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Health Sciences Virtual Library: Searching for Quantitative & Qualitative Articles

For Nursing, Public Health, Kinesiology, & Physical Therapy

Librarian for the School of Nursing, Public Health, & ALCI

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Denise R. Gehring, MSLIS, MA
Contact:
Associate Professor;
Head of Collections & Technical Services
Librarian for the School of Nursing, Public Health, & ALCI (ESL)
Hugh & Hazel Darling Library #210
701 E. Foothill Blvd., PO Box 7000
Azusa, CA 91702
(626) 815-2055
Website
These instructions are for Cinahl and Medline databases.

Quantitative Research

Searching for Quantitative articles

Enter this on the last line of the search:

  • Quantitative OR Experiment* OR Descriptive OR Correlation* OR Quasi-experimental OR “Clinical Trial” OR “Randomized Control Trial” OR "control* trial" OR Validity OR T-test OR ANOVA OR "Chi Square" OR "Kruskal-Wallis Test" OR "Coefficient Alpha" OR SU Quantitative OR "Data Analysis" OR distribution OR pretest OR posttest OR reliability OR statistic* OR "time series" OR variable OR variance OR Longitudinal OR regression or phenomenon* or "grounded theory"

Add another line to the bottom of the search:

  • Change the "AND" to "NOT"
  • Enter these words: TI (review* OR qualitative OR abstract* OR poster* OR conference* OR meta-analysis)

NOTE: You will have to review the articles to be sure they are indeed quantitative. 

Qualitative Research

Searching for Qualitative articles
  1. Click on “show more” on the left side under the publication date range
  2. Scroll down to “clinical queries”
  3. Select “Qualitative - High Sensitivity", "Qualitative - High Specificity", "Qualitative - Best Balance”
  4. Click on "Search"

Enter this on the last line of the search:

  • Change the "AND" to "NOT"
  • Enter these words: TI (review* OR abstract* OR poster* OR conference*)

Quantitative vs. Qualitative Research: The Differences Explained