Information types

Nursing Database Resources
Periodicals
Basic information
Periodicals are materials that are published at regular intervals (monthly, quarterly, daily, etc.). Periodical articles contain current information, which is especially important in fields such as science, business, psychology, and technology. Also, subjects which are too new or too specialized to be covered by books are often covered by magazines, journals, and newspapers. Types of periodicals
Popular magazines - Popular magazines are written for the general public with
the purpose of informing and entertaining. Newsweek, Time, People, and Ebony
are all examples of popular magazines. Because of their easy reading style,
magazines may be a good starting point in understanding a topic.
Scholarly journals - Scholarly journals, also called refereed journals, typically
have articles written by authorities in the field, and generally reviewed (refereed)
for accuracy before publication. Journal articles may report research or provide a
scholarly discussion of a topic. The Journal of Accounting Research, JAMA:
Journal of the American Medical Association, and the Academy of Management
Journal are all scholarly publications. The articles usually include bibliographies.
For most college level papers, you should rely more heavily on articles from
scholarly journals than from popular magazines.

Bibliographic Databases
What is a database?
A database is an organized collection of information. Wilson Business Abstracts
and the WebPAC catalog are examples of databases.
Each record in a database is composed of the important elements of information for a particular item. For example, in Wilson Business Abstracts, the information about a single periodical article is a record Each record is composed of a set of fields which contain the individual elements
of information. For example, each record in the Wilson Business Abstracts
database includes fields such as: title, author, source, and descriptor.
Diagram of the conceptual structure of a database:
There are four basic types of databases commonly used in academic
research:
1. Bibliographic Database/Index Database- contains
descriptive information (citation and subject headings) for
publications, such as books, periodical articles, videotapes or
government documents. Such databases generally include a
citation and often subject headings, also known as descriptors,
for each publication. WebPAC, the library's online catalog is an
example of an index database. In most cases will not have
full-text.
Sample Bib/Index Database Citation

1a Abstracted Index – (most common index database) includes the citation,
subject headings (descriptors) and a summary of the content of the
publication.
Example of a record in PsycINFO: (Note: AB: denotes the abstract field)
2. Numeric Database - provides statistics, financial data, census
is a database which includes numerical data. For medical related data, try National Center For Health Statistics (CDC) 3. Hybrid Database – provides a combination of types of records. Health &
Wellness Resource Center is an example, containing both abstracts and full-text. 4. Full-text Database - contains the partial or complete text of works, such
• Health & Wellness Resource Center (Gale)
o Peer Review Journals and Popular Magazines 140 full-text nursing, allied health, and medical titles 40 full-text journals from the American Psychological Association’s PsycArticle database • CINAHL and PreCINAHL
Abstracted Index of Nursing and Allied Health • PsycARTICLES
Full-text, peer-reviewed scholarly and scientific articles in psychology • Oxford University Press Journals
ƒ Medicine
ƒ Neurology and Neuroscience
ƒ Oncology
• Science Resource Center Database
o 200+ full-text “science” periodicals Searching Health & Wellness Resource Center a. Medical Encyclopedia b. Drug Finder c. Health Organizations d. Medical Dictionary e. Health News f. Health Health and Wellness Resource Center
Practice Searches
Search Question
Search Strategy
Main Screen: Search
Search for information on arthritis. You’ll see a Subject For: A patron’s doctor said Guide called Related Searches on the left-hand side of
he/she has arthritis
the screen listing all the subjects containing your search terms. The term listed at the top of the list indicates that the term is in the Subject Guide’s Thesaurus. Clicking on this term will give you a similar– looking screen, only this time the results will be hierarchical. You will see headings called "Broader search," "Narrower search," and "See Also" under which there will be more general, more specific, and Health and Wellness Resource Center
Practice Searches

Search Question
Search Strategy
Health News
articles from several newspaper health supplements. Browse the 1. In the search box, type stress. Use the default search to search all the newspapers. 2. Type sunscreen in the search box and limit 3. Type mad cow disease in search box. Search as new drug therapies recently approved by the FDA. You can You can also search the newspaper supplement section for specific newspapers, topics, or dates. Health and Wellness Resource Center
Practice Searches
Search Question
Search Strategy

Drug Finder
At the display of the document on Vitamin C, use Control Find in Page (CTRL+F) to find the Health and Wellness Resource Center
Practice Searches

Search Question
Search Strategy
Advanced Search
(Build your search by enter the term and choosing the type to meet the search need Diabetes – Subject
Note: You must put “RN” in quotation Search for diabetes from RN
magazine

Advanced Search: A nursing student
wants to find an article he/she read last from a nursing journal but are not sure of mark Full Text and select year 2000 from pull-down box) NOTE: The asterisk at the end of infant* is used as a wildcard to search for singular and plural forms of the word. Health and Wellness Resource Center
Practice Searches
Search Question
Search Strategy

Advanced Search: Limit your Subject search = nutrition
records to nursing journals
without know the name of a
Source = nurs*
Note: Using the * to truncate
searches for nurse, nursing.
One of the most important duties of academic research is providing accurate references to the intellectual property used in your research—quoting, paraphrasing. In preparing these bibliographic references (citations) in an academic setting, you will be asked to follow a uniform standard, published as a style guide. There are two style guides used at PHCC: • APA (American Psychological Association) • Two major reasons students plagiarize o Speed kills. It takes time to do good research—to gather material, select and discard, read, reread and assimilate information; it takes time to understand issues and ideas well enough to respond with ideas of your own. Many incidents of plagiarism happen because students are in a hurry to finish an assignment and turn it in on time; they are careless with their research notes, fail to document their sources, and are easily tempted by “cut and paste haste.” o Know what plagiarism is. Know that you must document • Paraphrase means “rewriting someone else’s words in your words.” Why? Remember that even though
you are using your words, you are using someone
else’s ideas—and you must give credit for that.
• Remember that even if you cite a source properly, but fail to put in quotation marks a direct quote or if copy over unique words, you may still be guilty of plagiarism. ƒ Facts, quotes, opinions, statistics, or any information is not • What is common knowledge? Although there is no precise definition, common knowledge generally means 1) information that is repeated the same in several sources and/or 2) information commonly known to the average individual. When in doubt, check with your instructor or be safe and document it.

Source: http://sacs.ph.vccs.edu/FinalDocs/LRC-Library/NursingBIShort.pdf