CINAHL Preconcepts
The following is a list of terms and concepts that you need to know before continuing with the tutorial. Additional information is provided as links when applicable.
Abstract: An abstract is a stand-alone statement that briefly conveys the essential information of a paper, article, document or book; presents the objective, methods, results, and conclusions of a research project.
Accession number: A unique number assigned to each record in many databases.
Advanced search: Advanced search function allows more accuracy in searching. Often it has additional options that increase the precision of a search.
Boolean Logic: see Boolean Operators
Boolean Operators (also known as Boolean Logic or Connectors): AND, OR, NOT allow you to connect terms and determine the relationship between them.
AND |
Narrows search and retrieve records containing all of the words it separates. |
OR |
Broadens search and retrieve records containing any of the words it separates. |
NOT |
Narrows search and retrieve records that do not contain the term following it. |
Further details can be found at:
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boolean_logic
• http://www.internettutorials.net/boolean.html
CINAHL -- Cumulated Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature: CINAHL is the premier database for nursing and allied health topics/research literature. It indexes more than 500 nursing and 600 biomedical journals (84 in consumer health). Formats indexed: book reviews, government publications, nursing dissertations, conference proceedings, practice standards, research instruments, statistics, systematic reviews, educational software and audiovisual materials. To view sources indexed and other details, see the CINAHL home page. http://www.cinahl.com/index.html
CINAHL Heading: Word or phrase indicating the subject under which all material dealing with the same topic is entered in a catalog, bibliography, or an arranged file, specific to the CINAHL database.
Citation: A citation is the complete publication information of an article or item. You will need this information to locate the article in a Library and to include it in a bibliography.
Connectors: see Boolean Operators
Controlled Vocabulary: Takes the Guess Work out of Searching! A controlled vocabulary makes a database easier to search. Since we have many different words to describe concepts, drawing all of these terms together under a single word or phrase in a database makes searching the database more efficient as it eliminates guesswork.
Once you identify the correct term, most of the information you need is grouped together in one place, saving you the time of having to search under all of the other synonyms for that term.
http://www.controlledvocabulary.com
Database: A database is any organized collection of information. Examples of databases you may encounter in your daily life include the telephone book, T.V. Guide, Airline reservation system.
Document Delivery: A service that provides journal articles, texts, or other documents that are not located at the Library.
Entry Date: The date that citations are entered into a database. This date is usually different from the date of publication.
Explode: If you explode a subject heading you will retrieve all the documents indexed with that heading and any documents indexed with headings that appear below that heading in the tree structure(s) in a hierarchical thesaurus (for example, CINAHL, Embase, PubMed). (In a flat thesaurus explosion gives you the selected term and any narrower terms, but not related terms.)
Fields: The labeled and usually searchable sections in a database.
Find it at UF : A link that interfaces between a library's electronic catalog, electronic journals and databases to help users determine if publications are available and help users access these publications.
History Note (in the Subject Heading Display): History notes explain when the term was created. If there was a different term in the past, a note explains how to search for the concept.
HTML: Short for H yper T ext M arkup L anguage, the authoring language used to create documents on the World Wide Web.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Html
ILL: see Interlibrary Loan
Indexes: An ordered list, as in the index of a book, where references or topics of a book are arranged alphabetically by subject. Indexes maybe in electronic or print format; an electronic index is also called a database.
Images: Graphics, photos, drawings, or pictures.
Interlibrary Loan ( ILL ): A library service where users of one library may request materials not owned by their own library from another library.
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN): is an eight-digit number that identifies periodical publications including print and electronic journals.
http://www.issn.org/2-22636-All-about-ISSN.php
ISSN: see International Standard Serial Number
Journal Subset: Some of the journals within a database. Generally a subset is limited to a specific type, like consumer health journals.
Keywords: A word indicating a subject discussed in a document; used in searching catalogs and databases. For example, keywords could be people, places, or topics.
Limits: Restriction to the search retrieval. Different databases have different limits available. Some of the most common limits are publication date, language, full text and age groups.
Major: When major is selected for a subject heading it insures that the concept is a focal point of the document.
OPAC -- Online Public Access Catalog: A computerized version of a library card catalog.
PDF: Acronym for Portable Document Format, a universal file format created by Adobe Systems allowing users to distribute, read, and view electronic documents with all formatting, fonts, text sizes, graphics, color, etc. intact, regardless of the software or platform used to create the file. To view PDF files you must download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader application--available here.
Peer reviewed or Refereed Journals: Articles that are reviewed by experts prior to publication. Many scholarly journals are peer reviewed. To be accepted for publication in a journal the author must submit his or her article to be reviewed, usually anonymously, by a panel of experts in the field or the journal's editorial board.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peer_review
Publication Type: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/pubtypes2006.html
Review: An article or book published after examination of published material on a subject. It may be comprehensive to various degrees, and the time range of material scrutinized may be broad or narrow, but a review is a synopsis of the current literature. State-of-the-art reviews tend to address more current matters.
Research: a document type that reports research finding and include methods, data collection, results etc. This may include journal articles, dissertations or systematic reviews.
Search strategy: A strategy is a plan action depending on the search results you need. After you identify an information need, you create a statement, generally a sentence that tells exactly what you hope to find. You analyze what you want to find and then identify any concepts or words related to your need.
Source: A book, journal, dissertation what a citation refers to.
Subject Heading: Word or phrase indicating the subject under which all material dealing with the same topic is entered in a catalog, bibliography, or an arranged file.
Subheading: Subheadings are used to more completely describe a given subject heading or to focus on a specific aspect of a subject heading.
Tree Views or Tree Displays: The Tree Display shows the selected term in the context of its conceptually broader and narrower terms in each vocabulary branch of the Tree.
Truncate: To shorten a word; cut off at a given point as opposed to abbreviation. Used in computer searching to retrieve variants of a word or a list of items beginning with a phrase or string of characters. For example, if you search for "librar*," the system will find entries containing "library," "libraries," "librarian," and "librarians."
Scope or Scope Note: Scope notes are written by the database producer and are found in the CINAHL Subject Heading Display. A scope note is a definition of the term. Not all databases will have scope notes available. Not all subject headings will have scope notes.
Used For (in the Subject Heading Display): Words listed in "Used For" are synonyms.
