CINAHL Plus Research Instruments


CINAHL Plus contains 360 Research Instrument Records
  • Research Instrument records included in CINAHL Plus give details on validation and utilization.  Records indicate which studies have used a specific research instrument and include the purpose/variable measured, sample population, methodology, other instruments, items and questions, where the original study was mentioned, and how to obtain the actual research instrument.  Research instrument records are researched and created by CINAHL staff.
Searching for Research Instruments
  • Research instrument records relevant to a search strategy will appear as a source type on the result list.
  • The Advanced Search screen limiter "Publication Type" provides the choice of Research Instrument, Research Instrument Utilization, and Research Instrument Validation.  It is possible to select one or all of these publication types to modify a search strategy.  It is also possible to retrieve all research instrument records.  To search for all research instrument records, select the desired limiters, leave the Find box blank, and select the Search button.
  • There are also full text research instruments within the CINAHL Plus database.  An example is the Morse Fall test.  To locate a specific research instrument, enter the name of the instrument in the Find box and select Research Instrument from the Publication Type limiters.  In this example, enter Morse in the Find box, select Research Instrument from the Publication Type limiters, and select the Search button.
  • It is also possible to find citations which utilize a particular research instrument within the research discussed within the article.  CINAHL Plus indexes all mentioned research instruments and places the name of the instrument(s) in the Instrumentation field (field code is IN).  For example, to find articles where the Beck's Depression Investory was used a research instrument, enter in beck* and in depression in the Find box.  This search will retrieve the citations which have used the Beck's Depression test in the research. 

August 2007
Summary by Ellen Westling, MLS
Biomedical Services and Customer Support Manager
EBSCO Publishing


Judith Welsh, MLS, BSN, RN
Clinical Informationist
NIH Library, 10/1L13
301.594.6211; welshju@mail.nih.gov

January 2008