Ovid Databases Guide

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Access

All of these OVID databases may be accessed via the World Wide Web.

From the Library and Computing Services homepage follow the links to Library Resources and then to Databases.

If the computer you are using is not on the JCU network, you will need to click on the Remote Access link on the Databases page, and follow the instructions to enter your JCU login and password before proceeding.

Choosing a Database

After selecting OVID from the Databases page, you can select one or more databases to search and click CONTINUE, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1

You can then proceed with searching your chosen database(s). For example, the initial search screen for the database CINAHL is as shown below in Figure 2. Clicking Change Database at the top of the screen allows you to search one or more other databases.

Figure 2

Search Mode

The Advanced Mode screen is the default, and allows for the widest variety of search strategies.

Advanced mode uses a single keyword/phrase text entry box. Author, title and journal searches can also be chosen, and more search options are available by clicking More Fields

Each search query is added to the Search History window for later manipulation and viewing.

Use the Find Citation search mode to quickly find references to specific journal articles, by combining known information from different fields such as author surname and journal name.

Search Features & Results

• Phrase searching: If you enter more than one word, they are assumed to form a phrase. For example, if you enter coral bleaching the resulting records will contain that phrase.
  
  
• Boolean searching: You can combine words and phrases with AND, OR and NOT. For example, coral trout and marine reserves will find records containing both phrases, while coral trout or marine reserves will find records with either phrase
  
  
• Truncation: Use the $ symbol. For example, biochem$ finds biochemistry, biochemical etc.
  
  
• Limiting: You can apply limits to your query before you click the SEARCH button by clicking one or more Limits checkboxes. To limit previously created sets which appear in the Search History window, click More Limits and follow the instructions.
  
  
• Mapping terms to subject headings: (This feature is not available on all OVID databases). When you perform a search with this box checked, you are given a list of subject headings (index terms) tending to occur in documents containing your search terms. You can then extend your search using these subject headings if you wish. If none of the terms appears to match your desired subject, click the checkbox for the last line, search as keyword.
  
  
• Combining searches: Search statements in the Search History window can be included in new queries simply by typing the statement number. You can also combine 2 or more search statements with Boolean operators. e.g.: 1 and 3 will find all records common to both the 1st and 3rd searches.
  
  
• Viewing Search Results: The number of documents retrieved by each search is shown in the Results column. Click Display to view the results of any search.
  
  • Find similar: From any Results Display (or Complete Reference Page), this feature finds records that are similar in content to a specific record of interest to you. Similarity is measured by Title information, not by Author information. When searching multiple databases, Find Similar is disabled if any of the databases does not support this feature.
    
  • Find citing articles: From any Results Display (or Complete Reference Page), this feature finds articles that cite a particular article from your search session. As recently published articles may not yet have been cited, this function produces better results for older articles.
    
    
• Expand tab: The Search History window shows your last four searches. When you have more search sets, the Expand tab appears to the right of the Search History window. Click on the Expand tab to display all of the search sets.
  

Printing, Saving, Emailing Results

If you want only certain records, select them first by clicking in the box at their left.

Go to Results Manager at the bottom of the page on which your records are displayed and select your preferences.

Records can be printed, saved to disk or emailed to any address.

More Advanced Features

OVID databases offer an extensive range of additional search features (including adjacency, wildcards, command line searching, saving a search history, automatic email alerts etc.).

For more information on advanced search features, refer to the online help screens, or to the Infohelp guide OVID Databases - Saving Searches and AutoAlerts.

Finished searching? Please click the logoff icon.

If this information is inadequate, incorrect, or can be improved in any way, please let us know