How to search and limit to full-text, scholarly articles in Cinahl, Sage, ProQuest Nursing and other nursing databases.

1. FINDING SCHOLARLY,
FULL-TEXT NURSING
ARTICLES IN LIBRARY
DATABASES
Forsyth Library, Fort Hays State University

2. How to focus your search
Most databases
have a way for
you to limit your
search so you
only find articles
of a certain
type, such as
Peer-Reviewed
(also called
Scholarly or
Refereed) or
Full-text (the
complete article
is available).
 This presentation will show where to
find and use these limits in various
nursing and public databases.

3. How to access the Nursing databases
Go to the Scholarly Articles page of the
FHSU Nursing Research Guide
For a list of the best nursing databases:
http://fhsuguides.fhsu.edu/nursing
*TigerTracks login required to access all but PubMed Central & Google Scholar

4. CINAHL (SIN-awl) Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature
Cinahl offers more
limiting options
than most
databases, which
lets you perform a
very precise
search. To start
with, however, Full-
Text, Peer-
Reviewed and
perhaps Research
Article are
sufficient. If you
select too many
limits, you may not
find anything.
Limits your results
to only those
citations which
have a link to the
complete article
Only articles that are
reporting the results of a
research experiment. Note:
an article can be from a
peer-reviewed journal but
still not be a research
article (could be an
editorial, book review, etc.)
Only articles which are from
scholarly academic journals, and
have been examined by experts in
that field (peer-reviewers). These
articles are of the highest quality
and contain the most trustworthy
information.

5. Check the bibliography of relevant articles
to find additional articles:
Use the “cited
references” link if one
is available, or use the
bibliography within the
article.

6. To find full-text using a citation from an article’s
bibliography, search Primo for the article title in quotes
If found, a link
to the article
will come up.
Click “view It”
then click the
database link.

7. Cochrane Library
This database
contains a wealth
of evidence-based
data on
treatments,
technologies, and
more. The
Systematic
Reviews are meta-analyses
of many
studies of the same
treatment, to reach
a conclusion about
its effectiveness as
well as the quality
of the research .
Trials are
individual studies
and may or may
not have a link to
the full-text of the
article.
Use the quick search box, or click
Advanced Search to combine terms
or use MeSH headings
(Medical Subject Headings--uniform
terms for medical subjects)
migraine

8. Cochrane Library results list
“Reviews” are completed
and are full-text.
“Protocols” are reviews which
have just begun, so very little
information is available.

9. ProQuest Nursing
This database
contains
articles from
scholarly
journals,
trade
publications
& magazines
as well as
full-text
Dissertations.
If you want to
view
dissertations,
do not limit to
Scholarly
Journals.
Limit your search to
Full-Text & Peer-
Reviewed to find
scholarly article
citations which
have a link to the
complete article.

10. Science Direct:
Health & Life Sciences Collections
First, select “Advanced Search” in the green toolbar at the top.

11. Science Direct:
Health & Life Sciences Collections
Type in your search terms
Select “Subscribed
Publications” and
“Open Access Articles”
so you’ll get only
full-text results.
4. Select your subject
(optional) or just leave
it at All Sciences.
All articles
in Science
Direct are
scholarly.

12. Sage Premier
Select Advanced Search
Sage Premier
database contains
ONLY scholarly
articles. It covers a
wide range of
disciplines, including
Health Sciences.
Select “Sage Journals Available to
Me” to get full-text articles.
or

13. Health Source:
Nursing & Academic Edition
Health Source
Nursing &
Academic
Edition is an
Ebscohost
database and
can be
searched along
with other
Ebscohost
databases, like
CINAHL, by
clicking
“Choose
Databases”
Check the boxes for
Full-Text & Scholarly

14. Health Source continued
If you forget
to limit your
search on the
first screen,
you can use
the limit
options on
the left side
of the results
screen.

15. PubMed Central
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc
 PubMed Central is a subset of PubMed. All articles in PubMed Central are
full-text, scholarly articles from the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s
National Library of Medicine.
 Use the basic search, or click Advanced to combine terms

16. Google Scholar
Google Scholar
searches
“articles, theses,
books, abstracts
and court
opinions”. Some
have links to the
complete article.
To begin, just
search as you
would search
Google.
http://scholar.google.com

17. Advanced Search in Google Scholar
Once you have a list of
results, click the arrow
next to My Citations to
access Advanced
Search, if needed.

18. Search Tip: Articles that cited your article
Looking for the articles that cited your article is a way of “researching
forward”. For example, say you found an article you liked, but it was
out of date. By “researching forward”, you can locate similar articles
that are more recent. Also, the number of times an article is cited
gives you an idea of how much impact it had.

19. Links to Full-Text
Some articles are freely
available online.
If a link doesn’t work, search for “the article title” in Primo:

20. Other ways to obtain full-text articles:
If you don’t
find enough
articles when
limiting your
search to full-text,
remove
that limit.
Articles may
be available
in other
databases, in
print, or from
another
library
(Interlibrary
Loan)
Click Find It at Forsyth to search other
databases for the complete article.
If found, a link to the article will be
shown.
If not found, you can request the article from
another library (Interlibrary Loan).

21. Interlibrary Loan (ILLiad)
If it is your
first request,
you’ll need to
create an
ILLiad account
Then log in
and request
your items.
www.fhsu.edu/library/ill

22. Questions? Just ask!
Forsyth Library
Fort Hays State University
785-628-4434
refserv@fhsu.edu
Presentation created by MaryAlice Wade, Teaching & Research Librarian,
Forsyth Library, Fort Hays State University, Hays, KS 2014