British Nursing Index Archive Database Guide

Table of Contents:
Scope | General Information | Database Fields | Advanced Searching
Stopwords | Limits | Tools | Changing to this Database from Another Database
Sample Documents | Copyright Information | Updated


Read about the changes to this database in the Release News!

Scope

The British Nursing Index Archive (BNIB) is the archive database for the British Nursing Index (BRNI). The British Nursing Index a bibliographic database that indexes articles from the most popular English language nursing journals published primarily in the UK. BNIB is a comprehensive index covering all aspects of nursing, midwifery and community healthcare from 1985-1996.

In order to search the entire British Nursing Index (BRNI) and the British Nursing Index Archive (BNIB) at one time, select Ovid's British Nursing Index and Archive (BNIA) from the Choose a Database page.

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General Information

Producer
      BNI Publications
Bournemouth University
Dorset House Library
Talbot Campus
Fern Barrow
Poole, Dorset, UK
BH12 5BB
Telephone: +44 (0) 1202 965454
Fax: +44 (0) 1202 965721
Website: http://www.bni.org.uk/
Contact: Janet Timms
Email: jtimms@bournemouth.ac.uk
Segments and Years of Coverage
  BNIB (1985-1996)

The limit of databases that you can select for a multifile search session is based upon database segments rather than actual databases. The Ovid multifile segment limit is set at 120 to avoid impacting your search sessions. This database includes 1 segment.
Online Update Frequency
  Not Applicable to Archive Databases
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Database Fields

The following lists are sorted alphabetically by field alias. Click a field name to see the description and search information.

All Fields in this Database

  Accession Number (AN) Journal Name (JN) Subject Headings (SH)
  Author (AU) Journal Word (JX) Title (TI)
  Non-Thesaurus Subject Headings (DE) Locally Held (LH) Volume (VO)
  Date of Publication (DP) Local Messages (LM) Year of Publication (YR)
  Heading Words (HW) Page (PG)  
  Issue/Part (IP) Source (SO)  
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Default Fields for Unqualified Searches: Searching for a term without specifying a field searches the following fields.

  Subject Heading Words (HW) Title (TI)
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Default Fields for Display, Print, Email, and Save: The following fields are included by default for each record.

  Accession Number (AN) Local Messages (LM) Subject Headings (SH)
  Author (AU) Source (SO) Title (TI)
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All Fields for Display, Print, Email, and Save: Use the Select Fields button in the Results Manager at the bottom of the Main Search Page to choose the fields for a record.

  Accession Number (AN) Local Messages (LM) Title (TI)
  Author (AU) Source (SO) Year of Publication (YR)
  Journal Name (JN) Subject Headings (SH)  
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Elements of Source (SO) Field: Ovid searches the following fields as part of the record source.

  Date of Publication (DP) Journal Name (JN) Volume (VO)
  Issue/Part (IP) Page (PG) Year of Publication (YR)
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The following list is sorted alphabetically by the two-letter label, and includes the relevant alias, at least one example for all searchable fields, and a description of the field.

Label Name / Example
AN

Accession Number [Phrase Indexed]
63529rcn.an
259rcn.an

 

The Accession Number (AN) field contains the number assigned by BNI Publications to uniquely identify a particular record.
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AU

Author [Phrase Indexed]
zerwekh j.au.
zerwekh$.au.

 

The Author (AU) field contains personal author names.

The format for authors is last name followed by one or more initials: Smith JC or Smith J. Enter the last name, or if it is a common name, enter the last name and first initial.

If you are unsure of the spelling of the last name (macdonald or mcdonald), enter one version and you will be able to scroll through the list of names to find the other.

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DE

Non-Thesaurus Subject Headings [Display Only]

 

The Non-Thesaurus Subject Headings (DE) field displays terms no longer used by the current BNI Thesaurus, but that were used some time in the past. However, if you search for a term in the Subject Headings (SH) or Heading Words (HW) fields, and that term has been discontinued, the results will appear in the DE field.
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DP

Date of Publication [Display Only]

 

The Date of Publication (DP) field contains the date of publication for an article. This field displays as part of the Source (SO) field.
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HW

Heading Words [Word Indexed]
culture.hw.

 

The Heading Words (HW) field contains a word indexed list of all current and discontinued subject headings.
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IP

Issue/Part [Word Indexed]
"3".ip.

 

The Issue/part field (IP) contains the Issue and/or part for a particular volume of a serial publication. This field displays as part of the Source (SO) field.
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JN

Journal Name [Phrase Indexed]
nursing times.jn.

