Finding Information

Sources in Nursing

Table of Contents

Getting Started

   Types of Databases

Journal Articles

  Full-Text Databases

  Citation Databases

     Thesaurus

     Strategy #1

     Strategy #2

     Strategy #3

Review

Full-Text or Not?

> Full-Text Databases

Advantage : You get all the words of many of the articles right here on your screen.  You don't have to go to the library or make a special request to get the articles.

Disadvantage:  These databases include a relatively small subset of the journals published in nursing.  And not all of the articles will be provided full-text on your screen, even for this smaller subset of journals.

> Citation Databases

Advantage:  These databases provide exhaustive coverage of the subject area.  Especially in medicine, you want to make sure that you have not overlooked an important study when making evidence-based decisions.

Disadvantage:  They do not provide the full-text of the article.  They may link to the full-text in another (smaller) database, but many of the articles will have to be ordered or tracked down in the library's print subscriptions.