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Nursing Research Guide

Finding articles in Nursing Journals

In one of your CSUSM nursing classes, chances are you will be asked to find a research article published in a nursing journal. This page provides tips on how to determine whether a journal falls under the category of "nursing" and how to search for these types of articles.

Searching

To limit your search results by nursing journals in CINAHL, use the advanced search menu to limit the Journal Subset to "Nursing."

Important point: Limiting with this filter won't ensure everything in the results are coming from nursing journals, it will just remove some (not all) of the non-nursing publications. Use the Tips on the right side of this page to determine if the article you found is from a nursing journal.

Image of the CINAHL database's advanced search page with the nursing option selected in the "journal subset" category shown within a red box.

To limit your search results by nursing journals in PubMed, follow the steps below:

  1. On the results page, scroll down and click the box on the left side that says "Additional filters."
  2. Select "Journal" and then "Nursing Journals."
  3. Click "Show."
  4. Once you're back to the results page, look on the lower left side to select the "Nursing journals" option in the Journal category.

Important point: Limiting with this filter won't ensure everything in the results are coming from nursing journals, it will just remove some (not all) of the non-nursing publications. Use the Tips on the right side of this page to determine if the article you found is from a nursing journal.

Image of the Pubmed results page with the "nursing journals" option checked in the "journal" category with a red square around it.

Tips: How do I know the article I found is from a nursing journal?

Step 1:

  • Identify the journal title.

Database result display showing the source metadata with a red square around it and an arrow pointing to the journal title.

  • Does the title include the word "nursing?" For example, "The Journal of Research in Nursing."
  • If so, you're good to go! If not, proceed to Step 2.

 

Step 2:

  • Paste the title of the journal into a search engine to find the homepage of the journal.
  • The "About" section on a journal's website will give you the intended scope and the audience of the journal.
  • This information will help you determine whether the publication falls under nursing or some other discipline (medical, psychology, sociology, etc.).