  The Journal Name (JN) field contains the abbreviated name of the journal in which an article was published. Journal names are indexed as phrases, enter enough letters of the journal name to locate the name in the index, for example, j soc (for Journal of Social Policy).
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JX

Journal Word [Word Indexed]
trends.jx.

  The Journal Word (JX) field contains individual words from every journal. This field is used to retrieve every occurrence of a journal which includes a particular word such as "nursing."
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LH

Locally Held [Display Only]

 

The Locally Held (LH) field indicates (with a "Y" or an "N") if a journal is held locally.

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LM

Local Messages [Display Only]

 

The Local Messages (LM) field contains messages created by the System Administrator to indicate information about journals held in your local library system.

Back 
PG

Page [Word Indexed]
"44".pg.

  The first page on which an article appears is indexed in the Page (PG) field. Often a journal title combined with the beginning page number and volume is enough to locate a citation. Page information displays in the Source (SO) field.
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SH

Subject Headings [Phrase Indexed]
pain.sh.

  The Subject Headings (SH) field contains all current and discontinued terms used to describe an article.
Back 
SO Source [Phrase Indexed]
pain.so.
 

The Source (SO) field contains the citation information for the record.  It is created from the Journal Name (JN), Date of Publication (DP), Volume (VO), Issue/Part (IP), and Page (PG) information.

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TI

Title [Word Indexed]
bone marrow.ti.

  The Title (TI) field contains the title of the document. In some cases the title field will contain the number of references in the article.
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VO

Volume [Word Indexed] 
"7".vo.

  The Volume (VO) field consists of the volume number of a serial publication. This field displays as part of the Source (SO) field.
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YR

Year of Publication [Word Indexed]
"1996".yr.

  The Year (YR) field contains the four-digit year in which an article or monograph was published. This field displays as part of the Source (SO) field.
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Advanced Searching

You can use special words and symbols to combine search terms and refine a search. For efficient searching, use the most appropriate operator from the list below to combine search terms. For more information on these and other searching techniques, including command line syntax searching, refer to the Ovid Gateway Help.

Operator Syntax Search Example Sample Results
OR x or y vitamin c or ascorbic acid

"initial effects of iron and vitamin C"

 

The OR operator retrieves records that contain any or all of the search terms. For example, the search heart attack or myocardial infarction retrieves results that contain the terms heart attack, myocardial infarction or both terms; results are all inclusive. You can use the OR operator in both unqualified searches and searches applied to a specific field.
AND x and y theory and health

"The value of Peplau's theory for mental health nursing. "

 

The AND operator retrieves only those records that include all of the search terms. For example, the search blood pressure and stroke retrieves results that contain the term blood pressure and the term stroke together in the same record; results are exclusive of records that do not contain both of these terms. You can use the AND operator in both unqualified searches and searches applied to a specific field.
NOT x not y vitamin c not ascorbic acid

"Vitamin C: friend or foe?"

 

The NOT operator retrieves records that contain the first search term and excludes the second search term. For example, the search health reform not health maintenance organizations retrieves only those records that contain the term health reform but excludes the term health maintenance organizations. In this way, you can use the NOT operator to restrict results to a specific topic.
You can use the NOT operator in both unqualified searches and searches applied to a specific field.
Adjacency (ADJ) x y therapy dog

"Using a therapy dog to alleviate the agitation and desocialization of people with Alzheimer's disease"

 

The Adjacent operator (ADJ) retrieves records with search terms next to each other.You do not need to separate search terms manually by inserting ADJ between them, because when you separate terms with a space on the command line, Ovid automatically searches for the terms adjacent to one another. For example, the search blood pressure is identical to the search blood adj pressure.
Defined Adjacency (ADJn) x ADJn y therapy adj3 animal

"Animal-assisted therapy: a modality of treatment for the patient with spinal cord injury"

 

The defined adjacency operator (ADJn) retrieves records that contain search terms within a specified number (n) of words from each other in any order. To use the adjacency operator, separate your search terms with ADJ and a number from 1 to 99. For example, the search physician adj5 relationship retrieves records that contain the words physician and relationship within five words of each other in either direction. This particular search retrieves records containing such phrases as physician patient relationship, patient physician relationship, or relationship of the physician to the patient.
Unlimited Truncation ($) x$ rat$

"team impact on repetition rates and discharge outcomes"

 

Unlimited truncation retrieves all possible suffix variations of the root word indicated. To apply unlimited truncation to a term, type the root word or phrase followed by either of the truncation characters: $ (dollar sign) or : (colon). For example, in the truncated search disease$, Ovid retrieves the word disease as well as the words diseases, diseased, and more.
Limited Truncation ($) x$n dog$1

"The healing power of dogs: Cocoa's story"

 

Limited truncation specifies a maximum number of characters that may follow the root word or phrase. For example, the truncated search dog$1 retrieves results with the words dog and dogs; but it does not retrieve results with the word dogma.
Mandated Wildcard (#) xx#y wom#n

"Yummy mummies: hijacking motherhood and undermining women?"

