EBSCOhost: How to Use

Create a personal account by selecting MyEBSCO in the top right. This allows you to save specific searches, articles, images, videos, projects and get alerts etc. 

Sign in using your institutional email address and a strong password. This password must:

• Include at least one number
• Include at least one special character (!, @, #, etc.  A space is not a valid special character)
• Be at least 6 characters
• Not include your user ID
• Not include the following words or parts of words: ebsco, ehost, password, pa$$word, dynamed, admin, p@ss, p@$$, pa$$

If you forget your password, click MyEBSCO then Forgot your password? to reset

The Dashboard is where you find everything to do with your searching and research. Sign in to MyEBSCO to permanently save your work.

• Click Projects to create new folders or to see folders you have already created  
  • Click to Edit or delete any projects
• Click Saved to view all of your bookmarked articles, eBooks as well as your saved searches 
  • From the Records view, you can remove bookmarks, add them to a Projects, share links to your items, or download .csv files of your bookmarked items detailed information
• Click Recent Activity to see your activity during the current session 
  • From the Search History view, click the bookmark icon to save the search to your saved searches. Please note, you must be logged into your personal account to save items permanently 
  • When you select Viewed Records, you can use the icons to export or download the metadata for selected articles. Click a bookmark icon to permanently save a record to the dashboard
• Click Holds & checkouts to view a list of EBSCO eBooks you have checked out. Click on a title to view the detailed record for an eBook and download or read the title while online
  • The Checked out indicator displays when your checkout for an eBook expires
• Click Alerts to view all of your active Journal and Search alerts

EBSCOhost databases have the ability to create journal and search alerts.  

Journal Alerts

Journal Alerts are when you set up automatic e-mail notifications whenever a new issue of a particular journal becomes available. 

To Create an Alert:

• Log into MyEBSCO 
• Click Advanced Search
• Click the Publications tab under the search boxes
• Enter the title of the journal in the Search for publications box and click the magnifying glass to browse through the list of titles. Note: If you are searching multiple EBSCO databases, you can select a specific database to search using the drop-down menu to the left of the Search for publications box
• Click the title of the journal you want to set up an alert for
• From the journal's Publication Details, click the icon and then click the Create alert link
• On the Create journal alert screen, enter the required information (Alert name, Email address), and notification preferences
• Under Preferences, check the box to receive an alert notification only when full text is available for the title
• Click Create alert
• Your Journal alert will be confirmed

Viewing your Journal Alert Results

• When your alert is run you will receive alert notifications to the email address you gave when you set up the alert
• You can click on an article title in the list to view it on EBSCO. You can also click on the complete list link to view the entire Publication Details page for the journal

To Access your Saved Alerts

• Click Alerts in My dashboard on the left
• On the Journal alerts tab, click the icon on the right to Edit the alert, View all results, or Delete the alert

• When editing an alert, select your desired update and click Save changes

• Note: You can also extend or renew your alert by checking the box under Extend or renew alert. After saving your changes, the alert is extended to run for a year from the date of your edits

Search Alerts

Search Alerts can be set up to provide automatic email notifications whenever new search results become available. You can also retrieve those alerts to perform the search immediately, instead of waiting for the alert to run.

To create a Search Alert:

• Log in to MyEBSCO
• After doing a search, click the  icon on the right and select Create alert 

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• On the Alert screen, enter the required information (Alert name, Email address), select Frequency and notification preferences, then click Create alert
• Your search alert will be confirmed

To Access your Saved Alert:

• Click Alerts in My dashboard on the left and click the Search alerts tab
• Click the icon on the right to Edit your alert, run the alert to View the current available results for your search, or Delete the alert
• When editing an alert, do the relevant update then click Save changes

Viewing Your Search Alert Results

• If you opted to not receive email notification for your search alerts, you can generate your latest alert results by clicking the Alert name on the Search alerts tab under Alerts in the dashboard

• If you opted to receive an email notification and the run of the alert contains more than 25 results, you can click the View all results button at the bottom of the email to go to a results page with the entire list of results from that run

• If the publisher has given permission, there will be a Generate AI Insights tab at the bottom of the article's brief record

• Click this tab to view an AI generated summary of the article
• Do not rely on this summarised information, always read the article to check its accuracy (See disclaimer)
• If you copy any wording or paraphrase any content from this AI summary, you will need to reference it. See the Artificial Intelligence (AI) tab on the library APA guide

There is a Read aloud/text to speech feature for both the PDF and Online Full text option (Found when you click the Access options button). This feature reads all information of the article, therefore if you want to listen to the article text only, select the Online Full text option if available.

