Skip to Main Content
XClose

Library Services

Home

UCL LIBRARY SERVICES

EBSCOhost databases

Guide to using EBSCOhost databases

Advanced Search: additional search tools

Where available, these search tools can be found on the horizontal black bar at the top of the screen. You may need to select the More drop-down menu to see all available options for the database you are searching.

Screenshot of the menu that can be found at the top of the EBSCOhost Advanced Search screen.

  • Indexes: Select the Indexes option to browse by different fields. For example, select Author to browse for the name of an author. You may have the option to browse Keywords or Subjects, which can be useful if the database doesn't include a thesaurus.

Select any relevant terms from the indexes using the checkbox to the left of the index term. Then select Add (just above the list of terms) to add the selected terms to the search box. The default is to link any terms you have selected with the search operator OR, but you can use the drop-down menu to change the operator to AND, or NOT, if you wish.

Your selected terms will be added to the search box near the top of the screen. Select Search. Your search terms and number of search results will appear as a line in the Search History / Alerts section beneath the search boxes on the Advanced Search screen.

  • Cited References: EBSCOhost is developing the ability to link from a database record for a paper to both references included in that paper, and articles that have cited that paper. This option is not yet comprehensive, but you can use the Cited References tool to find papers that have cited a particular article. To do that:

    • Select Cited References.
    • Enter as many details as you can about the paper you want to search for, e.g. author, title, journal name, publication date.
    • Your search results will list all instances of the paper in the database, either providing a link to the full database record for the paper, or providing brief details if it has been included in the reference lists of other papers in the database.
    • Articles with checkboxes to the left of them have been cited by other articles in the database. You can select any of these and then click Find Citing Articles above the results list to see which articles have cited your selected article.
  • Publications: The Publications option allows you to browse through a list of journals indexed by that database. When you click on the name of a journal, you can use the year, volume and issues menu to the right of the screen to browse for database records from that particular publication. 
  • Images: The Images option allows you to search EBSCO's Image Collection database, which includes over a million images and videos. The records include a thumbnail of the image, which can be clicked on to expand the image and then print or save. Results can be filtered by image type. The database records include information about how to cite the images and how they can be used in your work.
  • Database specific search tools:

    • CINAHL Plus: Includes Evidence-Based Care Sheets, a browseable list of evidence-based, full-text summaries of specific topics relevant to nursing. The summaries include references which are coded according to level of evidence. CINAHL Plus also includes Quick Lessons, which are full-text overviews of specific conditions and procedures, with information organised to mirror the nursing workflow.
    • Business Source Complete: includes Company Information and Company Profiles for over 1.1 million public and private companies, which can be browsed by name. Data includes financials, subsidiaries, products, employees and industry information.
    • MLA International Bibliography: Options are available to enable you to browse database records for specific works, authors or journal titles: Browse Works, Browse Authors, Browse Periodicals.