Meet with a Librarian
Book a research consultation with one of your MSMU librarians!
Email Us - library@msmu.edu
Your question will be answered by a librarian within 24 hours.
Call Us
Coe - Chalon: 310.954.4370
McCarthy - Doheny: 213.477.2750
Drop In
Stop by the Circulation Desk at either library and ask in person.
Enter your search terms in the Find field on the Basic Search screen.
Click the Search Options link, if you would like to use any of the optional Limiters or Expanders. To close the Search Options, click the link again.
Select a specific search mode, such as "Find all of my search terms," or "SmartText Searching."
Apply Limiters such as Full Text or Publication type; or use search options that expand your search, such as "Apply related words."
Click the Search button. The Result List displays.
The search field is displayed above the Result List. Your search terms, limiters and expanders are retained.
To revise your search, you can apply the limiters under Limit To on the left or click the Show More link to view all available limiters.
Using the Basic Search
Place words within quotation marks to search for exact phrases (“to be or not to be”).
Use Boolean operators to construct a better search (“tea trade” AND china).
Full-Text
Checking the Full-text limit will restrict your search to only search and retrieve records containing full-text.
Peer-Reviewed
Checking the Peer-reviewed limit will restrict your search to only search and retrieve records that are indexed in peer-reviewed journals. Peer-reviewed journals are a subset of scholarly journals and are defined as journals that undergo a review process where other experts (peers) in the field review the work before it is published in the journal. Peer-reviewed journals are also commonly known as refereed journals.
With Google Scholar you can search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts, and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities, and other web sites.
Search Google Scholar from here:
To do this from the Google Scholar homepage:
CINAHL, the Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature, provides indexing and abstracting for current nursing and allied health journals and other publications dating back to 1982, and contains additional records dating back to 1937. CINAHL also provides access to full-text for more than 760 journals and offers complete coverage of English-language nursing journals and publications from the National League for Nursing and the American Nurses' Association.
This link opens in a new windowComprises more than 28 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books.
Collection of databases containing independent evidence to inform healthcare decision making. Includes full-text PDF versions of the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews for both complete reviews and protocols.
Also include Cochrane Clinical Answers.
UpToDate is an evidence-based, physician-authored resource that provides clinical decision support by delivering the most recent medical information and evidence-based recommendations from physician authors, editors, and peer reviewers.
Includes access to UpToDate Pathways, an interactive guide to making clinical decisions, Lab Interpretations, useful for understanding abnormal lab results and Emmi, which includes patient education videos that are also useful for nursing instruction.
Provides full-text articles covering nursing and allied health topics, including pediatric nursing, critical care, mental health, nursing management, medical law and more.
Provides access to healthcare information on nursing, allied health, alternative and complementary medicine, and more. Includes abstracting and indexing, with many full-text titles, journals, videos, dissertations, reference books and more.
Source for patient drug information, available in both English and Spanish. AHFS is published by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, a founding member of the National Council on Patient Information and Education (NCPIE)
includes publications on the latest medical information for researchers of all levels. Subject coverage includes Medical Science, Nursing, Allied Health, Public Health, and Pharmacology.
Access to full-text medical journals, magazines, reference works, multimedia, and much more. A consumer health resource that provides information on the full range of health-related issues, from current disease and disorder information to in-depth coverage of alternative medical practices.
Full-text alternative health research database focused on complementary, holistic and integrated approaches to health care and wellness. Offers information about the evolving practice of holistic medicine and therapies.
A comprehensive collection of Nursing & Allied Health information for nursing practice, education, evidence-based practice, research, and administration.
Includes OVID Emcare and OVID Medline (R) searches as well as books and journals @ MSMU.
Broad multidisciplinary collection of online resources covering life, health and physical sciences, social science, and the humanities. It includes journal articles, online books, reference works, laboratory protocols, and databases.
Virtually all journals that MSMU has full-text access to online are indexed in our E-Journal search. Simply type in the title, hit search, and you will find all the databases where you can access the journal.
If you don't have the full citation, try using Google Scholar to find the article. Check out Google Scholar Search Tips here.
If you cannot find the article using the first 2 steps, we probably do not have immediate full-text access to the article, but that doesn't mean that we cannot get it for you! Try requesting it through Document Delivery.
Articles are usually delivered within 2-3 business days.Library databases don't search using full sentences. Instead, they use keywords and boolean logic.
Your best bet is to use keywords to search to get the results you are looking for.
Keywords are the essential words in your research question that focus on the main concepts you are interested in.
Other filler words are non-essential to the search process.
The keywords are highlighted and bracketed in the research question below:
Research question: What is the connection between [race] and [police brutality]?
Keywords: your keywords and key phrases are then "race" and "police brutality"
Boolean logic is a system that shows relationships between sets of keywords, terms, or subjects by using the words AND, OR, and NOT. In library databases, we use these terms to specify exactly what we are looking for when we perform a search.
The term Boolean comes from the name of the man who invented this system, George Boole.
Using connecting words like AND, OR, & NOT can help you find what you are looking for.
Learn more about keywords and other search techniques with this guide from UCLA: Search Techniques
Sometimes called scholarly, peer-reviewed, academic, or even "refereed', these terms all refer to journals that require review by a group of experts in the field before an article can be published. These experts are looking for things like appropriate methodology, proper research, and citations, advancements to the field, etc.
When searching for articles, look for the option to narrow your search by peer-reviewed, scholarly, or ‘refereed’ materials. There will most likely be a box you can check to limit your search.
Learn more about the peer-review process in this video from the University of Kansas: Peer Review In Three Minutes
Visit the guide below for more on how to:
