LibGuides: Nursing: Multidisciplinary Databases

Indexes and Databases

Interdisciplinary Indexes & Databases

Indexes and Databases bring together a number of different online journals and other resources into one search engine. Use these tools to find citations, abstracts and/or full text articles, reports and other resources on your topic. Both scholarly and popular articles may be included.

Applied Science and Technology Index
Indexes primarily English language technology articles. Coverage includes trade and industry publications, journals published by professional and technical societies as well as buyer's guides, directories and conference proceedings. Has some good PHilosophy of Science articles. Coverage from 1983 to the present.
CBCA Reference
This product includes all the content present in the Canadian Business & Current Affairs (CBCA) databases. Subject coverage is comprehensive. Information is present from all areas including: current events, business, education, science and medicine, arts, law, academia, and lifestyles, all with a Canadian focus. Full text is available within these areas.
EBSCO multidisciplinary search
Access multiple databases for searching literature in a number of disciplines. It is possible to search across some or all databases or to limit searches to subject areas.
Environment Complete
Environment Complete contains records from domestic and international titles dating back to 1888. It offers coverage in applicable areas of agriculture, ecosystem ecology, renewable energy, natural resources, marine and freshwater science, geography, pollution and waste management, environmental technology, environmental law, public policy, social impacts, urban planning.
Google Scholar
A subset of regular Google, it allows users to search for articles from all disciplines. Content is heavily skewed towards scholarly and scientific information; however, humanities and social science content is present, as is non-scholarly material.
GreenFILE
This database offers well-researched information covering all aspects of human impact to the environment. Its collection of scholarly, government and general-interest titles includes content on the environmental effects of individuals, corporations and local/national governments, and what can be done at each level to minimize these effects.
JSTOR
Used by millions for research, teaching, and learning. With more than a thousand academic journals and over 1 million images, letters, and other primary sources, JSTOR is one of the world's most trusted sources for academic content.
Native Health Database
Contains bibliographic information and abstracts of health-related articles, reports, surveys, and other resource documents pertaining to the health and health care of American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Canadian First Nations. The database provides information for the benefit, use, and education of organizations and individuals with an interest in health-related issues, programs, and initiatives regarding North American indigenous peoples.
ProQuest multidisciplinary search
A single search screen that provides access to multiple databases for searching literature in a number of disciplines. It is possible to search across all databases or to limit searches to subject areas including business, health and medicine, history, literature and languages, social sciences and more
Scholars Portal
This resource consists of a single search screen that provides access to multiple databases for searching literature in a variety of disciplines. Choose a subject area or select specific databases to conduct a search.
SCOPUS
Scopus is the world’s largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature. It has many articles that are relevant to science and technology studies. Additionally, it provides sophisticated tools to track, analyze and visualize information through citation mapping.
Social Science Abstracts
Indexes journals from a wide variety of social science disciplines and interdisciplinary fields. These fields include psychology, sociology, urban studies, etc. Emphasis is on the United States with some international coverage. Coverage is from 1994 - present
Web of Science
Provides access to the Science citation index expanded, Social sciences citation index, and Arts & humanities citation index. These ISI citation databases are multidisciplinary databases of bibliographic information indexed to be searched by subject, author, journal, and/or author address. They can also be searched for articles that cite a known author or work. Cited reference searching allows use of a given work as if it were a subject term, to identify more recent articles on the same topic.

Search Tips

When searching online, various words are used to help broaden or narrow your search. Here are a few tips you should know before searching any academic database:

Boolean operators: Most internet and electronic databases follow the rules of boolean logic. Boolean logic refers to the relationships (connections or differences) between different search terms. The most common boolean operators are:

AND - used to narrow a search and establish more relevant results by linking keywords together (e.g. "behavioural" and "psychology").

OR - broadens a search and get more results. Typically used for synonyms and words with variant spellings (e.g. "self-actualization" and "self-identity").

NOT - use to narrow a search and get more relevant results (e.g. "behaviouralism" not "humanism").

Truncation: used to find similar words with different endings

e.g. human* searches "human and humans"

e.g. educat* searches "education", "educate", "educational" etc

asterisk (*) searches for various different endings of a word in most databases (including York University), however LexisNexis uses an exlamation mark (!).

Other Tips

Advanced Search - this option is available on most databases, and allows you to specialize your search based on documents (books, articles, video etc), date, geographic location, language, etc.

Quotation Marks - using quotation marks will allow you to search for exact phrases. For example, searching "mental impairment" will only retreive searches with both "mental" and "impairment" together in that order.

Refine Search - many online databases allow you to specify your search criteria after selecting your keywords and clicking on search.

Finding a Specific Journal - if you know the name of the journal you are looking for, type it in the library catalogue, then select "Periodical Title", then hit "go".