As a nurse, midwife or health care assistant you will often need to search for literature on a subject. The reasons for this may include:

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Leo Merritt
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1 Step by step guide to literature searching Contents Page Introduction 1 What is a bibliographic database? 2 What information will I find? 2 Search techniques 3 Identify your keywords 3-4 Combining keywords 5 Truncation 6 Review 7 Introduction As a nurse, midwife or health care assistant you will often need to search for literature on a subject. The reasons for this may include: To investigate best practice in an area of nursing. To update skills and knowledge. For a piece of academic work, for example a university assignment. This guide provides a brief introduction to literature searching and will help you to get the most from the other guides in this learning area. It will explore why it is important to use bibliographic databases for a literature search and identify search techniques that will enable you to find information effectively using the RCN e-library. 1

2 What is a bibliographic database? A bibliographic database contains information about a range of books, articles, reports etc. It can be used to search for literature on a subject or by an author. There are bibliographic databases for different subject areas (e.g. nursing, medicine, history, geography). Some databases contain information about a range of materials (journal articles, books, dissertations, etc.) and some contain only information about one type of material (e.g. journal articles). Some examples of bibliographic databases available through the RCN e-library are: British Nursing Index (BNI): details of journal articles from over 260 nursing, midwifery and allied health journals CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature): details of articles from thousands of nursing journals from the USA, UK and other countries. Also includes details of books and theses related to nursing. MEDLINE: database of the US National Library of Medicine. Details of articles from medical, biomedical, dental and nursing journals. Before you start your literature search you may wish to plan which databases to search. What information will I find? The information contained on a bibliographic database is called a reference, citation or bibliographic record. This provides the information needed to locate the full text of the item, such as the author, title, publisher. Some bibliographic databases have links to full text information purchased by your library or organisation (e.g. to a full text article or an e- book), but sometimes you will need to use the reference information in order to locate the full text. It may be available from your library in print or if they do not have it they may be able to order a copy from another library for you. 2

3 We will now explore search techniques which will help you to find information effectively using the databases available through the RCN e- library. These techniques are the basis of effective literature searches and can be used on most bibliographic databases. Identify your keywords An important part of searching is thinking about your search and picking your keywords. It is a good idea to think about this before you start your search. Bibliographic databases like British Nursing Index, CINAHL and MEDLINE work in a different way from search engines like Google and it is usually best to search them using keywords rather than typing in a sentence, question or assignment topic. To search bibliographic databases like British Nursing Index use keywords rather than typing in a sentence, assignment topic or question. A good way to identify keywords is to write down your topic and highlight the important words or phrases. Let's look at the following search: urinary incontinence in older people following a stroke Possible keywords urinary incontinence older stroke 3

4 Once you have identified your keywords you can think about any alternative terms (synonyms). For example: urinary urine incontinence incontinent older elderly stroke strokes cerebrovascular accident CVA In these examples note that some of the alternatives are from the same word stem (e.g. urinary or urine). Some people like to use mind mapping help them plan their search. You can use this to help you represent the topic visually. You will find links to resources about mind mapping in the Useful resources section of this learning area. 4

Combining keywords Combining keywords together is one of the most important parts of searching. We will look at how you can combine keywords using AND and OR.

5 Combining keywords Combining keywords together is one of the most important parts of searching. We will look at how you can combine keywords using AND and OR. This is sometimes known as using Boolean logic and is fundamental to successful searching. AND has a very precise meaning in searching - it means 'both'. stroke and incontinence' will search for references including both stroke and 'incontinence'. AND narrows your search. OR means either. Use this with synonyms. stroke or cerebrovascular accident will search for references containing either term. OR broadens your search. 5

6 Truncation Truncation allows you to pick up all the possible endings for a word by shortening it down to its first few letters or stem. The truncation symbol on the British Nursing Index (BNI), CINAHL and MEDLINE databases is the asterisk (*). For example: stroke* finds stroke or strokes incontinen* finds incontinent or incontinence diabet* finds diabetes or diabetic or diabetics hospital* finds hospital or hospitals or hospitalised or hospitalized 6

7 Review In this guide we have explored a brief introduction to literature searching including: What a bibliographic database is. What information it contains. Search techniques: identifying keywords, combining keywords and truncation. The other guides in this learning area will enable you to use resources available through the RCN e-library. They provide step-by-step guides and will enable you to practice your skills. If you would like to learn more about literature searching please use the Useful resources section of this learning area. If you require advice or support please contact RCN Library and Information Services. 7

Finding Journal Articles

[Type here] Finding Journal Articles Last updated On Oct 2014 This document and other Information Services documents are held online on our website: https://staff.brighton.ac.uk/is University of Brighton