Article Search Strategy and Review

Running head: ARTICLE SEARCH STRATEGY AND REVIEW 1
Article Search Strategy and Review
Student’s (Name)
Institution

ARTICLE SEARCH STRATEGY AND REVIEW 2
Article Search Strategy
Databases
My search was undertaken using key databases accessed through Murdoch university
library link. I used the following databases CINAHL, Joanna Briggs Institute, Medline,
Google/Google Scholar, and Cochrane database which contained vast and useful journal articles
that provided accurate and relevant information to my search. These databases provided several
ways to search for information which included such as the title, author, abstract, and all fields.
They also accepted the use of Boolean expressions like and, or and not which enable me in
extracting specific information from the database, furthermore they provided links that helped in
seeking clarifications, additionally, I used Google and Google scholar for carrying out my
research due to their helpful amount of information.
CINAHL
I used Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) because it
provided access to a vast range of journals and article of health. In my research I would say
CINAHL was the best database because it was quick and easy to use. This database had several
search techniques which included use of Boolean expression which is ‘and’ ’or ‘and ‘not’; an
example of a combination I used was the combination of patient and Sodium Valproate and it
brought a very useful article called critical care medicine that had information on medical,
neurological and surgical information related to patients treated by Sodium Valproate. I also
found it very useful and user-friendly because. I could search by geographical regions, age and
age groups, gender and I found both old and new reviewed articles of up to 2017 an example was
although it took quite a lot of time to locate the information. I also used wildcard operator (*) in
locating a wide range of information and tilde operator (~) in finding synonyms of words for

ARTICLE SEARCH STRATEGY AND REVIEW 3
easy searching. I realized that in using CINAHL acronyms or shortening of words did not work
instead a word must be fully typed for it to be found in the database.
Cochrane
This database has a wide range of information from systematic reviews and meta
analyses on a broad range of health topics. I accessed it to through the Murdock library link and
it took very minimal time to learn how to use it since the keywords were typed in the same box. I
used key words such as sodium valproate and sodium valproate effects and I found no result but
on searching valproate I found a result. On realizing in this database Sodium Valproate was
referred majorly as Valproate I majorly used this word in y search and found several results.
Medline
The Medline database provided an extensive collection of systematic reviews and meta-
analyses on a broad range of health topics specifically on Randomized controlled trials (RCT),
Controlled Trials, Case-control studies, Cohort studies, Descriptive studies, Qualitative studies
and Instrument development research. The Medline allowed me to conduct generalized search
and specific search by use of the Boolean expression ‘and’, ’or’, ’not’ and ‘and not’, Medline
provided articles with a large amount of data in terms of population and statistics an example is
the article Sodium valproate in the treatment of epilepsy
Google
The evolution of the electronic age has led to the development of numerous medical
databases on the World Wide Web. I, therefore, used Google as a search engine since it is one of

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my favorite databases with vast information.it allowed me to use the positive (+) and negative (-)
operator in specifying the range of my search. The information provided by Google was helpful
however due to the wide range of information available I had to spend a lot of time in finding
only the information relevant to my search and time specific. Google has proven key to solving
medical problems, some limitations of Google to my search was that in some articles the
information found were irrelevant and lacked evidence though they had relevant title to my
search hence confusing. Google through advanced setting allowed me to specify the currency of
my search, and use of Boolean expressions.
Google scholar
Unlike Google, google scholar was more helpful because of its more advanced search
functions and it the citation functions it provided and the metrics tool to inform the reader about
the visibility and influence of the associated journals. It provided reviewed journals for carrying
out the search. In searching google scholar I also used quotation marks to locate specific
information that I required from the database and the results were useful in answering my
research question. Google scholar provided me with useful articles that gave me access to the
population in relation to use of Sodium Valproate Example In a place of 142 patients according
to a study 84 percent were less than 20 years with several forms of generalized epilepsy.
Joanna Bridge Institute
This database that I accessed through Murdock university link contained seven
publication types and over three thousand records. It contained option for carrying out searches
using publication types and by use of key words, despite all these its database was not as helpful
since it seemed to have limited resources specific to my research question. As compared to other
databases its resources were very limited.