Finding Articles
- Use Library databases to locate articles in professional nursing journals
- http://www.wpunj.edu/library/ercsub_sci.shtml
- CINAHL: Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature
- This database indexes over 2,700 journals as well as selected conference proceedings, standards of practice, book chapters and dissertations.
http://ezproxy.wpunj.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.epnet.com/login.asp?profile=cinahl
- Nursing and Allied Health Collection: Comprehensive
- This database provides access to nearly 400 full-text journals, including 300 peer-reviewed journals in the fields of nursing, biomedicine, and hte health sciences.
http://ezproxy.wpunj.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.epnet.com/login.asp?profile=nyh
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Searching Tips
Limit your results: from the Basic search screen, select publication type = journal article, select a publication date range, select English language, select an age group category (if appropriate).
Refine your search: combine terms by using AND. For example, searching for Roy adaptation model and self esteem will find articles with both terms.
Review subject headings: subject heading categories may provide you with additional related search terms.
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Evaluating Articles
When searching in a database, critical thinking skills are essential. Before wasting time and paper, it is wise to spend a few minutes reading the citation and/or abstract information and to consider the following details:
- Author: who wrote this and what are his/her credentials and affiliations?
- Source: is this a scholarly, professional, popular, or trade publication?
- Publisher: who is responsible for producing this? government? university? corporation?
- Date: when was this published?
- Audience: for whom is this written? general public? scholars? researchers? practitioners?
- Purpose: what is the point? Are the findings clearly stated? Are there clear biases?
- Data: is research methodology explained? Are charts, graphs, illustrations clearly presented?
- Conclusions: do the findings support the thesis?
- References: are there footnotes and citations leading to related work?
- Compare: how does this article compare with other articles in this field?
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Finding Journals
Many articles, but not all, are available full text through the databases mentioned above. You may need to locate a journal through another database or use the Library’s in-house print collection. To see if the Cheng Library has access to a journal, type in the journal title here: http://www.wpunj.edu/library/ejournals.shtml
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APA Style Guides
Quick overview for citing resources: http://www.wpunj.edu/library/apa.shtml
For citing electronic resources: http://www.apastyle.org/elecref.html
The 5th edition of the American Psychological Association’s Publication Manual is available at the Library’s Reference Desk and on the 2nd floor, BF 76.7.P83 2001.
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