There are several ways to find journal articles, including:
- finding a journal on your topic and looking through it,
- using citations found in the bibliography of another paper,
- searching indexes to find out which journals have published articles of interest, and
- in some indexes you can find citations to articles that have cited an article of interest (e.g. in CINAHL or MEDLINE use the Find Citing Articles link. The Web of Knowledge is another good index for such searches).
Searching for journal articles is not always a straight forward process. You may have to refine your search strategy (i.e. trying different keywords and indexes) or even your initial question. Remember to give yourself plenty of time to allow for this recursive process. Being creative, persistent and patient will help you through this process.
Below you will find some general information about using indexes and more specific information about searching in CINAHL including advanced search strategies on how to find specific types of articles.
Using Indexes to Locate Articles
What's an Index?
How to use an Index (general guide) .
What's a Citation?
How to Keyword Search. |
Almost all indexes are now in the form of online databases. Trent subscribes to many indexes and we use them to find out what's been published in the existing literature. Indexes provide us with citations, which are descriptions of articles. Once we have a citation, we can find out where/how to get the article. Search online indexes using keyword search strategies. Many can also be searched by author and subject.
The most useful indexes for Nursing or Health topics are:
CINAHL
MEDLINE
EBM Reviews
Sociological Abstracts
PsycINFO
Web of Knowledge
For other health related indexes see the main page of the Nursing Subject Guide. To see all indexes available through the library click here. |
Google Scholar
"Google" and Other Internet Search Engines |
Google Scholar does exactly what the library's indexes do: it provides citations to articles that it can find. It hopes to do what students keep asking us to - provide one place to search the entire world of scholarly publications. At the moment, it doesn't do that because only some publishers have allowed their crawlers in. Over time, the number of publishers will increase, and more information will be available, but access to its findings will continue to be restricted to paying customers.
We've arranged to have Trent University added as an institution on the Google Scholar site, so that you can access many articles online through their search engine. To do this, go to Google Scholar and click on "Scholar Preferences". In the "Institutional Access" box, enter "Trent University" and click on "Find Institution". It will find Trent, and display it with a checkmark beside it. For more information go to: "Google" and Other Internet Search Engines. |
| Finding Journals of Interest |
Trent's list of E-Journals can be searched by title or by subject category. This is a great place to start searching for a journal. Trent subscribes to over 12,000 journals online. If you have a found an interesting citation in the bibliography of an article, start here to find out if we have the journal online.
TOPCAT lists all the journals we subscribe to, whether they are online or in print. Search TOPCAT by periodical title or using a keyword search including the term "periodicals". TOPCAT lists every volume/issue of a journal we obtain in print and it provides a link to each e-journal. |
| CINAHL Guide |
In this guide are basic instructions for searching CINAHL including printable tip sheets and a troubleshooting guide. |
| Tips on finding specific types of articles |
On this web page you will find tips on how to find various types of articles in CINAHL including: Canadian content, peer reviewed, literature reviews, research articles, clinical trials and concept analyses. |
| Guide to Finding Answers to Clinical Questions |
In this guide you will find an introduction to the "5S evolution of information services for evidence based-healthcare." Also included are instructions on advanced search strategies for finding articles (e.g. randomized controlled trials, systematic reviews, qualitative studies, etc.) to answer specific clinical questions using databases including CINAHL, MEDLINE, and EBM Reviews. |
| Getting the Full-Text Article |
Sometimes from the same vendor we subscribe to for the Index you are searching, we have subscriptions to Full-Text journals. In this case you will see below or next to the citation a 'Full-Text' link to the article.
If you do not see a Full-Text link, this does not always mean we don't have the article. It may be available from another vendor. In this case, to determine if Trent has the full-text of an article, click on  . This icon can be seen near each citation in a database.
If an article is not available, you can request an InterLibrary Loan (ILL) through RACER. Keep in mind articles via ILL are not available overnight, so this service is only useful if you have enough time to receive the article before your project is due. We recommend that you allow 7-10 days. For more information and to register for an account please go to the RACER web site. |
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