Other structures aid in finding information. For example, the table of con-
tents in a book helps readers find information located within the text without
having to read every single page. The table of contents narrows the search from
hundreds of pages to perhaps 20 or 30 pages. The search can be narrowed even
further by using the index, which provides a very detailed listing of subjects
contained in the book. The index can narrow the search to a few pages.
The concept of indexes has proved to be a very useful structure to assist re-
searchers with finding scholarly articles and reports. Prior to the electronic age,
printed indexes of professional literature covering only the information in one
particular discipline provided listings of all information produced in that disci-
pline in a specific time span. For nursing, the most recognized and used print
index was started in the 1940s and was known as the Cumulative Index to Nurs-
ing and Allied Health Literature. Today, nurses use the electronic version known
as CINAHL. Electronic indexes are most commonly referred to as databases.
In the print indexes, information is organized three ways: author listings,
title listings, and subject listings. In early print indexes, subject listings offered
a new organizational structure. Publishers of the indexes began to choose
keywords that would always represent the subject regardless of the words used
by authors. For example, the term heart attack is always listed as “myocardial
infarction.” The consistent use of keywords provided a solid foundation for the
electronic searching conducted today.
With the advent of electronic resources and the Internet, another type of
searching became possible. Searching does not need to be limited to keywords
because entire bodies of text can be searched. This is known as keyword
searching. This type of searching in electronic databases allows searching for
the author’s words, not the subject terms assigned by the database publisher.
Keyword searching is not without its challenges. For example, the word diet as
it is used by the general public usually is defined as a meal plan to lose weight.
Healthcare professionals typically use the word diet to refer to meal plans that
are therapeutic for patients. When conducting a keyword search, entering “diet”
will achieve different results depending on the source. Keyword searches also
provide results that are exactly what the searcher intends, or not, depending
on how the word is used in the text. The source searched does not know the
searcher’s intent; it only knows what term has been entered.
As electronic search options and resources increase and become integral to
today’s practice, journal publishers and librarians collaborate to create meth-
ods of assisting authors in promoting their articles and researchers in finding
them. Grant (2010) detailed the creation of keyword lists, resources that are
becoming especially useful when searching for scholarly works on the open
Internet. The piece also provides a quick glimpse of the publishing methods
of a journal in which submitted articles are reviewed for accuracy and qualityKEY TERMS
print index: Printed
listing of electronic
or print resources
CINAHL: Cumulative
Index to Nursing
and Allied Health
Literature; database
for nursing and
health-related
literature
electronic indexes:
Electronic listings of
electronic or print
resources
keyword: A word
used to search
electronic databases;
a significant word
from a title or
document used as
an index to content106 CHAPTER 4 Finding Sources of Evidence