A database is a collection of information provided and/or organized by a certain publisher, geared toward a certain audience. WKU Libraries subscribes to 200+ databases in order to provide access to an incredible number of book chapters, journal articles, full-text reports, newspapers, case studies, videos, reference entries, and more! Many of our library databases are academic and designed for research, though some may come be designed for more general audiences. Databases can be organized by content type or subject area, so one database will often serve as a resource for multiple disciplines.
Searching in a database will pull up individual results much like OneSearch, but the pool of possible sources will be smaller. While it is always recommended to start your research process using OneSearch, because it pulls from all of our databases at once, searching in one specific database can be helpful if you're looking for a specific type of source or subject area.
Learn more about databases and how to access ours through this video: Accessing Databases.
Using a database isn't so different from using OneSearch, because most keyword search principles are the same.
*Note: Because databases are already tailored to a particular discipline or source type, and they pull from a smaller pool of sources than OneSearch, you may need to simplify your keyword searches.
Many databases even have the same types of filters: publication date, source type, full-text available, etc. Some may allow you to narrow your results based on a particular author, journal, or subject heading as well.
Many databases pull up full-text articles automatically. However, some may only include abstracts or citations. If you find an article in a database without full-text access, you can submit an Interlibrary Loan request to receive the article through another source. Visit our Interlibrary Loan page for more information.
NOTE: You must go through WKU Libraries in order to access our full-text content. Always start from the WKU Library website or one of our research guides to ensure you're using our proxy to access databases. Googling a database or entering through an external webpage will likely result in missing content.
PubMed is a go-to for searching articles in scholarly biomedical journals by subject. It is larger than CINAHL, containing 35+ million records with a large date range. Use links found in this guide or on the WKU Libraries A-Z Databases page for full-text access.
Focused Question: Are patient education programs effective in increasing exercise in patients aged 65 and older with high blood pressure?
Search Terms: high blood pressure patient education exercise
Enter your search terms.
Use filters/limiters to narrow your results.
Click title links of promising articles. Mark and save within the database, or download PDFs as you wish.
If there's no free full-text link, click [Check for Full Text at WKU Libraries]. If we don't subscribe, click [Request from Interlibrary Loan].
PubMed bonus: See how PubMed searched! Search details:
How did PubMed's automatic term mapping work? Did it "map" to the term hypertension? To find out, click [Advanced] below the search box. On the Advanced screen, click [Details] by your search:
Notice "high blood pressure" has mapped to the medical subject heading "hypertension", meaning PubMed searched both terms.
CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature) is a go-to database for searching scholarly nursing and allied health journals by subject. Most content is scholarly. Use links found in this guide or on the WKU Libraries A-Z Databases page for full-text access.
Focused Question: Are patient education programs effective in increasing exercise in patients aged 65 and older with high blood pressure?
Keywords and Synonyms
Pick 2-3 most important words or short phrases. Connect using Boolean operators [OR for synonyms; AND for different PICO lines].
Enter Search Terms:
Click in the top search box and start typing. CINAHL auto-suggests similar terms. Click on suggested terms to accept:
CINAHL has suggested hypertension OR high blood pressure.
Click in the second search box and continue typing your next keyword and synonyms.
For patient education, CINAHL suggests patient education or patient teaching.
Repeat those steps with the third search box. CINAHL suggests exercise or physical activity.
Use limiters (filters) to focus results (optional):
Click [Advanced] to use limiters (filters) to focus your search.
Review results list after adding limiters (filters):
Is this what you want? If not, refine your strategy.
Click title links to view full records:
Key Features Highlighted:
Focused question: Are patient education programs effective in increasing exercise in patients aged 65 and older with high blood pressure?
Sign in and enter your search terms:
Starting Keywords: hypertension "patient education" exercise
Limit (filter) by date if desired:
Notice top results may be older than you want. To fix this, click [Custom Range] and enter your desired publication dates.
Focus search and review results:
Google Scholar has no age limiter. You can sift through your results manually and/or intuit new keywords authors might use to describe certain populations to work around these types of issues.
Is this what you want? Experiment with years and keywords as needed.
Mark and save promising results:
Click the star to save to My Library if you're signed in to Google.
Click [cited by] and [related articles] to see more.
Evaluate results carefully:
Google Scholar has less "quality control" than PubMed, CINAHL, etc. Use critical thinking skills to determine credibility! Visit our Evaluating Sources research guide for help.
Use with other library databases to enhance your search:
Look for articles WKU doesn't have access to and find additional citation information.
What are Boolean operators?
Use Boolean operators in your keyword searches to narrow, broaden, or specify your results. In many databases, leaving a [space] between terms will automatically assume Boolean operator "AND".
What does "iterative" mean?
You will likely have to repeat your search process multiple times, implementing different strategies and/or trying different sources, in order to find the best results for your topic.
