How To Search
CINAHL
(Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature)
CINAHL contains articles about nursing, physical therapy, chiropractic care, health services administration, sports medicine, and related subjects published between 1982-present. Many articles are full-text.
Getting Started
> Click CINAHL on the list of databases.
Basic Searching
Use "Basic Search Fields" if you are searching for a topic.
>Connect words with AND to find articles that contain both words.
Example: knee and injury finds an article that contains both "knee"
and "injury".
>Connect words with OR to find articles that contain either search word.
Example: football or soccer finds an article that contains either "football"
or "soccer".
>Connect words with AND NOT to find an article that contains one word
but not the other.
Example: injury and not knee finds an article that contains injury but
not knee.
>Phrase Searching: you can enclose a term in quotation marks to search
for the term as an exact phrase. Phrase searching is useful for making a search
specific.
Example: "occupational therapy" finds this exact phrase.
>Truncation: Use a ? to find variations of a word. Example: injur?
finds articles on injury, injuries, and injured.
>Check the box for "Peer-Reviewed" on the right side of
the screen to limit your search to scholarly publications.
Viewing the text of the article
Click on the article’s highlighted title. Look for articles that have the full-text icon
(a long piece of paper). If there is a small piece of paper next to the citation, no online full-text is available. Please see the next section for advice on finding the article in print.
What if CINAHL has the citation of an article but not full-text?
Search in the Libraries’ Catalog for the title of
the journal or magazine containing the article:
> Minimize or exit CINAHL (or print out the citations)
> Click on the "Catalog" at www.lib.ua.edu
and select "Basic Search".
> Type in the name of the journal or magazine (not the title of the
article).
> Highlight "Journal Title" from the "Find Results in"
menu.
> Click "Search". The journal will appear if the library owns it.
> Scroll down to determine if the Library Has the appropriate month
and year of the journal. (If multiple headings appear, click on the number of
each heading to see if the library has the appropriate month and year.)
>Write down the Location and Call Number for the journal or magazine.
If the Libraries do not own the journal, you can still order the article through Interlibrary Loan. Go to the Libraries home page: www.lib.ua.edu. Look for "Interlibrary Loan" at the top of the page.
Printing, Saving or Emailing
For Printing or Saving:
>Click "Print Article" at the
top of the article.
>Click the highlighted here under "To Print Your Article"
(or click the little blue "here" under ‘To Save your Article")
>Click the "Print icon" on the browser bar, and then click "OK’.
For Emailing:
> Click "Email article" at the top of the article.
> Type in your email address and press the gold "Send Email" at the
bottom of the screen.
Help
>Ask a librarian at the Information Desk in one
of the campus libraries.
>Call the Libraries at (205) 348-6047