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.