UTEP Library Research Guides: SWK 3350: Diagnostic Systems in Social Work: Searching the Literature

Database Tutorials

Click on the following links to view a short tutorial on each topic. For flash-free mobile and Apple devices click on

Introduction to Online Databases

Introduction to PubMed

Introduction to Cochrane Library

Searching for Specific Articles

Evidence Based Databases

CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature) (EBSCO)
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Bibliographic index for the professional literature of nursing, allied health, biomedicine, and healthcare derived from English-language and selected international source materials.
Cochrane
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Includes full text, systematic reviews of empirical studies, complete with graphs, figures, odds-ratio diagrams, and tables, many of which can be manipulated for statistical analysis.
PubMed
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PubMed is a free service provided by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM).

Strategies for Searching

Start with conducting broad searches on your topic
Take note on emerging keywords and subject heading (descriptors) on relevant articles.
Utilize Boolean logic to produce more targeted and efficient searches. (AND to narrow, OR to broaden , NOT to eliminate)
Limit your results by type of intervention, population, or methodology.
Expand your search to other health and social science related electronic databases.
See bibliographic information on articles found to find additional articles.

Social Sciences Databases

Off campus access to most of the Library’s subscription electronic databases and e-journals is available to current UTEP faculty, staff, and students only via the following methods:

The Campus VPN (broadband users only)
The Library’s Proxy Server (To see how to reset/create your PIN click here)
My Desktop (To learn more about My Desktop click here)

Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection (EBSCO)
Comprehensive bibliographic index for literature concerning psychology and human behavior.
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Subject coverage includes emotional and behavioral characteristics, psychiatry, mental processes, anthropology, and observational and experimental methods.
PILOTS Database (ProQuest)
Comprehensive bibliographic index of the Published International Literature on Traumatic Stress (PILOTS) produced by the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (NCPTSD) and sponsored by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
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Subject coverage includes all literature on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental-health sequelae of traumatic events, without disciplinary, linguistic or geographical limitations.
Health and Psychosocial Instruments (HaPI) (EBSCO)
Comprehensive bibliographic indexing and abstracting database that provides information about behavioral measurement instruments, published by Behavioral Measurement Database Services.
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Materials indexed include journal articles, instruments from Industrial/Organizational Behavior and Education, questionnaires, interview schedules, vignettes/scenarios, coding schemes, rating and other scales, checklists, indexes, tests, projective techniques, and more
Social Services Abstracts (ProQuest)
Bibliographic index for literature dealing with social work, human services, and related areas, including social welfare, social policy, and community development.
Social Sciences Subject Collection (CSA)
Allows simultaneous searching across a collection of Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (CSA) databases in the social sciences along with related databases.

ScienceDirect (Elsevier) This link opens in a new window
Provides bibliographic citations, abstracts, and complete full-text for Elsevier publications. Some items link to full-text content provided by other publishers or vendors. Access to full-text is based on institutional subscriptions. Subject coverage includes biology, chemistry, business, mathematics, engineering, environmental science, materials science, computer science, medicine, psychology, the social sciences, and physics.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/
PsycINFO (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive bibliographic index that provides citations, abstracts, and some full text for international literature in the field of psychology drawn from source materials such as journal articles, book chapters, books, dissertations, and technical reports. Subject coverage includes the psychological aspects of related disciplines such as medicine, psychiatry, nursing, sociology, education, pharmacology, physiology, linguistics, anthropology, business, and law.
https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?authtype=ip,uid&profile=ehost&defaultdb=psyh

Featured Database

ProQuest Dissertations and Theses provides bibliographic indexing for nearly all doctoral dissertations and Master's theses accepted at North American academic institutions.

NOTE: Includes all of UTEP's Master's theses and doctoral dissertations in online format as found in Dissertations & Theses @ University of Texas - El Paso (ProQuest).

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