Starting your Search - what to use? - Developing Research Skills for Evidence and Enquiry for Practice (HWLS)

What will I learn in this section?

This section will cover all you need to know about using a database to find your articles. Remember, you need to find two articles from one database relevant to your subject area. The topic you choose to search for is to enable you to find your articles - the essential skill you are trying to demonstrate is the search process you are using to find the two articles. So please don't get too obsessed with searching for your topic!

Remember! You are NOT doing a literature review of your topic; you are investigating the research methodologies of the two papers you choose in order to critique them.

Each of the databases below has more information about what subjects or topics that database covers. Please read this information carefully to help you choose which database is most relevant to your topic. The tab 'Using the Databases' goes into more detail on how to search these databases.

Key Databases for Nursing & Midwifery, Health and Social Care

These are the key databases that cover the Nursing, Midwifery, Health and Social Care literature. You need to choose one of these only to use to find your two articles. Each database has some information about what it covers and what it is appropriate for, so please read the information carefully to help you choose which one to use.

CINAHL Complete This link opens in a new window
CINAHL stands for the Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature. So it is most appropriate for those subject areas, but not exclusively so. There is a lot of information about community working for example in here. You would use this database if you are looking for literature covering subjects such as professional-patient relationships, community nursing and health, staff development and associated topics.
Coverage is from 1937 onwards and also includes books, nursing dissertations, conference proceedings and standards of practice.Cross search available with all EBSCO databases, select Choose Databases and tick those you wish to add to your search.
MEDLINE (Ebsco) This link opens in a new window
Medline is the complementary database to CINAHL and vice versa. You would use this database if you are researching topics such as nursing, medicine, healthcare management, pre-clinical science and associated topics.
Created by the National Library of Medicine, MEDLINE uses MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) indexing with tree hierarchy, subheadings and explosion capabilities to search citations from over 4,800 current biomedical journals. Included are citations from Index Medicus, International Nursing Index, Index to Dental Literature, HISTLINE, SPACELINE, PREMEDLINE, AIDSLINE, BIOETHICSLINE, and HealthSTAR.
Cross search available with all EBSCO databases, select Choose Databases and tick those you wish to add to your search.
APA PsycInfo This link opens in a new window
This database is published by the American Psychological Associations and provides comprehensive indexing and abstracts of the international psychological literature from the 1800s to the present. Documents indexed include journals, articles, books, dissertations and more. 90% of the 3,000+ titles indexed in APA PsycINFO® are peer-reviewed.

Coverage: 1806 - current
Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts (ASSIA) This link opens in a new window
Applied Social Sciences Index & Abstracts (ASSIA) is designed to serve the information needs of the caring professions, including practitioners, researchers, and students in healthcare, social services, education, and related areas. It is focused on a core of around 500 of the most relevant English language scholarly journals covering aspects of health and social care from a broadly social scientific perspective.

Library Search AND Google Scholar - Not to be used for this assignment!

While you may have used Google, or other search engines, previously, they may not be the most appropriate resource to use. Your assignment brief clearly states that you need to find your articles from an academic database, and Google etc. are not this!

From page 3 of the Assessment Brief:

'You should conduct your search on a discipline-appropriate electronic database accessed via the A-Z list of databases on the Library Gateway. Suitable databases include: Medline, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Assia and Psychinfo

N.B The Library Gateway itself is NOT a suitable database, nor is Google Scholar.'

Assessment Brief

Where Can I Get Help?

There is lots more help in the 'introduction to literature searching' folder in your module site. There is a section called 'introduction to literature searching' which has a comprehensive set of resources to help you with starting your search for your papers. You should have completed this by this time. If you haven't, it's important that you revisit this information.

You can get help with quick questions using Library chat, or you can get in touch with the Library through the student portal or Hallam Help points. Here are some useful help links:

Get to grips with APA referencing and using our software, RefWorks. Referencing and RefWorks workshops: https://libguides.shu.ac.uk/pages/referencing
Got a quick query? Get in touch 24/7/365 using Library Chat: https://libguides.shu.ac.uk/pages/
Need more detailed or specialist help (such as questions about using Library resources/specialist resources)? Contact Hallam Help: https://libguides.shu.ac.uk/libhelp/contact - this will get your enquiry to the most appropriate team.

Developing Research Skills for Evidence and Enquiry for Practice (HWLS): Starting your Search - what to use?

What will I learn in this section?

Key Databases for Nursing & Midwifery, Health and Social Care

Library Search AND Google Scholar - Not to be used for this assignment!

Where Can I Get Help?