College of DuPage Library

Locating Journal Articles

The Library provides access to many online article databases that will help you locate journal, magazine, and newspaper articles. You can search by keyword, subject, author and title.

You must have a valid College of DuPage library card to access the electronic indexes and databases from off-campus.

Newspaper Databases
Includes Chicago Tribune, New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and more

Databases by Subject
Choose an database according to your subject of interest.

• Begin your research in the Health and Medicine Databases
  

  What databases contain the best CSP resources?

  • Each database contains different resources (journals, e-books, magazines, newspapers, pamphlets, etc.)--You may need to run your search in several databases. Read the database descriptions to locate databases most relevant to your search.
  • Pay attention to online journal article embargos
  • Some journals are ONLY available in print—the Library has photocopiers and flatbed scanners
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  "Best Bet" Health Databases

  Academic Search Complete
  Academic Search Complete contains indexing and full text for 9,100 journals. 7,100 of these journals are peer-reviewed scholarly titles. This collection provides both popular and scholarly journal coverage for nearly all academic areas of study - including social sciences, humanities, education, computer sciences, engineering, physics, chemistry, language and linguistics, arts & literature, medical sciences and ethnic studies.

  Academic Video Online
  a collection of full-length streaming videos. A wide-range of disciplines are included. Most useful to nurses is the Health & Health Care collection. Also included in the subscription are full transcripts of each video program that are keyword searchable, easy playlist and clip making functionality, permanent embeddable URLs for easy use in online courses.

  Care Notes
  Care Notes helps medical professionals educate patients and their families about certain conditions. Contains 2500 English and 2500 Spanish documents that address patient condition, treatment, follow-up care, psychosocial issues, continuing health, and the most frequently administered drugs.

  CINAHL
  The online version of Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature, CINAHL Complete covers nursing, allied health, biomedical and consumer health journals, publications of the American Nursing Association, and the National League for Nursing. It now includes the CINAHL Thesaurus and full text of over 1,300 important nursing and clinical journals as well as over 130 Evidence-based Care Sheets; nearly 170 Quick Lessons providing Overviews of Disease and Conditions; 170 Continuing Education Modules; and full text for 360 Research Instrument Records.

  Gale Virtual Reference Library (GVRL)
  GVRL is a collection of online reference books on a variety of topics including Business, History, Literature, Medicine, Social Science, Technology and many more.
  individual entries from these resources can be printed and emailed.

  Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition
  This resource provides 600 scholarly full text journals focusing on many medical disciplines. Coverage of nursing and allied health is particularly strong. In addition, this database includes the Clinical Pharmacology database, providing access to up-to-date, concise and clinically relevant drug monographs for all U.S. prescription drugs, hard-to-find herbal and nutritional supplements, over-the-counter products and new drugs.

  MedlinePlus
  MedlinePlus has extensive information from the National Institutes of Health and other trusted sources on over 900 diseases and conditions. There are also lists of hospitals and physicians, a medical encyclopedia and a medical dictionary, health information in Spanish, extensive information on prescription and nonprescription drugs, health information from the media, and links to thousands of clinical trials.

  MICROMEDEX Healthcare Series
  Provides full-text information supporting clinical care decisions including: drug monographs and evaluations (including contrast media), drug dosages and interactions, drug product identification, reproductive risks, toxicity management, alternative medicine/herbal preparations information, acute/emergency care guidelines, drug, disease and condition information for patients, laboratory test information, dosage calculators, nomograms, and references

  Nursing Education in Video
  an online collection of videos created specifically for the education and training of nurses, nursing assistants, and other healthcare workers. All of the videos in the collection have been created with the guidance of the Medcom-Trainex advisory board, and are regularly reviewed for accuracy, currency, and compliance with US Federal regulations from agencies such as OSHA and CMS. Also included in the subscription are full transcripts of each video program that are keyword searchable, easy playlist and clip making functionality, permanent embeddable URLs for easy use in online courses.

  Science Direct
  **Be sure to select "Subscribed Journals" from the Source drop-down menu**
  Indexing and full-text of 175 journals in science, chemistry, nursing, biology and other related disciplines.

  Browse all COD Library Health and Medicine databases
  

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  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, steril* finds sterile or sterilize or sterilization
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