Library databases allow you to use more specific targeted searching.
Staff in hospitals, clinics, and other health services will often have access to some of these databases, while professional organisations (such as the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation) might also offer database access to members.
Although this is a little more effort than just typing words into QuickSearch (or Google Scholar), you can find more relevant high-quality journal articles for your assignment (or your professional practice) in less time.
Isn't that what you want?
RMIT explains it well:
I got my first uni assignment and my lecturer told me to look in the Library databases for journal articles.
I was like, THE WHAT? But, when I got to the university library, a librarian explained it to me.
She said: First, you have to get your head around academic journals.
These aren't your "dear diary" journals, right?
Academic journals are collections of articles written by experts in an academic discipline. They've usually been reviewed by other academics in the field, who have said that the research is:
This means that if you use them, you'll get better marks than if you use Wikipedia, or a random website you found on Google.
In the past, journals were always printed. Articles were written and collected in journals, which were published at regular intervals. Libraries collected these and filled LOTS of shelves with them.
Then the Internet came along, and changed the way journals were produced. Now, they are more often found online as e-journals.
Online e-journals are organised in library databases. A library database is like a bucket: Each holds a collection of e-journals. Some databases hold HEAPS of journals in them, while others don't have that many.
The University Library subscribes to databases that focus on relevant subjects for RMIT students and researchers.
No single database will have all the information you need, so you need to find out which ones are best for what you're researching. The Library has subject guides that show you which databases are best for your area.
It's so much easier to find information when you know where to look and why!
Find useful articles faster, using databases.
Databases also help with quality control.
They usually index a lot of peer-reviewed journals (quality-reviewed), and do not usually index the articles from predatory journals (publish for pay, no quality checking) that you might find using a Google search
Unlike QuickSearch, where almost all the articles will be available in full-text, databases might contain some journal articles to which the Library does not have full-text access.
See the Key databases listed on the Home tab of this guide.
For finding nursing journal articles, the most useful database is CINAHL (Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature), which covers most of the nursing journals, although if you have time then Health Source: Nursing/Academic edition is also worth trying.
For some clinical topics, MEDLINE (which, in spite of the name, also covers many nursing journals) might be more useful, or consider PsycINFO (which also covers many social and sociological journals) for mental health and social issues.
For best practice synopses and best practice recommendations, Joanna Briggs Institute database is better, while MIMS is best for drug information (including side effects, contraindications, and interactions with other drugs)
See the key databases and other useful databases from the Library home page.
By using a more structured search you can find more relevant journal articles in less time than just typing in words using "Google-style" searching, and having to "sift" through the results manually.
This type of searching is called Boolean searching after the person who first created a formal definition, George Boole.
Most databases will accept Boolean searches, which use the special operators AND, OR, and NOT.
So, instead of searching for health global warming, or health and global warming, search instead for health AND (global warming OR climate change). Many databases offer multi-field advanced searches, so use:
Wikimedia. (2015) Portrait of George Boole [Image]. Retrieved from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Portrait_of_George_Boole.png
Some databases, including CINAHL, allow you to make separate searches for each concept, then combine them.
This can be really handy for making quick changes to only a single search line (if you make a typo, or think of another search term), then re-combining your search, rather than typing your entire search again.
Searching for climate change might find articles that talk about because of the change in her health, she moved to where the climate was more salubrious. If you search for "climate change" (with double quotes) it only searches for the phrase with both words together. (This works just about everywhere, including Google searches)
In most databases, searching for chang* is the same as searching for change OR changes OR changing OR changed (or even the name Chang). The asterisk (Shift+8) works in most academic databases.
For example, if your assignment asks about global warming, you might also consider climate change (or vice versa). Consider different forms that academic authors might use.
So, if your assignment asks about global warming and health, search for global warming OR climate change as one search, and search for health as another separate search.
After searching, most databases have a way to combine your previous searches.
If the database does not support this, some databases have an advanced search (it's actually more "specific search', there isn't much advanced about it from the student viewpoint).
In this mode, you can put each concept as a separate line. This is also a useful way to break down and your search terms, rather than performing separate searches and combining them.
Most databases have limits that you can apply (year range, English language, type of result e.g. journal articles, conference paper, thesis). Some databases require you to apply this when you do your search, but the EBSCOhost databases allow you to apply these limits to the latest results.
For many nursing assignments, a good "rule of thumb" is to limit articles to the last 5 years.
If your assignment covers several aspects or viewpoints, or you are breaking your writing into several paragraphs each with a separate focus, it might be useful to do a separate search for articles for each different aspect, viewpoint, focus.
To pick search terms to find information, one way to start is the BUG technique developed by Dr Geraldine Price, Southampton University
Cowen, M., Maier, Pat, & Price, Geraldine. (2009). Study skills for nursing and healthcare students. Harlow, UK: Pearson Education.
Box the action or instruction words - this will change how you will write your assignment; analyse needs a different approach to compare, and discuss is different again. Note: these define how you should write, do not use them as search terms.
Underline the key terms in the topic - these are the areas of the topic you must cover, and this will also be very helpful in defining the search terms you will use.
Glance back to see if there is anything you missed or that will limit or modify your approach. Look for any instructions which are not part of the assignment question itself.
So, your first approach might take an assignment question and result in
resulting in a search like this:
"health issues" AND "aging population" AND Australia
Recommendation: Do not search for the action word (in this case, discuss). This will specify the way you write, e.g. discuss will require a different approach to compare, which will require a different approach to describe or
Beware of filler words, such as issues - for example, some authors may use health implications; instead.
I would recommend searching for just the word health instead of "health issues"
Also be aware of alternative spelling - some authors will use the spelling ageing with an e.
Watch out for US and UK variations e.g. organization and organisation
Watch out for regional variations in terminology e.g. "mobile phones" or "cell phones" (or "cellular phones").
Keeping with the health theme, different authors might use "bed sores", "pressure ulcers", or "decubitus ulcers" for the same thing.
Consider alternative terms that authors might use to describe the same concept or similar concepts. Try completely rewriting the assignment question in your own words.
One health assignment asked students to consider how the percentage of male managers was much higher than female managers in the nursing workforce, although the ratio amongst the general workers was quite different. Lots of students tried also searching women and men instead of female and male, and supervisors instead of managers, but the student who found the best results searched for gender AND "managerial roles"
Use professional terms where possible when searching for professional or academic articles e.g. instead of statistics AND measles, use the terms used in the health discipline, incidence AND measles.
Hint: You can use the subject headings (or descriptors) to find more articles on the same topic.
Try breaking your assignment up into smaller sections, each with a specific topic - maybe individual paragraphs or sections of an essay. Do a separate, very specific, search for each section, using multiple smaller searches instead of one big search for your overall essay topic.
What is your quest? What is your research question?
Type your research question into the box above, then click the Next button (below).
Copy and paste the search strategy into Scopus or your preferred database
Many providers will provide a citation feature to help you reference each article, although it may be presented differently from different providers.
Please use these features with care, as they can often provide incorrect or incomplete references.
For example, when you use CINAHL or MEDLINE or Health Source:Nursing/Academic Edition, if you click on an individual article, you will see a Cite icon on the right-hand side, clicking on this will reveal a ready-made reference in a few different referencing styles.
In the APA example above, to get a fully correct APA reference, you need to insert a full stop after the end page (111) and delete the 14p. part.