Online Full Text

• In the top right a selection of icons display 
• Click to open the listen panel on the right 
• Click the Play button to listen. Use the forward and back arrows to navigate 
• Click the Volume icon to mute
• Select a Playback speed using the drop-down menu (Make sure you do this before clicking Play) 
• Click the Download mp3 icon to save an mp3 version to your device
• Use the Text highlighting feature to highlight text as it is being read. You can select a Word colour and Sentence colour

PDF Full Text

• Click the PDF tab or click the Access options button and select PDF from the drop-down menu
• Click the on the top right to open the Listen panel
• Click the Play button to listen
• Click the Volume icon to mute
• Select a Playback speed using the drop-down menu (Make sure you do this before clicking Play) 
• Click Download mp3 to save a mp3 version to your device

Accessibility Support

EBSCO offers alternate formats of content if the article does not include sufficient accessibility support. Note: The eBook or article must be owned by Whitireia /WelTec.

• Click the  icon in the top right of a PDF or Online Full Text version
• Fill out the form (There are separate forms, one for remediating eBooks and one for remediating journal articles)
• Submit
• A remediated copy will be sent within 24-48 hours (not including weekends or public holidays)

When viewing Online Full Text you have the ability to translate the full text from English to one of over 110 available languages.

• Once you've found an article to read click the Access option button for the article and select Online Full Text
• Click the Translate icon in the top right of the page
• Click the Translate to drop-down menu and select the language of choice
• The translated article will display
• Click the Original language button to display the article in the original language
• Note: This translation was produced by an automatic translation program and there is no guarantee that it is an accurate translation

EBSCO has eBooks. There are two ways to access them.

• Click here to access the databases that hold them (This link is found on the eBooks page). These databases are: 
  • EBSCOhost eBook Collection
  • eBook Academic Collection
  • eBook Open Access (OA) Collection
• Go to the Databases page, select EBSCOhost, search, then under Source type, select eBooks, then click Apply

Searching for eBooks

• Log in to MyEBSCO if you want to permanently save ebooks
• See information in the Searching with Advanced Search and the information on how to combine keywords and use the specific fields (author, title, all text etc.) to find eBooks on your topic
• Add or take away search boxes by clicking the + Add row or Delete row below the search boxes
• Refine your search using the filters i.e. Full Text, Download Available, Published Date i.e. past 5 years, past 10 years, custom range 
• Click Search

• Click the Access option button in the brief record to select the format i.e. PDF Full text or EPUB Full text 
• On the right of the brief record are icons.  Click the to save the eBook or click to add the eBook to a project, to share it or to download 
• You may also click the eBook title to view the detailed record. This gives you a description of the eBook, shows its Table of Contents and lists the icons to save, share or download 
• When you are in a PDF version, the icons will expand to include a table of contents icon, a magnifying glass for searching within the eBook, the option for text to speech and access to accessibility support
• When you are in an ePUB version, there is an extra icon AA for Display and Text size where you can adjust the font size, character spacing, word spacing and line spacing

• There is a cite icon " but as this is a machine-generated reference, always check it against the advice in the library's APA Referencing guide 

