Find It! is the Libraries' "link resolver;" it links an article citation to the full-text of the article, if available. When you see the Find It! button near a citation in an online database, simply click on it. The HPU Discovery menu page will open and indicate whether full text is available, and if so, provide a link to the article. If not, you may request the article via Interlibrary Loan.
CINAHL's Advanced Search Video
PubMed's Advanced Search Video
The Cochrane Library Video
The most commonly used databases (CINAHL, Medline, and PubMed) have video tutorials on the left. If you need help using these or any other database, don't hesitate to contact us.
For a complete listing of health sciences databases available, please click on the link below.
A keyword is a term used to perform a search using natural language. A keyword search will search your terms in the entire record of that item (the title, author, abstract, general description, and subjects). Keyword searches generally return more results.
All databases use the keyword search as the default; if you want to search by subject terms, your need to indicate so in the search field.
A subject term or subject heading is a term selected by indexers or catalogers as a predetermined item description. In other words, a person has looked at the book or article and assigned specific subjects that represent the main topics. Therefore a subject term search will only retrieve items assigned to that particular term (similar to what hashtags do). You can find subjects relevant to your topic by looking at the record of the item. A subject search is more relevant and specific than a keyword search.
MeSH stands for Medical Subject Headings
Construct complex search stings by choosing the Advanced Search option within databases and use Boolean operators. Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) are commands that connect two or more terms together.
Use truncation, wildcards, and quotations to make your search more comprehensive.
All databases will allow you to limit your search in various ways, filtering out the sources you don't want. Some of the most common limiters/filters are:
If you aren't given limiting options on the basic search screen, try clicking on the "Advanced Search" link. If you start your search without adding limiters, some databases, like EBSCOhost and PubMed, allow you to apply limiters from your results screen. The more limiters you use, the fewer results you will get.
Additionally, all databases have sets of searchable fields that enable you to search within a specific section of a record. Most common search fields include:
Some databases have Field Codes, such as the EBSCO databases to search within a specific section of the record. The field code is represented in a two-character abbreviation when inserted into the query. When using field searchers, be sure that the term you're using is on the list of acceptable terms for that field. Some fields use like Subject Terms are pre-populated lists of terms from a thesaurus.