CINAHL Complete Tutorial

Question: How many results do you review before wanting to move on?

• Many people review ten or fewer results before you feel your search is working or not working. However, think of it this way - if you only review five results out of a list of 100, that means you are only reviewing 5% of your list.
• If you only reviewing a small portion of the results list, you want to focus on quality instead of just quantity.

One way to find quality articles is to use limits that restrict articles to predetermined criteria. Using these criteria tell the database to only retrieve articles that match these criteria. If you want only articles published in the last five years, the easiest way to ensure this is to tell the database before it starts retrieving materials. By doing this you spend less time sifting through information you don't want, and instead spend time refining your search strategy.

CINAHL Complete has many different ways to limit your results. In the links below are directions on limit by Publication Date, Language, Publication Types, Full Text and more..

There are three different places in CINAHL where you can limit your results.

1. CINAHL Homepage

Under the search boxes on the CINAHL homepage, you can make selections to filter your results.

2. Top of Results List

There are simplified filters at the top of the results list. These are not all of the filters available, but they are popular filters.

3. Filter Pane

Click on All Filters at the top of the results list to open a filter pan on the right side of the screen. You will be able to see all of the available filters and select the ones you want to apply to your search.