Library Guides: Advanced Nursing: Using Databases

How do Journal Databases work?

A journal database is an organised collection of indexed information records, most often from journal articles. This is where you would head when you need to search for information published in journals.

An information record in a journal database may contain:

Citation details (such as author, date of publication, title, etc)
Details describing the publication (such as a summary, contents, abstract, or subject area)
Information about its veracity (such as whether it has been peer reviewed, or its citation count)
A link to the full text of the document

Some online journals are open access, which means anyone can access the articles freely. However, most online journals require a subscription for access to the full text of articles, which can be very expensive. This is where the Library comes in. We subscribe to thousands of online journals on your behalf. To access them you must go through the Library website - either Primo Search or a link from a journal database. That ensures that you are an authorised user of the material.

For assistance please see our Database Help Library Resource Guide.

Or consider attending one of our Library Research Online Library Workshops

Why Should You Use Journal Databases?

Journal databases:

Are the best source of academic or scholarly information for your assessments
help you locate peer reviewed articles
Are subject specific, so that you get more relevant results
Have many options for refining results

You can find the Library's databases on the A-Z Databases page.

Databases are grouped into subject areas. The Nursing databases will be particularly useful for your study.

Journal Databases for Nursing

For a comprehensive list of relevant databases, head to A-Z databases - Nursing

In this guide we will have a look at the following journal databases in detail:

Depending on the emphasis of your research question, other databases which may be helpful include:

Emcare - on the Ovid platform, so looks like Medline. Specifically for nursing and allied health literature
ProQuest Nursing and Allied Health database
JBI COnNECT+ on Ovid - Very helpful for evidence-based reviews of evidence
Maternity & Infant Care - another specialised Ovid database
Scopus - a citation database of research literature across a large number of subjects

Be sure to contact a Librarian if you need help navigating these resources.

UpToDate

The Library has access to this point of care database. It is an extremely useful tool which summarises the best evidence on a range of health conditions in a number of specialties.

Continually updated, use this resource wisely. Check the extensive reference lists to find the primary studies contributing to the evidence base. In your assessment tasks, quote the original articles where you can, rather than the UpToDate summary.

UpToDate This link opens in a new window
UpToDate is an evidence-based clinical medical resource which includes medical and patient information, drug information, and a number of medical calculators. It is continuously updated and is designed as a point-of-care clinical resource.
The main content consists of 11,000 topics across 25 medical specialities, which are written, edited, and reviewed by authors, experts, and peer-reviewers from around the world. Each topic includes a prominent Summary section or Summary and Recommendations section.

Other features include:
• 1500 patient education topics
• 33,000 graphics
• access to Lexi-comp drug monographs
• more than 175 medical calculators
• What’s New and Practice-Changing Updates
• UpToDate Pathways.

UpToDate has an uncluttered user-friendly interface. You can search across the whole resource, or, from the top tab-bar, you can access the Contents, Calculators, Drug interactions, and UpToDate Pathways. You can navigate between topics using hyperlinks in the text.

For information about UpToDate's peer review process, see the page on Editorial Policy.

Media Databases

Informit EduTV This link opens in a new window
An Australian Informit database of streaming videos from free-to-air and pay-TV, selected for tertiary institutions. The link here will take you to the Informit platform with EduTV selected.
Lecturers and students can find and instantly watch Australian television content.

Features of this database include:
* Instant streaming access to more than 10,000 programs via computer, tablet, or smartphone;
* Archive of programs from 2006, with up to 80 new programs added weekly;
* Content which includes documentaries, drama, series, and more from both free-to-air and pay-TV;
* Study guides and articles to complement the programs.

Your searching from this link will be within the EduTV database only. You can change the database(s) you are searching using the Change Databases button. Unless you have changed databases, you will continue to search in EduTV. When you have run a search, your results list will include, at the top, which database(s) you have searched in.

You can use Simple Search or Advanced Search. Advanced Search offers more options for searching, and more limiters. When you have run a search, there are further options for filtering your results. For searching help, there is a useful set of Search Tips at the bottom of the Advanced Search Screen.
ANZ Newsstream This link opens in a new window
A ProQuest database featuring the full-text of Australian and New Zealand newspapers. Previously called ANZ Newsstand
This database includes titles from Fairfax (including The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald) and News Ltd (including The Australian, The Adelaide Advertiser, and The Herald Sun), plus leading regional and local newspaper titles from Australia and New Zealand, and transcripts and wire feeds from ABC programs.

Coverage varies, but most newspaper content is available from the mid- to late-nineties.

Other databases with online full-text newspaper content are Trove, Factiva, and Newspaper Source Plus.
Factiva This link opens in a new window
A global news and business information service, with most material available in full-text. It covers science, health, education, the humanities, and other subjects but has a focus on business, including business news, and company and industry research.
Factiva is produced by Dow Jones, a leading global provider of economic and financial information.

The database has full-text content from newspapers, newswires, business journals, market research reports, analyst reports, and websites.

It includes material from :
* Australian newspapers, including The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, and Business Review Weekly
* US newspapers, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal
* Magazines, journals and trade publications, including Forbes and Newsweek
* Newswires, including AFP, Reuters, and Dow Jones
* company reports
* other content including TV and radio podcasts; and major news and business information websites, blogs and message boards.

Coverage varies but goes back as far as 1980.

There is a useful online Help Guide available from ProQuest. It includes help pages on Simple Search, Search Builder (Charles Sturt's subscription defaults to Search Builder), Results pages, Companies/Markets, and Sample Searches.

NOTE: Charles Sturt Library has only 3 concurrent-user licences to Factiva. If you can't get access, try again later.