Working Through Your Results List
As you type in search terms that you have developed for your topic, you may initially find that your search terms are so broad that you will end up with a list of thousands of results. It is time consuming to skim all of the articles, even if they are ranked for relevance and you only go through 3 pages of results. Here are a few helpful hints.
- Set your parameters before you begin your search. Once you click on a database, the advanced search screen should open. Below the search boxes in EBSCO databases it will say "Search Options". Scroll down and place check marks in the boxes you would like to use. For example: You may want to select "English" as the language or you may want to limit your date range. You can even select types of studies in the CINAHL databases as well as journals articles with a nurse as an author. Once you have made your selections, return to the top of the page and type in your search terms.
- Refine your results. Look at your results screen. In the column on your left you will see a heading that says "Refine Results". You can set limits using any of these areas. For example, it you only want research that pertains to the United States, scroll down to "Geography", Click on the arrow, then put a check mark in the box next to USA. Clicking on "Show more" at the bottom of the list allows you to select more than one limiter. BE AWARE: Under "Source Types" there is an option to select Dissertations. Dissertations are very difficult to obtain through Inter Library Loan. To acquire a dissertation may require additional charges if they can be acquired at all.
- Evaluating articles quickly. Your goal with your initial results list is to select articles that you think will be helpful that you can read more closely at a later time.
- In EBSCO databases, look for the sheet of paper with the magnifying glass at the end of the title. If you hold your mouse over this icon, you should get a pop-up box that will list subject terms and many times a brief abstract of the article. This way you do not have to open every article.
- Each citation has a list of subject terms below the citation. Write down these search terms to augment your key terms list. Remember that librarians come up with the subject terms not nurses, so it may help to keep a list of the related terminology.
- Click on the title of the article. This brings up more complete information on authors, a more detailed abstract, and additional information about the article itself.
- Reading a Citation - Your citations on your results page will give you indicators as to the types of articles you are locating. For the assignments in this course you are looking for Research articles.
- Case Studies - Are important research. However, they should not be used for this course. This is because the "population" numbers in case studies are very small. Larger population numbers give a better idea of the effect a procedure or drug will have on the overall population. For example: 50% effectiveness looks great on paper, but if that is 1 out of 2 people, its effectiveness does not look quite as good.
- C.E.U.s - Continuing Education Units or C.E.U.s are great articles and focus on training nurses in consistent and new procedures. They are tend to be more "How-To" types of articles and not "Research" articles.
- Look for Key words - You are looking for Research articles if you look after the page numbers in the citation it will often say (journal article-research). This can be helpful in helping you determine which articles are Research articles.
