Search

Intended to provide the nursing community with a comparative analysis of four major computerized document retrieval systems and one manual system providing coverage of the nursing literature, this study compares the indexing vocabulary, database coverage, and retrieval performance of the Educational Resource Information Center (ERIC), International Nursing Index (INI), Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System On-Line (MEDLINE), National Health Planning Information Center (NHPIC), and Social Science Citation Index (SOCIAL SCISEARCH). Results of searches on the five systems were compared with bibliographies on the same topics--continuing education for nurses, patient classification, problem oriented records, nurse practitioners, and nurse staffing. According to the measures used in this study, MEDLINE had the best coverage of the nursing and non-nursing journals; had the most accurate indexing capability; and produced the most complete retrieval results for nursing topics. Although INI indexed the greatest number of nursing journals, its overall retrieval performance was not as complete as that of MEDLINE. ERIC, NHPIC, and SOCIAL SCISEARCH coverage of the nursing literature was found to be limited in scope and focus, and it was concluded that these systems should be searched in addition to MEDLINE for appropriate topics: nursing education (ERIC), health planning (NHPIC), and journals not usually included in nursing collections (SOCIAL SCISEARCH). (BBM)