BNURS 520 & 522: Translational Research I & II: Finding Articles (522)

Finding Journal Articles & Research Instruments

Use the database links below to find citations and sometimes the full text of articles (scroll down to see the bulleted list).

Remember, if you can't find the full text of an article in one of these databases, check the UW Libraries Search system to see if it is available. For more information see the Locating the Full Text page and the CINAHL Tutorials page. To request electronic copies of journal articles that are not available online use our Interlibrary Loan & Scanning Services.

*All of the database descriptions that start with an *asterisk* below are EbscoHost databases, and look similar to CINAHL. They can be searched all at once by going into one of them, and then clicking on the "Choose Databases" link above the search boxes. Then select the names that you want to search in, such as Academic Search Complete, Business Source Complete, CINAHL, ERIC, Education Source, Medline, PscyArticles, PsycInfo, and Social Work Abstracts.

Various search strategies are numbered and listed below the database links for the CINAHL, PubMed, ERIC, and PsycINFO databases, linked below.

Health and Nursing Databases

CINAHL Complete This link opens in a new window
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*The best nursing article citation database.
* 1. Type: job satisfaction, or moral distress scale, and change the box to the right from "Search a Field (Optional)" to "IN Instrumentation." 2. Can limit by Publication Type to Interview, Research Instrument, and or Questionnaire/Scale, (hold down the CTRL key on a PC or the apple key on a Mac to limit to these in the Publication Type box on the first screen.) 3. Instruments by type that can be added to your search: Attitude Measures, Behavior Rating Scales, Checklists, Clinical Assessment Tools, Daily Logs, Diaries, Field Notes, Historical Records, Interview Guides, Language Tests, Life Histories, Psychological Tests, Questionnaires, Scales, and Videorecording. 4. Type: Instrument Validation. (How-to Guide.) (CINAHL Tutorials.) (UW Health Sciences Library Guide.)
PubMed This link opens in a new window
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Publicly accessible, but some full text is UW restricted. Search for medicine, health, and nursing article citations. The National Library of Medicine's search service to over 36 million citations in MedLine and related databases. 1. Type into the search box: Data Collection, Interview, Questionnaires, or Surveys. 2. Conduct a MeSH search for Data Collection, and scroll down the page to see the list of terms. (UW Health Sciences Library How-to Guide.) (PubMed Online Training.) (Using PubMed in Evidence-Based Practice-Training Course.) (MeSH On Demand tool.) (Search MEDLINE/PubMed via PICO with Spelling Checker.) (UW HSL PubMed Free Account Guide: MyNCBI.)
SAGE Research Methods Online (SRM) This link opens in a new window
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Articles, books (including the complete Little Green and Little Blue book series), case studies, datasets, and video covering quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods research methodologies in the social and behavioral sciences. Includes Sage Research Methods Cases (SRMC) and Sage Research Methods Datasets (SRMD). (Start your research.) (Nursing Resources.)
Web of Science This link opens in a new window
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Citation index for the sciences, social sciences, and arts and humanities.
Cochrane Library This link opens in a new window
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An evidence based medicine database consisting chiefly of 3 databases: Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR);The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL); and Cochrane Clinical Answers (CCAs). (Featured Help Topics.) (PDF of search tips for this database.)

Multi-subject Databases

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global This link opens in a new window
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The following is from the Quick Tips page. Tips for finding measurement tools--To Locate the Full-Text of an Instrument: Dissertations sometimes contain the instrument used, often in an appendix. If you are unable to find the instrument in this database, proceed to the next step. If you find the instrument in this database and wish to use it in your research, you must obtain permission, where applicable, to use the instrument. This database is an index to doctoral dissertations and selected masters theses from 1861 to the present; includes 1 million+ full text dissertations published from 1997 on.
ScienceDirect This link opens in a new window
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Contains abstracts, articles and full text of journals in the life, physical, medical, technical, and social sciences. Good for leadership and management articles.

Education Databases

ERIC (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
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* Education-related literature, from pre-K through adult education. 1. Type: nursing students and questionnaire, and in the "Limit your results" section select the Publication Type of Tests/Questionnaires.
Education Source This link opens in a new window
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*Education related articles and books

Business & Leadership Databases

Business Source Complete This link opens in a new window
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*Magazines, newspapers and journals in all business disciplines.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
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Scholarly journals and books in all disciplines.
ScienceDirect This link opens in a new window
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Contains abstracts, articles and full text of journals in the life, physical, medical, technical, and social sciences.
Wiley Online Library This link opens in a new window
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Access to a suite of business, computer science and engineering journals and books.

Psychology Databases

PsycInfo This link opens in a new window
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* Covers academic, research, and practice literature in psychology and related disciplines; 1872 to the present. 1. Type: job satisfaction and nurs*, or moral distress scale, and change the box to the right from "Search a Field (Optional)" to "TM Tests & Measures." There is also a Tests & Measures search box in the "Limit your results" section. 2. To browse the list of Tests & Measures, click on the "Indexes" option on the purple bar at the top of the page, look for the "Browse an Index" option and click on "Select" in the box, and scroll down the list to select the "Tests & Measures" option. Type something in the "Browse for" box such as a letter, concept, or test name. 3. Methodology – Limit search results to different types of research methods such as Qualitative Study. (You can select multiple items in the Methodology box either by holding down the control key (Ctrl) on a PC, or the Apple button on a Mac computer)
PsycArticles This link opens in a new window
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*Collection of electronic journals published by the American Psychological Association and others.

Social Sciences Databases

Social Services Abstracts This link opens in a new window
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Articles on social work, community development, and related topics.
Social Work Abstracts This link opens in a new window
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*Journal articles in social work and social welfare.
Sociological Abstracts This link opens in a new window
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Journal articles in the field of sociology, including international literature and other related disciplines.

Keywords for Searching

Questions to help brainstorm for key words:

What is your topic? Example: horizontal violence
Who is your population? Example: nurses
What type of instrument? Example: Questionnaires

Examples to type into article databases:

CINAHL: horizontal violence and questionnaires
PubMed: horizontal violence nurs* questionnaires

More examples:

CINAHL: Job Satisfaction and nurs* and Interview Guides
PubMed: Job Satisfaction pediatric nursing interview

More key words (these may or may not help with your databases searching, depending on your topic):

Surveys, Interview Guides, data collection, qualitative, quantitative, evaluation tool, assessment instrument, statistics

Finding Measurement Tools & Qualitative Articles Guides

The following guides are from the UW Health Sciences Library:

Measurement Tools/Research Instruments guide includes tips on how to find information about research instruments such as questionnaires. I recommend the two tables on the Resources page.
Finding Qualitative Articles guide includes tips and information to guide you in your search for qualitative research articles through databases, such as PubMed and CINAHL.

Strategies for locating the full instrument:

See if it is available in articles, book chapters or by searching Google
Look in the references of an article to see if the author of the scale is listed, and/or search by that author
Contact the author that used the instrument in their publication and ask if they can provide you with a copy of it, let them know that you are a student and want to use this for a research paper and are not going to publish it
Contact the creator of the instrument via email or phone, let them know that you are a student and want to use this for a research paper and are not going to publish it, ask if they can provide you with a copy of it
Pay for it