cinahl plus with full text database analysis
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CINAHL Plus with Full Text Database Analysis. Heather Wright LS 5813.21 Summer 2007 Dr. Hyuk-Jin Lee. CINAHL Plus with Full Text. CINAHL is the Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
CINAHL Plus with Full TextDatabase Analysis
Heather WrightLS 5813.21 Summer 2007Dr. Hyuk-Jin Lee
CINAHL Plus with Full Text
CINAHL is the Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature.
CINAHL Plus with Full Text is the latest of all the CINAHL databases, and builds on CINAHL and CINAHL Plus.
Ownership
CINAHL Plus with Full Text is produced by CINAHL Information Systems.
Several database vendors sell access to CINAHL databases, or subscriptions can be purchased for direct online access through CINAHL’s website.
TWU’s access is through EBSCO Host
Size
Indexes 3001 nursing & allied health journals
Full text is supported for 336 journals
Coverage by Subject
English Language Journals in: Nursing Biomedicine Health Sciences Librarianship Alternative/Complementary Medicine Consumer Health 17 Allied Health Disciplines (see next)
Allied Health Disciplines Athletic Training Audiology Cardiopulmonary
Technology Dental Hygiene Emergency Service Health Information
Management Medical Assisting Medical/Laboratory
Technology Nutrition and Dietetics
Occupational Therapy Physical Therapy and Rehab Physician’s Assistant Radiologic Technology Respiratory Therapy Social Service in Health
Care Speech-Language Pathology Surgical Technology
Coverage by Document Type Book Reviews Book Chapters Clinical Innovations Clinical Trials Conference
Proceedings Critical Paths Educational Software
Review Evidence-Based Care
Sheets
Government Publications
Legal Cases Nursing Dissertations Practice Standards Publications of NLN &
ANA Research Instruments Statistics Systematic Reviews
Coverage by Date
Coverage extends back to 1937 at the earliest
Most journals are included from the 1990s to present
Many other journals date from the 60s-70s-80s to present
Search Capabilities
Two main search options
Basic Search
Advanced Search
Basic Search Search via keywords only
Boolean operators supported
Truncation supported
Results mapped to subject headings
Can refine search through limiters: Full text, publication dates, type of document, peer
reviewed/not, author, journal name
Advanced Search Supports complex searches via many
different fields Supports Boolean Operators & Truncation Searches can be combined using history tab Results mapped to subject headings Can refine search through limiters:
Full text, publication date, type of document, peer-reviewed/not, author, journal name, language, evidence-based/not, research article/not, age groups, special interest, etc.
Search via subject headings & subheadings
Simple Searches
I searched CINAHL Plus with Full Text with the following query: I need information on the prevention of
pressure ulcers in the post-operative phase of care.
Query terms: Pressure ulcer Prevention Post Operative
I used the advanced search screen, CINAHL headings search and ended up with the subject heading “pressure ulcer” and subheading “prevention & control” combined with the heading “postoperative period” via the Boolean operator AND.
Search results - only 2 documents, both of which were relevant.
1st Search
The search was repeated, again using the subject heading of “pressure ulcer” and the subheading “prevention & control”, but this time I used a keyword search of all text with the term “post operative.” The terms were combined with the Boolean operator AND.
This time, 27 results were returned. All were highly relevant to my search query.
2nd Search
The building block search. Using the search history tab, I was able to combine three separate searches that I made for “post operative”, “prevention” and “pressure ulcer,” combining the sets with the Boolean operator AND.
See next screen for search results
3rd Search
The search produced 8 results. All were highly relevant. All 8 results were found in the second search which produced 27 results.
3rd Search Results
Building Block Search Results
The building block search produced 8 results. I felt these results were very useful and met the requirements of my search statement.
All of the searches I performed produced relevant results.
Results were high in precision.
Evaluation Tests
Coverage * Currency * Retrievability * Predictability *
Coverage Tests
1) Literature Review Bibliography Search
2) Nursing Center’s Recommended Reading List Search
Coverage Test 1 - Bib Search Literature Review:Bakalis, N. 2006. Clinical decision-making in cardiac nursing: A
literature review. Nursing Standard 21(2): 39-46.
Article included 81 citations: 57 available in DB either full text or bib 6 journals not available 3 unpublished dissertations, not available 15 book citations, not available
70% coverage - Coverage very good
Coverage Test 2 - Reading List Nursing Center, a leading nursing resource
website Recommended Reading List
http://www.nursingcenter.com/library/RecReading.asp
10 nursing journal articles Results:
7 out of 10 articles available in DB 1 available full text 6 out of 7 bibliography available
70% coverage consistent with previous test - Coverage very good
Currency Test
Database is updated weekly
Updates are made online
While searching the database, I noted that some documents have a one month delay before they are added, due to journal publisher restrictions.
Currency Test Search of recent documents:
Search for documents from 2007 97,987 documents retrieved
Search for documents from May 2007 to present 34,504 documents retrieved
Search for full text documents from August 2007 1123 documents retrieved
Database seemed very current to this analyst - currency testing is subjective.
Retrievability Test
Retrievability tests ask: What can be retrieved with a simple search?
Retrievability was tested through performing a search for a known item.
Retrievability - Known Item Search
I searched CINAHL Plus with Full Text for a known item - the article I used for my coverage test:
Bakalis, N. 2006. Clinical decision-making in cardiac nursing: A literature review. Nursing Standard 21(2): 39-46.
I easily located the known item using a simple search and limiters.
Retrievability is good, if you know how to use the search menus.
I used the advanced search option and searched for the author’s last name and first initial, followed by the truncation symbol, in the author field.
I also utilized the refine search options to limit results. I entered the year “2006” and the publication name.
See search results on the next screen
One result was produced. This is the known item I was searching for.
Predictability Test Like currency, judging predictability can be
rather subjective.
Predictability was tested by viewing search result screens and observing what information was present.
Predictability was found to be good. From reading the bibliographic information, I had a good idea if the article was appropriate.
Abstract provides valuable overview of article content.
Major/Minor subjects give extra clues to main ideas of article.
Publication type - specific info on what the article includes
Predictability Test
From the full bibliographic page, detailed fields give more information about the article. An abstract gives a broad summary of the article.
Very valuable for judging usefulness
Publication type gives information on the documents - such as “journal article”, “research”, “tables/charts”
Major/Minor subjects give keywords that may help the judgment
Opinion CINAHL is one of the most popular databases in
nursing & allied health and now I understand why. The coverage is excellent. All of the major journals in nursing are included, many full text.
It is a little complicated to search using subject headings, at first, but once you learn this skill, searching is a breeze. By using the subject headings, I felt more sure that my search terms would return useful results.
CINAHL Plus with Full Text has good coverage, currency, retrievability and predictability and I would recommend including this database in any academic or health science library.
Bibliography
CINAHL Information Systems Home Page. EBSCO Industries. 19 Jan 2007. Accessed 3 Aug 2007
<http://www.cinahl.com/index.html>.
Chu, Heting. 2003. Information Representation and Retrieval in the Digital Age. Medford, New
Jersey: Information Today, Inc.