This topic can be searched using PubMed
(Medline), however the databases below are also worth checking.
CINAHL
Nursing and Allied Health (CINAHL), is equivalent to the printed Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature. It indexes English language nursing journals, as well as publications of the American Nurses' Association and the National League for Nursing.
ATSIhealth (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Bibliography) an Australian database, which indexes published and unpublished material on indigenous health. It includes journal articles, theses, unpublished articles, government reports, conference papers, abstracts, books, book chapters, discussion and working papers and statistical documents.
Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition
This database provides over 550 scholarly full text journals focusing on many medical disciplines. It also features abstracts and indexing for 800 journals.
Before you begin you might like to refresh your memory about general principles of database searching.
When searching any database you'll find that the language you use
will
be critical to your search results. A Thesaurus may
provide
you with most of the concepts you need, but different databases will use different terms, so the language you need will vary from database to database.
For example the search we will use in PubMed
ear infections AND Australian aborigines
gives no results in Health Source: Nursing - try it and see. However if you search Health Source: Nursing using the strategy below
otitis and aborig* and Australia*
your search will give relevant results.
There will be times when you
will
need to resort to your own words. At these times you'll need to
remember
to allow for synonyms, differences in British and American spelling,
and
singular and plural forms of words. Remember that you will be able to
use
truncation, but the symbols may vary from database to database. Be very wary of truncation in PubMed, as this will compromise its ability to map your term successfully to MeSH.
Medline/PubMed - What is it?
MEDLINE is the National Library of
Medicine's
premier bibliographic database covering the fields of medicine,
nursing,
dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, and the
preclinical
sciences. MEDLINE contains bibliographic citations and author
abstracts
from more than 4,600 biomedical journals published in the United States
and 70 other countries. The database contains over 12 million citations
dating back to the mid-1960's. Coverage is worldwide, but most records
are from English-language sources or have English abstracts.
The version of Medline used by the Library is PubMed. Although
PubMed
is a free version of Medline available throughout the world, the link
in
our catalogue is to our customised version which contains links to many
of our full text electronic journals. To protect access to our journals
it has has been set up so that you will need authentication to access
it.
Below is a link which will save you going to the catalogue, as it will
open PubMed in a separate window.
MeSH Terms
Medline uses a controlled vocabulary to index articles, and the terms
it
uses can be found in the MeSH (Medical Subject
Headings)
Database - it's in the blue column on the left of the
PubMed
screen.
Medical subject headings are assigned by human indexers to
most references
in PubMed (eventually). Indexers use the most specific MeSH that
appropriately
describe the contents of the article. Usually there are several MeSH
given
to each article. Most MeSH also include Subheadings. The advantage for
you is that MeSH's standardised language makes it easy for you to
search
for a concept even if different authors have used a variety of
different
words to describe it.
PubMed automatically tries to find a MeSH for each term
entered in a
search.
You will need to remember that PubMed's default setting is to
"explode"
all terms. This means that where there is a list of "narrower" terms
these
will be included in your search. (You'll see an example of this further
down the page)
If you want to use the MeSH Database directly, instructions on
how to
search MeSH terms can be found in the PubMed
Tutorial, but you might prefer to leave this option until you've
had
some experience in searching.
Performing your search
At the PubMed screen you will see a Search for box. When
you type words in the search box PubMed will automatically match
them to its MeSH terms. Notice that with PubMed logical operators (AND,
NOT OR) need to be in capitals - see PubMed
Tutorial - Boolean logic. You'll also notice that I've used
brackets
in this search. They ensure that both of the terms inside the brackets
are matched with the other terms. Always use brackets when you "OR" two
or more concepts together. (Click
here for a demonstration)
Try the following search strategy - just type the words in the
PubMed
search box, and click on Go
ear infections AND Australian aborigines
If you click on the Details option on the Features bar (click
here for an explanation)
you will see what PubMed is doing behind
the
scenes.
PubMed has mapped your search terms to its preferred (MeSH) terms:-
Ear infections has been mapped to the MeSH heading Otitis, and the word otitis has also been searched in titles of articles, and abstracts. However PubMed has also performed a text word search for ear infections (searching in the titles and abstracts of articles, as well as lots of other fields)
Australian aborigines has been mapped to the Mesh heading oceanic ancestry group, and a text word search has been performed for Australian aborigines.
Oceanic Ancestry Group is one of the headings listed in MeSH under Population Groups. If you look up Population Groups in MeSH, you'll see the full range of options available for targeting different population groups.
PubMed then displays the results of your search - a list of journal articles with the most
recent
at the top.
PubMed's default is to "explode" all
terms. This means that where there are more specific terms in its hierarchy it will search those as well.
Below is a list of the terms it will search under the heading -
Otitis
Otitis
- Otitis Externa
- Otitis Media
- Mastoiditis
- Otitis Media, Suppurative
- Otitis Media with Effusion
Limiting Your Search
When you have completed the search you may decide it would be useful to
limit the results. A variety of options is available to you - for
example
age groups, publication date, language. If you click on Limits on the Features bar you will see the range of options.
Below are the age group options - you can't see them all, but the range of age groups for younger people is visible.
Finding the Journal Articles
Each reference listed will provide you with details of
- authors
- title of article
- source of article
For an explanation of the components click
here.
By clicking on the authors names you will be able to see an
abstract,
and often there will be a link to the full text of the article. If
there
isn't a link to full text it's still worth checking the Library's
catalogue
to see if we hold the journal you want - we may have a paper copy, or
we
may have additional electronic subscriptions for which there are no
links
in PubMed.
You'll see that journal titles are abbreviated, and you'll
need to hover your cursor over the journal title abbreviation to see
the full title.
Once you have the full title of the journal you can look it up in the catalogue. Notes on searching the catalogue for journals are here.
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