Need Help?
Need research help and not sure where to turn? Get help from the library via email, chat, and online appointments or stop by one of our reference desks during open hours of operation.
Want to contact your Nursing & Health Sciences Librarian or set up a virtual or F2F appointment with her? Email Debra Smith: smithkak@cod.edu
Search for Articles & E-Resources
Use the Library's subscription databases to locate journal, magazine, and newspaper articles.
Looking for a particular journal or magazine? Use our journal locator.
Research Tips
Database (and Library catalog) Advanced Search Tips
- Use the features of the database (print, navigation) before using your browser's back or print buttons
- For keyword searching, use the advanced search feature so that you can use multiple terms and set limits (date range, peer-reviewed, full text, etc)
- Remember that databases require you to spell correctly
- To limit your search results to journals with editorial boards (or some type of review process by health professionals) look under the “limit” section of the initial search page. Select the option to limit to peer reviewed (some databases also call them refereed publications). Refereed publications and peer reviewed are synonyms for board-reviewed or scholarly journals. Don’t forget to set your date limits too!
- When creating your search strategy, take a moment to write down your key words and any synonyms (alternative words meaning the same thing) that might be used. Also think about how you connect your key words together.
- Connect different concepts with the word AND indicating that you want both concepts to appear in each retrieved article.
- Connect variations (different words could be used for the same thing) with OR indicating that at least one variation should occur in the articles retrieved.
- Put parentheses around actions that you want to be done first (just like you may have done in an algebra class).
- Here are some examples of synonyms and “nesting” (using parentheses):
- (aged OR geriatric OR old* OR elderly)
- (medicare OR medicaid)
- Put the key concepts together like this example:
(aged OR geriatric OR old* OR elderly) AND (medicare OR medicaid)
- capitalize connecting words (AND, OR) to let the database know that you are giving a command not just listing a word to be found
- Use an asterisk (*) to find all possible endings. For example, old* finds old or older
Look below for recommended article databases!
Requesting Articles
If you find a citation for an article that you'd like, but no full-text is available (or you're being asked to pay for the article)...
Follow the steps below:
- Start by searching the journal name (NOT the article title) Journal Locator.
- If the result indicates that the journal is available in a COD database, click on the database link and search by article title.
- If there are no relevant results, go to InterLibrary Loan forms.
- Fill out the Article form. In about 3-5 business days, an electronic copy of the article will be delivered to your email.
Recommended Databases
- Academic Search Ultimate This link opens in a new window
Academic Search Complete provides both popular and scholarly journal coverage and video clips for nearly all academic areas of study including: social sciences, humanities, education, technology, engineering, physics, chemistry, language & linguistics, arts & literature, medical sciences and ethnic studies. Academic Search Complete is a great starting point for most general research.
- Associates Programs Source Plus
Associates Programs Source Plus contains popular and scholarly articles and videos for areas such as accounting, agriculture, childcare, computer science, cosmetology, criminal justice, culinary arts, fashion, fire science, forestry, graphic arts, hospitality, interior design, massage therapy, plumbing, veterinary technology, and welding.
- CareNotes from Micromedex
CareNotes contains patient education documents providing easy-to-understand information about all aspects of care and health. These concise, customizable materials address patient conditions, treatments, diets, laboratory tests, follow-up care, psychosocial issues, continuing health, and the most frequently administered drugs.
- CINAHL Complete
CINAHL is the go-to journal article database for Nursing & Health Sciences students. It covers nursing, allied health, biomedical and consumer health journals, publications of the American Nursing Association, and the National League for Nursing. Use the subject headings and limiters to refine searches and access full-text nursing and clinical journals.
- Research in 10 STEPS Using CINAHLFollow these steps to successfully locate journal articles in CINAHL.
- Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition
Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition provides researchers, allied health professionals, nurses and medical educators with access to full-text, scholarly journals focusing on many medical disciplines. It provides indexing, abstracts, and full-text for hundreds of nursing and allied health journals, many of which are peer-reviewed.
- Journal of the American Medical Association Online
The JAMA Network is an international, peer-reviewed, general medical journal that publishes research on clinical care, innovation in health care, health policy, and global health across all health disciplines and countries for clinicians, investigators, and policy makers.
COD Library patrons have access to JAMA online and JAMA Network Open only. - Mango Languages
Mango is an adaptive learning language interface featuring more than 70 languages. Mango offers critical thinking and memory-building exercises, grammar and culture notes, and conversation-based methodology to help build language and communication skills. Available in browser or mobile app.
Students, Faculty, and Staff: Sign up for an account with your COD email or use as guest via the database link.
District Resident Access: Registered district residents can get signed up for a Mango Languages account at the Circulation Desk. Sign in on the app or click HERE for the web link. - Micromedex
Micromedex is an evidence-based, multi-database drug search engine that provides summary and in-depth information for drugs (both prescription and over-the-counter products), diseases, toxicology, and alternative medicine. Its clinical tools include IV compatibility, drug identification, drug interactions, drug comparisons, and clinical calculators.
If you are looking for information on the MobileMicromedex app, please click here. - New England Journal of Medicine
The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) is a weekly general medical journal that publishes new medical research, review articles, and editorial opinion on a wide variety of topics of importance to biomedical science and clinical practice.
- PubMed - National Library of Medicine
The PubMed database, freely available via the Internet, provides citations and abstracts to articles in medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, allied health, and the pre-clinical sciences; it also indexes articles from the Index to Dental Literature and the International Nursing Index. PubMed is a service of the US National Library of Medicine. Citations may include links to full-text articles from PubMed Central or publisher websites.
- Science Direct
Science Direct provides indexing and full-text journal articles in the sciences and social sciences, including chemistry, medicine, computer science, earth science, economics, business, engineering, energy, environmental science, life science, materials science, mathematics, physics, and astronomy. This is a good source for scholarly research in those subjects.
- Westlaw NextWestlaw Next is a comprehensive collection of law-related information resources along with news and business information. It contains information on primary law, analytical materials, litigation insights, case law, core legal reference materials, and much more. Westlaw also provides access to Black's Law Dictionary and the Illinois Practice Series available on the "Secondary Sources" page.Secondary Sources How-To