This page will cover a selection of search features of the EBSCOhost platform, through which Dugan Library has access to CINAHL Complete and MEDLINE.
For more specific guidance, use the Help link found on the top menu bar within EBSCOhost databases.
CINAHL and MEDLINE have a wide variety of search fields that you can limit your search to. A search that does not specify fields will search for keywords across the entire record.
How do you specify a field to be searched? There are two ways to to this when searching CINAHL or MEDLINE through EBSCO.
Select Advanced Search → Choose the field you want to search using the dropdown menu next to the search box.
You can also manually specify field codes within the search box. For example, if you wanted to search for articles with anesthesia in the title:
TI anesthesia
You can specify different fields for different terms in the same search. For example, if you wanted to add a search for authors affiliated with Johns Hopkins to the previous search:
CINAHL: TI anesthesia AND AF "johns hopkins"
MEDLINE: TI anesthesia AND AU "johns hopkins"
IMPORTANT: Notice that the search is different for CINAHL and MEDLINE. While they use the same field code for Title (TI), CINAHL has an entirely separate field code for Author Affiliation (AF), whereas MEDLINE searches author affiliations in the main Author field (AU) as well as Author Address (AF).
To find information on database specific fields in EBSCO, go to Help → Database Help (bottom of the help menu column) → Searchable Fields
If you are getting too many results, there are a number of ways to narrow your search:
embolism
→ "pulmonary embolism"
embolism
→ embolism AND anesthesia
If you are getting too few results, there are a number of ways to expand your search:
"pulmonary embolism"
→ embolism
(MH “Pulmonary Embolism” OR MH “Pulmonary Infarction” OR “pulmonary embolism” OR “pulmonary embolisms” OR “pulmonary infarct” OR “pulmonary infarcts” OR “pulmonary infarction” OR “pulmonary infarctions” OR “pulmonary thromboembolism” OR “pulmonary thromboembolisms”)
(MH “Pulmonary Embolism” OR “pulmonary embolism” OR “pulmonary embolisms” OR “pulmonary infarct” OR “pulmonary infarcts” OR “pulmonary infarction” OR “pulmonary infarctions” OR “pulmonary thromboembolism” OR “pulmonary thromboembolisms”)
AND anesthesia
).MeSH are the controlled vocabulary for MEDLINE, while CINAHL Subject Headings are the controlled vocabulary of CINAHL. These indexes are similar, but not exactly the same.
Controlled vocabulary (also know as subject headings or subject terms) are standardized terms applied to sources by human indexers or via automated indexing (the National Library of Medicine transitioned to automated indexing for MeSH in 2022).
For these reasons, the most comprehensive searches will generally use a mix of both subject heading terms and keywords.
There are a number of ways to make use of MeSH/CINAHL terms:
Explode (+)
button.Proximity searching allows you to search for a set of words within a given distance from each other. Searching just for keywords can fail because the words are not connected to each other. Phrase searching (using parentheses) can also fail in cases where the words can be in a variety of orders or cases where additional words may sometime be added within the phrase.
There are two different ways to conduct proximity searches in EBSCOhost.
Place N# (where # is the number of words you want to allow) between your search terms to find terms in proximity to each other in ANY ORDER.
Place W# (where # is the number of words you want to allow) between your search terms to find terms in proximity to each other in THE ORDER YOU ENTERED THE WORDS.
healthcare N1 access
finds both "healthcare access" and "access to healthcare."
social W2 determinants W2 health
finds not only "social determinates of health," but also phrases like "social and economic determinates of health" and "social determinates of cardiovascular health."
patient N0 physician
finds "patient-physician" and "physician-patient." Using 0 for proximity means that no additional words can be added between the terms, but the terms can appear in any order.