Answered Questions

Good Morning!

Although your request seems simple and straightforward, trust me, it's not. A geographical search can be difficult. In this case, it helps to know how to use the controlled vocabulary of a database. The controlled vocabulary is the words that the database uses to describe a specific concept. Rather than walk you through that process, which you probably won't use very often, I've constructed some searches for you.

Begin at the Nursing LibGuide at http://libguides.brenau.edu/nursing .  Click on the Articles tab. In the center column, scroll down until you see CINAHL Plus with Full Text and click on it. Paste this search into the search box:

(MM "Substance Abuse") AND Georgia

The search must be exact - include the MM, quotation marks, and spacing. Scroll down and limit your search to peer reviewed, English language articles published 2008-2013. This yields 21 articles that are either written by authors in GA or about GA. It could be either; this is as close as we can get. You'll have to read the information about the articles and possibly the articles themselves to figure out what the GA connection is.

In case you don't have enough usable articles, you can also search Medline. It is linked in the Nursing LibGuide just down from CINAHL. Scroll down to MEDLINE with Full Text By EBSCOhost and click on it. Paste this search into the search box:

MM "substance-related disorders" AND MH "Georgia epidemiology"

As before, the search must be exact - include the MM, quotation marks, and spacing. Scrolling down below the search box, limit your search to 2008-2012. This yields 9 articles that are either written by authors in GA or about GA. It could be either, this is as close as we can get.

If you don't have enough usable articles, you can search Science Direct. It is linked in the Nursing LibGuide just down from Medline. In Science Direct, paste in this search:

((substance abuse) AND LIMIT-TO(contenttype, "1,2","Journal") AND LIMIT-TO(topics, "substance abuse,drug abuse")) AND Georgia

As before, paste in the entire search. The parentheses are important to the search. Limit your date range to 2008 to the present and search. This yields 22 articles either written by authors in GA or about GA.

Also, all of the journals in the Medline and Science Direct results are scholarly, but they may or may not be peer reviewed. In order to determine this you will have to Google the journal title, link to the journal's web site, and explore the website for that information. Sometimes this information is on the "About" page; it may also be in the author guidelines. Refereed is another word for peer reviewed that you might see. They mean the same thing. You may want to review the assignment or talk with your professor to determine whether scholarly publications are appropriate for the assignment or whether they must be peer reviewed.

Some databases such as CINAHL will allow you to limit to peer reviewed journals, however your research question may require the use of these other databases which don't.

Also check out these articles located by one of our other librarians:

Good hunting!