 

Searching with a mandated wildcard retrieves all possible variations of a word in which the wildcard is present in the specified place. You can use it at the end of a term to limit results to only those that contain the word plus the mandated character. For example, the search dog# retrieves results that contain the word dogs, but not those that contain the word dog, effectively limiting results to only those that contain the plural form of the word. The mandated wild card character (#) is also useful for retrieving specialized plural forms of a word. For example, the search wom#n retrieves results that contain both woman and women. You can use multiple wild cards in a single query word.
Optional Wildcard (?) xx?y colo?r

"Using colour to improve care environments"

 

The optional wild card character (?) can be used within or at the end of a search term to substitute for one or no characters. This wild card is useful for retrieving documents with British and American word variants since it specifies that you want retrieval whether or not the extra character is present. For example, the optional wild card search colo?r retrieves results that contain the words color or colour. You can use multiple wild cards in a single query word.
Literal String ("") "x / y" "visitor / client "

"Setting the agenda in health visitor/client interviews ."

  "n" "3".vo

"Br J Primary Care Nursing. 2006 Mar. 3(2). pp. 81-2."

 

Quotation marks can be used to retrieve records that contain literal strings, when the string includes special characters, such as a forward slash (/).

Quotation marks can also be used to retrieve records that contain numbers that may otherwise be confused for earlier searches. In the example, a search for 3.vo would limit the string from your third search in your search history to the volume field. By including the number in quotation marks, the search will retrieve documents with a 3 in the volume number.

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Stopwords

At customer request, StopWords have been eliminated from this database. You can now search for words or phrases like is there hope.tw.  Previously such searches would have returned an error because they included stopwords.
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Limits

The following limits are available from the Limit a Search Page. Access this page by clicking the More Limits icon on the Main Search Page.

Limit

Syntax
Full Text Sentence Syntax: limit 1 to Full Text
  A limit to Full Text will restrict retrieval to those citations for which there is a full text link. Both Ovid full text and external full text are included in this limit.
Ovid Full Text Available Sentence Syntax: limit 1 to Ovid Full Text Available
  A limit to Ovid Full Text Available will restrict retrieval to those citations for which an Ovid full text link is available.

When viewing a citation with full text available use the LINK button to display the full text.

Publication Year Sentence Syntax: limit 1 to yr="1993"
  A limit to Publication Year will restrict retrieval to the year the article was published.

If you choose this option you will be prompted to enter the desired year; the format is 4 digits: "1989" or a range: "1992-1994".

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Tools

The following Search Tools are available for this database. For specific information on using these tools, refer to the Ovid Gateway Help.
  • Thesaurus
  • Permuted Index
  • Scope Notes
  • Explode
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Changing to this Database from Another Database

To change a search session to a segment of this database from another database or another segment, use the following syntax:

Command Syntax:   ..c/bnib
Sentence Syntax:   use bnib
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Sample Documents

<Sample 1>
Accession Number
63010RCN
Author
COLE K M; GAWLINSKI A.
Title
Animal-assisted therapy in the intensive care unit. (Including a dog on a coronary care unit)
Source
Nursing Clinics of North America. Sep 1995. 30(3). pp. 529-537.
Subject Headings
Pet Therapy
Non-Thesaurus Subject Headings
INTENSIVE CARE UNITS, CORONARY CARE
Year of Publication
1995
<Sample 2>
Accession Number
26882RCN
Author
AKERS J A; BELL S K.
Title
Should children be used as research subjects? (Using children in nursing or medical research, and issues in paediatric informed consent)
Source
Nursing Forum. 29(3).
Subject Headings
Paediatric Nursing
patients rights
Non-Thesaurus Subject Headings
NURSING ETHICS
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Producer Copyright Information

The British Nursing Index Archive is produced by BNI Publications and is a bibliographic database that indexes articles from allied health journals. Copyright, BNI Publications 1985 to Present. All rights reserved. Copyright search and retrieval software 1985 to present [Ovid]. All rights reserved.
Field Guide last updated March 16, 2007.
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