How to search CINAHL

CINAHL is a database that contains many item records. This is an example of an item record.

The item record includes information about the item divided up into fields:

• Title (bold text at top of the record)
• Authors
• Affiliation (address of the first author; may also include addresses of other authors)
• Source (journal information including title of the journal, date of publication, volume, issue and pages)
• Publication type
• Language
• Major subjects
• Minor subjects
• Abstract
• Journal subset
• ISSN (International Standard Serial Number)
• Entry date (when it was added to the CINAHL database)
• Revision date (if revised)
• Accession number (a unique identifier for this record in this database)

Other records in CINAHL might have more or fewer fields.  Each field can be searched directly using the Advanced Search.

When searching on the topic of "What is the risk of mortality due to cell phone use in distracted teen drivers?" We might want the word mortality to be in the title field of the search rather than in all fields of the item record.  If a word is in the title of a record it is more likely to be the focus of the research in that record.

Searching in the Title field:

1. From CINAHL main search window, click on Advanced Search (link) below the main search box.
2. Type your term in the search box (e.g. mortality).
3. Click the down carat on the Select a Field (optional) (box).
4. Select Title from the drop down list.
5. Click Search (button).

Both the Title or the Abstract field are commonly searched at the same time for a concept.  This can be beneficial when a standard keyword search finds too many results.  This narrows the search to just the most relevant fields.

When searching on the topic of "What is the risk of mortality due to cell phone use in distracted teen drivers?" We might want to search for the phrases "distracted driving" or "driving while distracted" in the title and abstract fields.  

Search Title or Abstract:

1. From CINAHL main search window, click on Advanced Search (link) below the main search box.
2. Type your term in the search box (e.g. "distract* drive*" OR "driv* * distract*").
3. Click the down carat on the Select a Field (optional) (box).
4. Select Title from the drop down list.
5. Change the AND boolean operator on the next line to OR.
6. Copy your terms from the first search box into the second search box.
7. Click the down carat on the Select a Field (optional) (box).
8. Select Abstract from the drop down list.
9. Click Search (button).

For more information about boolean operators, phrase searching and using truncation and wildcards review those sections.

What if we found this article very helpful and we wanted to see if the author has written any more on this topic?

Greydanus DE. The killing fields on the roads: Can we protect the teen driver? Journal of Alternative Medicine Research. 2021;13(4):313-342.

Searching in the Author field:

1. From CINAHL main search window, click on Advanced Search (link) below the main search box.
2. Type your term in the search box (e.g. greydanus).
3. Click the down carat on the Select a Field (optional) (box).
4. Select Author from the drop down list.
5. Click Search (button).