In nursing, it is very important to use journal articles to find current research on your topic. While books are excellent for background and reference information, they are not published as frequently as articles. When searching for articles on a current topic, your date range should fall between three to five years, as data and statistics can become dated very quickly. Journal articles can be found by using the library databases that are appropriate for your nursing topic.
The Hoffman Family Library has access to research databases containing reputable nursing publications. Some databases will cover several subjects, while others cover a specific subject in depth.
Content: EBSCO’s nursing database covering biomedicine, alternative/complementary medicine, consumer health, and allied health disciplines.
Purpose: Database for research in nursing, medicine, and consumer health.
Special Features: Strong qualitative studies. Filter studies by nurse as author, evidence-based practice, and type of study. Includes MESH indexing, PICO search functionality, text-to-speech feature for some articles, and a tool for discovering citing articles.
The premier full-text medical database. Contains scholarly articles on all health sciences topics.
Content: Includes citations to millions of biomedical journal articles, as well as some books, book chapters, and reports.
Purpose: An essential database for biomedical and health topics
Special Features: Includes MeSH search functionality
Provides citations and summaries of scholarly journal articles, book chapters, books, and dissertations, all in psychology and related disciplines, dating as far back as the 1800s. 99 percent of the covered material is peer-reviewed. The database also includes information about the psychological aspects of related fields such as medicine, psychiatry, nursing, sociology, education, pharmacology, physiology, linguistics, anthropology, business, law, and others. Journal coverage, which spans 1887 to present, includes international material selected from nearly 2 000 periodicals in more than 25 languages. Can limit by publisher, publication year, publication status, publication type, document type, book type, peer reviewed, language, population group, age group, intended audience, methodology and classification codes.
This multi-disciplinary, full-text database is designed specifically for academic institutions. This collection of 3,865 full-text, scholarly publications provides journal coverage for nearly all academic areas of study - including social sciences, humanities, education, computer sciences, engineering, physics, chemistry, language and linguistics, arts & literature, medical sciences, and ethnic studies.
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Source |
Description |
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Magazine |
Magazines are written for the general public. They feature lots of pictures and advertisements. The authors of the articles are often staff writers. The content includes information on current events, entertainment and special features. |
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Newspaper |
Information in newspapers is targeted toward the general public. Newspapers usually feature black and white print and photographs. The articles are written by journalists and staff writers. The articles discuss news events and special features. |
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Trade Journal |
Trade journals contain information for professionals within a specific industry. Usually staff writers or industry professionals write the articles. They feature color photographs and industry specific advertisements. The articles discuss news and special features related to a specific industry. |
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Academic Journal |
Researchers and scholars are the main audience for academic journals. They do not feature pictures or advertisements. Research articles make-up the content. They are written by researchers/scholars of a particular profession or discipline. |
When you are searching for articles, your results are more effective when using AND, OR, and NOT connectors. These connectors allow you to link keywords and determine the relationship between them.
The most frequently used keyword connector is "AND". The "AND" connector will narrow your search results and includes both keywords in your sources.
Example:
