NSG 365: Finding Articles
Start Here!
The brief videos and tutorials on this page show how to choose the best keywords, refine a search, and evaluate the information you find. There is also information explaining what a "peer reviewed" article is and teaching you to build more effective searches.
CINAHL and MEDLINE
You’ll need to enter your Miami Unique ID and password to access these resources from off-campus.
Start with CINAHL
At the top of the search page, there is a link that says “Choose Databases.” Click that link to add in other databases related to your topic. This allows you to search multiple databases at one time and have results from all of them show up in one results list. Add in MEDLINE with Full Text by checking the box next to it in the pop-up window. Then click "ok". (Note: you can also search these resources individually, if you would like.)
This will take you back to the original search screen. Enter your search terms at the top of the page. Click on the "+" beside the last box if you need more boxes for search terms. Before you click "Search" or hit enter, scroll down to narrow your results.
You will see the section specific to CINAHL first. Check the box under "Evidence-Based Practice". You can then also narrow by Clinical Queries and Publication Type, if you would like.
Scroll down a bit further on the page to the section specific to MEDLINE with Full Text. Check the box under "EBM Reviews". You can also narrow by Age and Publication Type, if you would like.
You can also limit the results list to articles published within a specific date range either from the search screen or the results list. From the search screen, enter the desired date range into the boxes under the "Limit your results" heading and in the "Published Date" section.
In the results list, you can change the dates in the slide rule on the left-hand side of the page.
If you see links that say “PDF Full Text” or “HTML Full Text”, clicking on those will take you to the full text of the article. Then, on the right-hand side of the page, you’ll see options to:
--download/save the article (blue arrow in the screenshot),
--print the article (red arrows in the screenshot),
--email the article to yourself (yellow arrow in the screenshot), and
--get the citation information for the article (green arrow in the screenshot).
After you click the icon to get the citation, you can highlight, copy, and paste the APA-formatted citation into your document. Always be sure to double-check your copied citations, though. Sometimes formatting, such as italics and hanging indents, aren’t correct. Information is typically in the correct order, but good to double-check that as well.
Cochrane Library
You’ll need to enter your Miami Unique ID and password to access this resource from off-campus.
How to Use PICO Search by Cochrane Library
On the search screen, click the "+" button to add more boxes for keywords. Add as many as you need.
Enter your keywords into the boxes.
The results list will be broken down into categories based on the article type. Click on the tab to see that type of article. The numbers on the tabs show you how many articles fall within that category.
On the left-hand side of the results list in each category, you can narrow down by publication date. Enter a "Custom Range" to get articles published within a specific date range.
Click on the title of an article to view the full text. On the right hand side of the article, there is a box with options to:
-view or download the pdf of the article (red arrow in the screenshot),
-print the article (blue arrow in the screenshot), and
-get the citation information for the article (purple arrow in the screenshot). Note: the citation information is not in APA format. Rearrange the information and add formatting (italics, hanging indent, etc.) as needed. See the "Citing Your Sources" tab in the left-hand column of this guide for information about APA style and to see examples of citations that are formatted correctly in APA style.
PubMed
You'll need to enter your Miami Unique ID and password to access these resources from off-campus.
Under the search box at the top of the page, click the link that says "Advanced". This will take you to a search page with more search boxes. Enter search terms based on your PICOt question.
To limit to articles published within a specific date range, click on the desired dates under "Publication dates" in the left-hand side of the results list page.
This last portion of a PICO tutorial demonstrates how to most effectively search your question in PubMed:
To get to an article, click on the title. Then look in the upper right-hand corner for a section called "Full text links" (the links will vary with each article).
If you see links other than the "Find It!" button, then click one of those to get to the full text of the article. If the "Find It!" button is the only option, then click it. It will search all of our other resources to see if we have access to full text.