Guide to Nursing Research
Databases, Indexes and Abstracts

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The following databases and paper indexing and abstracting publications may be used to locate articles relevant to nursing in journals, magazines, conference proceedings, books, and other sources.  Contact a librarian (605-688-5570 or 800-786-2038) for more information.

CINAHL Plus with Full Text  (via EBSCOhost) 1937+
The Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) is the authoritative resource for nursing and allied health professionals, students, educators and researchers. This database provides indexing and abstracts for over 1,700 current nursing and allied health journals and publications dating back to 1932, totaling over 920,000 records. Full text includes hundreds of journals plus legal cases, clinical innovations, critical paths, drug records, research instruments, clinical trials. EBSCO CINAHL is limited to 20 users at a time.

Cochrane Library
      See EBM Reviews

EBM Reviews
(Subset of the Cochrane Library, 4 full-text Evidence Based Medicine Reviews databases: ACP Journal Club, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (DARE). This unique source of reliable and up-to-date information on the effects of interventions in health care provides evidence to support decisions of health care providers and to inform consumers.

Hospital and Health Administration Index (1945-1999, Paper, Abstracts & Indexes 016.362 .AM312)
In addition to hospital administration, this index covers much of interest to nursing including nurse administrators, nurse clinicians, nurse midwives, nurse-patient relations, nurse practitioners, nursing administration research, nursing records, nursing staff, and much more.

healthopedia.com
This medical resource provides comprehensive and reliable information from trusted sources in patient-friendly language. Browse specific areas:  Diseases & Conditions; Medical Symptoms; Medical Tests & Exams; Diet & Nutrition; Children's Health; Senior Health; Pictures & Images; News; Quick Drug Information; etc.

Medline (via CSA) 1997+
This National Library of Medicine database is the the premier bibliographic database covering medical journal literature including many articles of interest to nursing.   Includes links to many full-text journals.

MEDLINE/PubMed (1950+, via the National Library of Medicine)
This National Library of Medicine database is the premier bibliographic database covering medical journal literature including many articles of interest to nursing researchers. Some pre-1950 literature is also included. PubMed provides searching of older literature, but includes links to fewer full-text journals than Medline via CSA above.

OVID
Provides access to 4 major databases:
•EBM Reviews (4 full-text Evidence Based Medicine Reviews databases: ACP Journal Club, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR), and Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (DARE).
•Your Journals@Ovid (nearly 250 full-text journals online)
•Books@Ovid (24 full-text books in medicine, nursing, and pharmacology)
•Health and Psychosocial Instruments (1985 to June 2004, full text)

POPLINE  (1973-present with selected citations back to 1827).
The world's largest database on reproductive health literature provides citations with abstracts to scientific articles, reports, books, and unpublished reports in the field of population, family planning, and related health issues. Maintained by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health/Center for Communication Programs and funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), POPLINE includes some full text documents.

ProQuest  1980 +
ProQuest includes a Health Module that covers medical conditions and treatment, substance abuse, insurance, health policy and many other topics relevant to nursing. Many full-text journal articles are provided.

Bibliography of Bioethics  (Library Main Level, Abstracts & Indexes 016.1742 .WA17) 1975+
An annual publication providing access to print and non-print literature about ethical issues in the biological and health sciences.

Current Contents
This multidisciplinary, current awareness resource provides indexing and tables of contents to over 6,000 journals covering a broad range of disciplines. Many clinical and social/behavioral journals are included in this database.

Chmoogle
Free open-access chemistry search engine. Its mission is to discover, curate, and index all of the public chemical information in the world, and make it available to the public. Makes the world's chemistry searchable by structure. Just draw a molecule using your favorite structure drawing tool and hit Go.

ERIC 1966+
The premier national database of educational literature from 1966 to the present, ERIC also provides good coverage of other social sciences. It provides comprehensive subject and author indexing to more than 800 scholarly and professional journals including thousands of records related to nursing education.  It also indexes other types of documents including research reports, project and technical reports, curriculum guides, doctoral dissertations, masters theses, etc. Many recent ERIC documents are available online (see E*Subscribe below) or on microfiche in the library.   

Ingenta
A database indexing the contents of thousands of journals and magazines in a wide range of disciplines including nursing  and other health sciences.  Some full text articles are available free; most are available for a fee.

International Nursing Index (INI) (1966-1999, Paper, Abstracts & Indexes 610.73 .IN8)
INI indexes nursing journals covered by Medline plus additional materials selected by the editorial staff.

International Pharmaceutical Abstracts (1970+, via EBSCOhost)
Produced by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, this is an essential bibliographic resource for pharmacy. It covers about 750 pharmaceutical, medical and health-related journals. It is useful for locating literature about biopharmaceutics, pharmacokinetics, drug delivery systems, and almost any topic relevant to pharmacists. Paper volumes (1964-1998) are shelved on the library's main floor (Abstracts & Indexes 615.05 .IN8).

JSTOR
Provides full image access to the back issues of more than 500 scholarly journals in various fields including: Health and General Sciences, Biological Sciences, Education, African American Studies, Anthropology, Asian Studies, Botany, Business, Ecology, Economics, Finance, History, Language and Literature, Mathematics, Philosophy, Political Science, Population Studies, Sociology, and Statistics.

Nutrition Abstracts and Reviews, Series A, Human & Experimental.
A CAB database listing scholarly literature with abstracts relevant to nutrition. Access this database as part of CAB Abstracts.

Sociological Abstracts (1963+, via CSA)
The Sociological Abstracts database indexes and provides abstracts for journal articles from sociology and related disciplines. In addition, it covers relevant association papers and PhD and Master's theses.  Older journal articles are also covered in the paper Sociological Abstracts shelved on the library's main floor in the Abstracts & Indexes area (305.So15).

Web of Science
Provides access to Science Citation Index and Social Sciences Citation Index.  It allows very sophisticated searching including cited reference searching.