CINAHL: CINAHL Headings and combining sets

CINAHL Headings

CINAHL Headings is a controlled vocabulary thesaurus.  Each bibliographic reference in the database is associated with a set of subject terms that are assigned to describe the content of the article. Using CINAHL Headings searches can be made more effectively.

Click CINAHL Headings link below the search fields. To find a subject heading, type your term in the search box and click magnifier icon (Search).

Select the desired subject heading by checking the box next to it. Click the term (the blue link) to see the hierarchical view of subject terms. The definition of the subject heading can be seen below the heading and in the Scope-section.

Subheadings, Explode, Major Concept

Subheadings: Once you select a subject heading, you are given the option to select subheadings. Selecting a subheading will restrict your results to those that focus on a specific aspect of your topic.

• For example, you might select the subject heading "Migraine" and then select subheading "Diagnosis (DI)". Hereby you would find articles related to diagnosis of migraine.
• Note! Subjects should be used only if they match your topic exactly. By default, CINAHL includes all subheadings in search results if no specific one(s) are selected. Use Subheadings cautiously. When conducting systematic searches, subheadings are not usually used.

Major Concept: Select Major Concept to focus your search and retrieve only articles where your selected subject heading is the main focus of the article. This will narrow down your search results.

Exploding a subject heading. If you select a subject heading that has narrower terms, you can also select the Explode checkbox to the right of it. This will automatically include all the narrower terms in your search. If there aren't any narrower terms, Explode can not be selected.

Adding subject headings to search

Use "add to search" button to add subject headings to search fields. When selecting multiple terms from the term list at the same time, operators AND, OR, NOT can be used.

Combining search sets

HOX! At the moment combining search sets is not working properly: brackets are missing in the search string and therefore the results are not accurate.

Select Recent Activity from the left side panel (My dashboard) to see your Search history and Viewed records. In search history you can view your searches. You can also combine search sets using the Boolean operators. 

• It's important to clear the search fields before combining searches. Click Clear-button 
• To combine searches, use the checkboxes to the left of each search line to select the lines that you want to combine, then select Combine search (arrow button above the search sets). Select either the Combine with AND or Combine with OR or Combine with NOT.  
• In the picture below, sets are being combined using the AND operator. 

Note! When you combine searches, only the set numbers are shown in your search history, for example, S1 OR S2.  Always Click Clear next to the search boxes to remove the current search terms before combining sets. If this hasn't been done, search results aren't what they should be.

You can access the results of the search queries displayed in the search history by clicking on the search query in question.

To see the number of results and the search string of combined search choose Tools (three dots) on the right side of the search query. Then select Edit details.

You can also copy the search string f.ex. for search documentation. Check if there are necessary brackets in the search string and add them if needed.