Library Guides: HLT505 Research Skills Guide: Introduction to Journal Databases

What is a database?

In most essays and assignments, and certainly in literature reviews, you are expected to locate relevant scholarly journal articles.

You can search for journal articles in Primo Search, but you can also search for journal articles on a topic in a journal database, or package of databases.

You can access online journal databases in a number of ways. The main way is via the Library’s Journal Databases webpage

Online journal articles explained

An infographic in PDF format which explains how journal articles get published in online databases.

What is the difference between a database and a database platform?

A database is an organised collection of information records that can be accessed electronically. In the Library this includes databases which have:

journal article (and other) citations, where there is no full-text;
journal article (and other) citations, where all records have the full-text attached;
a mixture of the first two above (this is the most common);
other types of records, eg. videos, images, or listings of people or companies.

A database platform is a company which provides access to a number of databases, via a search interface unique to that company, where the databases can be searched/browsed individually or together.

The 4 main database platforms, and examples of databases/collections they contain

Platform	Database
EBSCOhost	CINAHL Plus with Full Text Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition
Informit	Health Collection Humanities and Social Sciences
ProQuest	Nursing and Allied Health Source ANZ Newsstream
Ovid	MEDLINE PsycINFO

It is important to realise that, once you are in one of the database platforms, you can search across a number of databases at the same time. In some cases, the Library provides a package of subject-related databases that are in the same platform. Two examples of this are:

EBSCOhost (Health) This link opens in a new window
A package of eight EBSCOhost databases, all of which include Health-related material and a considerable amount of full-text content. Includes an important Dentistry database and an important Nursing and Allied Health database.
The databases are:

* Academic Search Complete;
* CINAHL Plus with Full Text;
* Dentistry and Oral Sciences Source;
* Health Business Fulltext Elite;
* Health Source: Consumer Edition;
* Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition;
* Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection;
* SocINDEX with Full Text.

All EBSCOhost databases can be searched individually or in any combination.
ProQuest Health and Medicine Databases This link opens in a new window
A package of ProQuest databases all with health-and-medicine-related material. You can also search these databases individually or in any combination. Includes MEDLINE (1946 - current) and Nursing and Allied Health Database.
This collection of databases is ProQuest's subject area package of 13 databases with health/medicine-related material. Some of these databases are the health-and-medicine subset of a larger database.

Most of these resources contain full-text material. But as with all ProQuest databases, where a record does not have the full-text available, you can use the Find it [at] CSU links to search for the full item elsewhere.

The main databases in this collection are:
* Consumer Health Database
* Health & Medical Collection
* Healthcare Administration Database
* MEDLINE (1946 - current)
* Nursing & Allied Health Database
* Psychology Database
* ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global: Health & Medicine
* Public Health Database
* TOXLINE - does not include full-text material.

Once you are in the ProQuest platform, you can change to any other ProQuest database by clicking on the Change databases tab in the top menu. All ProQuest databases can be searched individually or in any combination.

See also Other Databases for more on these two packages.

Finding full-text

Most library databases comprise journals and articles, which is why CSU Library calls them Journal Databases.

Usually, if an article has full-text available, there will be a link somewhere close to the record.

If there is no full text link, you can click on the link to search for the full article in other databases to which CSU subscribes.

Follow the prompts to go via Primo Search to the article record in the new database, with a link to the full item.

If you are having trouble getting the full-text of an item, please contact the Library.

See also Other Databases for more on these two packages.