CINAHL
database of nursing and health literature
CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature) is an index of English-language and selected other-language journal articles about nursing, allied health, biomedicine, and healthcare.
Ella Crandall, Mildred Grandbois, and Mollie Sitner began a card index of articles from nursing journals in the 1940s. The index was first published as Cumulative Index to Nursing Literature (CINL) in 1961. The title changed to Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature in 1977 when its scope was expanded to include allied health journals. The index first went online in 1984.
The publisher, Cinahl Information Systems, was acquired by EBSCO Publishing in 2003.
CINAHL has been provided on the Web by EBSCO Publishing, Ovid Technologies, and ProQuest, in addition to Cinahl Information Systems, and also provided online by DataStar from Dialog. In 2006, EBSCO announced its intention to not renew the distribution agreements with the other providers and to make CINAHL available exclusively on the EBSCOhost platform.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “CINAHL” is database of nursing and health literature. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through CINAHL, database and nursing, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “database of nursing and health literature” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5011772. None of the 2 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1961, 1977, 1984 and 2003.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “CINAHL”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow CINAHL primary sources, CINAHL archive and CINAHL research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “CINAHL”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “CINAHL” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.