Think about the main ideas that are related to your topic. Try using the PICO format (Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome). Use synonyms of your keywords to help find even more information. AND combines words. OR includes more words to look for.
Search systematic reviews, randomized controlled trials, meta-Analyses, etc. using a text-box
The quotation marks search for phrases. The asterisk find word variations (e.g. nurs* for nurse, nurses, nursing)
You can select results to find full-text, a set date range, of only academic journals and more.
While keywords are search terms that you develop, subject terms are search terms that have already been developed - each article is already tagged with subjects terms that describe it. You can copy these terms into your search to use them as keywords, or you can go to CINAHL Headings and do a structured subject term search. While searching by subject is awesome, most of the time keywords will get you what you need.
When you find a relevant article, you can use resources like Google Scholar and Scopus to see other articles that have cited the original one. Check out the Searching Citation Indices guide for more information about citation searching.
Add Simmons University in the Google Scholar settings to check for full-text - go to Library Links and search for Simmons University, and check the selection box the says, Simmons University - Check Simmons Full Text.
Basic search. (n.d.). Ebsco help. http://support.ebsco.com.ezproxy.simmons.edu/help/index.php?help_topic_id=50
Medical Subject Headings (MeSH terms) are categories applied by the National Library of Medicine to describe what medical publications are about.
The Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) thesaurus is a controlled and hierarchically-organized vocabulary produced by the National Library of Medicine. It is used for indexing, cataloging, and searching of biomedical and health-related information. MeSH includes the subject headings appearing in MEDLINE/PubMed, the NLM Catalog, and other NLM databases. (National Library of Medicine, MeSH Hompage)
Use MeSH terms for searching words based on the concepts they represent. Keywords can vary extensively in related articles, therefore subject headings like MeSH help gather resources based on subject matter. You can combine MeSH terms with specific keywords for effective search results. Using them can help you focus your database search to articles that address your research topic.
View this video from the UAB Lister Hill Library shows how to choose MeSH terms in PubMed.
National Library of Medicine (2019). Welcome to medical subject headings, Retrieved April 28, 2020 from https://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/meshhome.html
Select Evidence-Based Practice sources in the CINAHL search options.
On CINAHL's advanced search page, scroll down for more search options. You can select Peer-Reviewed Nursing journals and find Nurses as authors
You can use an article for more than just content. Use words/phrases in the subject terms or abstract that you can use as search keywords; find instruments, tests or measures you want to use in your own research; see what else the author has written; check the references for your own literature review; see what other articles have cited this article since it was published.
When you're looking at search results in a database you're going to see a few different ways to get to the full article.
Use Google Scholar to access Simmons University library resources and other full-text options.
