CINAHL is a citation database covering literature published in nursing and allied health fields. This documentation covers some advanced search features of CINAHL. If you are new to CINAHL, we recommend that you read the article CINAHL – Basic Searching Training for a brief introduction.

Goals

Upon completion of this 1-on-1 training, you will be able to:

• Understand and use the CINAHL thesaurus
• Use the tree structure to ‘explode’ search terms
• Use subject sub-headings to more closely focus searches

Training

Select Only the CINAHL Database

To make use of the strengths of searching CINAHL using the Thesaurus, you must first change to searching only the CINAHL database.

1. Click on the Choose Databases link above the search fields.
2. Make sure that only the CINAHL with Full Text box is checked.

Find a Suggested Subject Term

1. At the very top of the page, click on CINAHL Headings
2. Type a single concept, such as “Migraine”, into the search box and click on Browse
3. The search results, consisting of a list of related headings, appear. Select the heading most relevant to your topic, such as “Tension Headache”.

Use the Tree Hierarchy

1. Click on the topic (i.e., “Tension Headache”). The resulting screen display indicates where the term fits within the overall subject hierarchy of terms.
   • The tree format presents results from many different angles.
   • The tree views present information in a hierarchical fashion, moving from broad to more specific.
   • For the sample search on tension headaches, tree views are displayed from the Nervous System Disease and Cardiovascular System Disease standpoints.
2. Select the appropriate search term from the tree view: either the same term, a more specific term, or a broader term.
   • For this example, click on “Vascular Headache +”, displayed in the first tree view.
   • The plus sign (+) indicates there are additional terms used to describe more specific concepts in the tree hierarchy.
   • For this example, the more specific terms are: “Cluster Headache”, “Migraine”, and “Tension Headache”.

Use the Explode concept:

1. Using the strength of the tree hierarchy, it is now possible to “explode” the search term.
   • The explode search option lets you search for a subject term, plus any more specific concepts in one search.
   • By “exploding” the term “Vascular Headache”, the search retrieves articles where the term “vascular headache” is used, in addition to the more specific terms “cluster headache”, “migraine”, and “tension headache”.
2. Click the explode box on the right-hand side of the screen, under “On Search:”.
3. At the top of the screen, next to the EBSCOhost logo, is a drop-down menu with the accompanying text “Combine selections with:”. Make sure this menu is set to or, then click the Search Database button next to it.
4. This moves the selected subject heading from the tree view to the search box at the top of the screen display.
   • Using these steps with the sample search, the first search box should now display the following: (MH “Vascular Headache+”)
   • ‘MH’ indicates that this is a subject thesaurus search term. The term(s) being search must be used as a subject descriptor for the article in order for the article to be retrieved through the search.
   • The ‘+’ sign following the term “Vascular Headache” indicates that the search will explode this topic, and search the more specific subject terms.

Restrict to Major Concept:

1. Go back to the tree view for your subject; in our example, “Vascular Headache”.
2. Under “On Search:”, now also select Restrict to Major Concept to have a search only retrieve only those citations where the subject term is the major point of the articles.
3. Make sure the “Combine selections with:” menu is set to or , then click the Search Database button.
4. This moves the selected subject heading from the tree view to the search box at the top of the screen display.
   • Using these steps with the sample search, the Find: box should now display the following: (MM “Vascular Headache+”)
   • ‘MM’ indicates that the subject term selected must be the major focus of the article.

Use Sub-headings to Focus Searches:

• Adding one or more “Sub-headings” to a search further focuses the search on specific topics.
  1. Returning to the tree view once again, select a box under the Qualify Subheadings: heading on the right-hand side of the screen.
     • For example, click the box for “Symptoms”.
  2. Follow the steps above to continue searching using the Thesaurus.
  3. Using these steps with the sample search, the Find: box should now display the following: (MM “Vascular Headache+/SS”)
     • ‘/SS’ indicates that the search is restricted to articles with the sub-heading of “Symptoms”.

Additional Resources

Review the Help within CINAHL

Once inside CINAHL, click the Help button in the upper right hand corner of the page to get general advice on searching EBSCOHost databases.

Consult Online EBSCO Resources

• CINAHL Support Center
• CINAHL User Guide

Review the Technology Help Desk web site

• CINAHL FAQ
• CINAHL – Basic Searching
• CINAHL (Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health
• For more related articles not listed here, go to http://lis.luther.edu, and use the Search LIS box in the upper right hand corner to search for “Access 2007”
• For more articles on other topics, go to http://lis.luther.edu/learn/articles.

Contact the Technology Help Desk

• Call 563-387-1000
• Email helpdesk@luther.edu
• Stop by the Technology Help Desk in Preus Library
• You can also contact the Library Reference Desk at 563-387-1163 or refdesk@luther.edu