Working with a Search Strategy in Cinahl

Cinahl is a nursing specialist database. Previous blog items have looked at how you can improve your searching and control how you can view your results. This blog post will show you how to manage your search strategy.

View your Searches

To view the searches you have already executed, click the “Search History” link underneath the search boxes.

Screen-shot of the Search History link

You can perform a number of limited searches; each search will be recorded on a separate row in the history table. You can then use the Search History rows to build up your strategy. Your final search will then include all the search terms and thesaurus terms that you have used.

Screen-shot of example simple searches in Cinahl

Print Search History

You can choose “Print Search History” to show your search strategy. Then right-click and select “Print” to print out a copy. You could also take a screen-shot and add to your assignment or notes to keep a record of your search strategy.

For more help developing your search strategy try our Information Skills etutorials; start with our Introduction to Literature Searching etutorial.