need to look at several screens of headings to find the best match. Use Prev and More to move between screens.
   • Check the Explode (+) box to the right of the subject heading. If there is no Explode (+) box, check the box left of the subject heading.
   • Click Search Database to get results for your first concept.
   • Repeat these steps for socialization to create a second group of results.
4. Combine search results to find citations about your topic.
   • Click Search History
   • Type the search terms you want to combine, separated by AND, in the search box(es).
     • s1 AND s2
     • (MH "Socialization+") AND s1
     • (MH "Socialization+") AND (MH "Students, Nursing+")
   • Click Search or press the "Enter" key.
5. Limit the results.
   • Either click Advanced Search and scroll to Limit your results, or scroll down from Refine your results and click Show More.
   • Select the limits you want to apply to the results. Commonly used limits include Published Date (YYYY format), Peer Reviewed, Research Article, and English Language.
   • Another popular limit is USA (select from the Geographic Subset list), for journals published in the United States. This limit does not restrict article topics to the United States, however.
   • Select additional limits, such as Sex, Age Groups, etc. if appropriate.
   • Click Search.

Saving Your Search

1. Click Search History.
2. Click Save Searches / Alerts.
3. Never saved a search before? Click Create a new Account. Otherwise, login to your My EBSCOhost account.
4. Type in a search name (and brief description), click Save.

Running a Saved Search

1. Click Search History.
2. Click Retrieve Searches. Login to EBSCOhost.
3. Click Retrieve Saved Search under the search you want to run.
4. Click View Results or Rerun for the appropriate search statement(s).

Viewing Results and Selecting Citations

1. Click on the title of a citation to see more detail. Click Result List to return to the list of citations.
2. Select interesting citations by clicking Add to folder.

Full Text Articles

Off campus? You need to install Adobe Reader software on your computer in order to display full text.

1. Click Full Text under a citation to see the full text of an article. You might need to click some additional links, in the next windows that appear, to get to the full text.
2. Use your browser command(s) to print.
3. To return to the list of citations, click Result List or Back.

Use the button to view additional full text articles.

Printing, E-mailing, Saving, or Exporting Selected Citations

1. Click Folder. Select specific citations or the entire group.
2. Click Print, E-mail, Save, or Export. Change the options as needed.
3. Click Print, Send, or Save. The software may not accurately estimate the number of pages that will be printed.
4. To continue searching, click Back, and then click Back on the next screen.

Finding Journal Articles in the Library

• Finding Items at Fogler Library
• Not owned by the library and not available online? See Getting Items from Other Libraries.

Questions?

Nancy Curtis, 581-1679 Science & Engineering Center, 581-1691

Reference Desk, 581-1673 Ask A Librarian

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Created by: Nancy Curtis | Revised: 01/28/2013