Start your search on the library's website to ensure that you will retrieve all of the full-text articles owned by the library. When you click on one of our databases, you will be prompted to login to “Netbadge” with your UVA id and password.

• Virgo - UVA’s Library Catalog. Search for print or online books at any of UVA's libraries (choose "Limit by Resource Type Books" after searching)
• CINAHL -  indexes the top nursing and allied health literature
• PubMed - searches citations primarily from the biomedicine and health fields, and related disciplines such as life sciences, behavioral sciences, chemical sciences, and bioengineering
• PsycINFO - includes materials from the behavioral and social science research and literature

CINAHL Search Tutorial. Short video tutorial on how to do an Advanced Search in CINAHL. Video will download to your computer when you click on the link.

PubMed Search Tutorial from NLM

Explanation of Boolean Operators (MIT)

When searching a database, look for the blue "Find@UVA" button in your results to connect you to the full-text article

When searching the web, Libkey nomad allows you to access some of the articles owned by our library that you may find. Click here to download this browser extension for Chrome, 

Interlibrary Loan (service for UVA affiliates only) Use this resource to order articles and books that UVA library does not own

APA Support from the Purdue Online Writing Lab

Zotero - a free tool to help you collect, organize, annotate, cite, and share research

• Set up Zotero Preferences for UVA
• CINAHL Export to Zotero Tutorial. Video tutorial on the best way to export citations from CINAHL to Zotero.

A research question gives your project a clear focus. It is a sentence that defines what you will examine, the population, and the outcome that you will study. If correctly formed, it can help you make a plan for your research and keep you on track which will save you time. Research questions are typically formatted in the following way:

‘P’ stands for patient or population of interest. What are the most important characteristics of the group or patient(s) you are investigating? Defining features may include age, gender, ethnicity, disease processes, or medical conditions.

‘I’ represents the intervention or area of interest. Ask yourself, “What is the main intervention, treatment, exposure or prognostic factor I am considering?” In other words, “What treatment or intervention might be best for the patient? What are the factors you are considering that influence the patient’s prognosis?”

‘C’ stands for the comparison intervention or group. Ask yourself, “What is the main alternative to compare with the intervention?” This could be a placebo or no disease or absence of a risk factor. Sometimes your question may not have a comparison! In research terms, C refers to the independent or predictor variable—something that influences the outcome variable or dependent variable. 

‘O’ is the outcome. Ask yourself, “What am I aiming to accomplish, measure, improve, or impact? Am I trying to eliminate or relieve symptoms? Reduce the number or severity of adverse effects? Improve functioning?” 

‘T’ represents time. For this last stage you ask yourself, “What is the time it takes for the intervention to achieve an outcome?” Or, “How long are participants observed?” 

All of these aspects may not be necessary.