The OVID interface to Medline and other databases (see below), uses OVID search software developed by OVID Technologies. A login name and password is required to access MEDLINE (contact the library toobtain an Ovid account).

OVID Databases:

• MEDLINE: 1966-present; search entire database or segments; updated weekly.
• MEDLINE In-Process & Other Non-Indexed Citations (the most recent citations, updated daily)
• OLDMEDLINE: 1951-1965
• CINAHL: 1982-present; nursing and allied health literature
• PsycINFO: 1872-present; Psychological literature (journals and book chapters)
• Your Journals@Ovid - our Ovid online subscriptions.
• Journals@Ovid Full Text - search citations and abstracts from all of the journals in the database; plus, our Ovid online subscriptions.

Mesh Headings (Medical Subject Headings)

These are index terms assigned for each article in Medline. The Ovid system helps you find appropriate subject headings, by directing you from the word you type to the correct index term (this is called mapping).

• Major headings: the topic is the main focus of the article
• Minor headings: the article contains something about the subject, but it's not the main focus.

TIP: Mesh terms are very important, because if you rely only on text word searching, you will surely miss some good articles.

Text-Words

Search for words or phrases in the titles or abstracts. On Ovid, you must tell the system you are searching for a text-word, because the system assumes you are looking for a subject heading at the search input line. Spelling and synonyms are important when using text-words (the system will search only exactly what you have typed).

Boolean Searching

How to combine sets - this is what makes online searching unique (when searching in a printed index, you can only search under one word at a time). There are three boolean operators (three ways to combine sets):

1. and - what two (or more) sets have in common
2. or - either what's in one set or another
3. not - eliminate something from a set

Use boolean operators either with set numbers or with terms:

• 1 and 2
• nursing and burnout

Subheadings

Subheadings are a way to restrict or limit your search, to make it more specific. For example you can use the subheading dt (drug therapy) to only retrieve articles on drug therapy of a disease. Subheadings can only be attached to Mesh terms, not to text-words. Example:

• neoplasms/th
• radiotherapy/ae

Truncation

Truncation is useful when using text-word searching. Type a dollar sign after part of a word: Example:

• tumor$ (will retrieve tumor, tumors, etc.)
• cyst$ (will retrieve cyst, cysts, cystic, cystitis, etc.)

If you do not truncate a word, you will only retrieve what you type and probably will miss alot of articles.

Qualifiers

Field qualifiers are specific parts of a bibliographic reference, that are directly searchable. Some examples are title (ti), abstract (ab), institution (in), author (au). Examples:

• skalka a.au
• fox chase.in
• lung cancer.ti

Alerts

Alerts are current awareness searches you can store on Ovid. The search is run automatically each time the database is updated, and results are e-mailed to you. See the "how to set up an alert" link. Searches can be run on any topic, or on specific journals.

Locating a Reference

When you need to check a bibliographic citation online, but do not have have the complete information, there are several things you can do.

• If you have the journal name, search by the journal title, and then limit by year.
• If you also have the author's name, combine the name with your journal search.
• If you remember only a few words in the title, do a text-word search, and limit to the title field. Then browse through the citations.
• You can combine any of your search statements (for example, author and journal title, title words and author, etc.)

Limiting on OVID

If your retrieval is too large, you can limit by several ways. The most common limits are English language and human, but you can also limit by publication type, publication year, animal type, etc.

Printing

You can print directly to a printer, to your e-mail address, or you can download to a file. Sending results directly to your e-mail address is suggested.