Downloading eBooks

• There is the ability to check out and download some eBooks. You can read them when you are not connected to the internet or transfer them to your Adobe Digital Editions-compatible eBook Reader device
• To download eBooks, you must have Adobe Digital Editions installed on your computer. Make sure you have the most recent version of Digital Editions installed. This is a free download available at http://www.adobe.com/products/digital-editions/download.html
• To download a whole eBook:
  • Log in to MyEBSCO
  • Click the title of the eBook. This takes you to its details page
  • Click Download 
  • Click the Full eBook tab if available
  • Select a duration from the Borrow for drop-down menu and confirm that you have Adobe Digital Editions or equivalent reader software installed
  • Click the Download button
  • The eBook is checked out and downloaded to your desktop computer or device
  • When a downloaded eBook is opened, it is displayed in Adobe® Digital Editions
  • eBooks that you download are checked out and added to the Checkouts tab of the Holds & checkouts screen in the Dashboard. The expiration date of your checkout is displayed. Click here for more information

Downloading Single Chapters

• You have the option to download a single chapter. It is the publisher who determines how many pages you can download
  • Click Download
  • Select a chapter or a specific range of pages

Peer-reviewed or refereed is when scholarly work is evaluated by other experts in the field (usually anonymously) before it is accepted to be published in a scholary journal. This ensures the required standard of expertise is met.

You should support your argument, reflections or discussions in your assignments with peer-reviewed material. This shows your ability to research widely and shows that you have consulted experts whose qualified opinion is based on research. 

PICO searching with CINAHL Ultimate database

A flyer on PICO which is a mnemonic used to describe the four elements of a clinical question to be formulated prior to starting one’s research.

Want more help?

When you log into EBSCOhost, look to the left under Research tools and click Help for more information 

Limiters can be Applied Before you Search

Filters tab

This is found under the search boxes

• Select the limiters you wish to apply 
  • Click peer-reviewed for scholarly work (see the What is peer-reviewed box on this page for more information)
  • Tick Full text to access the whole article or eBook
  • EBSCO indexes articles or eBooks that are not covered by an EBSCO subscription. This means they display abstracts (summaries) of articles or eBooks only. These are useful, particularly for ākonga doing postgraduate study who may want to see research on their topic that is not supplied by EBSCO. The titles of these abstract-only resources can be searched for in other library databases
  • If you want to include articles or eBooks that only have abstracts in your search, do not click Full Text
•  Select a Publication Date e.g. past 5 years or Custom range e.g. 07/01/2005-07/01/2025
• When searching multiple databases at the same time, click the expand arrows to display the filters available for each individual database, e.g.

Filters can be Applied After a Search to Refine Your Results Further

• The All filters button has a blue dot if filters have been applied to your search
• Click this all filters button to add or remove filters
• A panel will display on the right. It shows your current filters plus other expanders you can select and apply i.e. select a specific language, age, or geographic area etc.
• Make the necessary selection relevant to your search
• Click Apply
• Source Type gives the option to select the type of resource you want i.e. Academic journals, magazines
• Select and click Apply
• If the full text is available, it will have either PDF Full text or Access Option

A detailed record gives the full bibliographic details of a resource. To view a detailed record, click the title.

You will see:

• A PDF full text tab and/or Download tab
• An abstract or summary
• The authors and information about what Insititute they are affiliated with
• Hyperlinked subject terms
• A link or journal logo that leads you to a detailed view of the source or journal
• Sometimes a table of contents
• What type of document it is i.e. article
• The DOI (Digital Object Identifier) if available (Important for referencing)

In Advanced Search, select the Search options tab located under the search boxes. Here you will find different Search Modes and Expanders.  You can combine these e.g. tick Apply related words and filters such as Full Text or Publication Type.

There are five different search modes you can use to search:

• Proximity: Searches for terms in proximity to one another. For example, the search web accessibility gets searched as web N5 accessibility, which means the words “web” and “accessibility” separated by five words or less, in any order

• Find all my search terms: Automatically searches with Boolean “AND” between all search terms, for example, the search web accessibility gets searched as web AND accessibility

• Find any of my search terms: Automatically searches with Boolean “OR” between all search terms, for example, the search web accessibility gets searched as web OR accessibility

• SmartText Searching: You can copy and paste large chunks of text into the search box such as a paragraph or page. It summarises this text to the most relevant search terms then conducts a search

• Natural Language: Natural Language Search (NLS) mode is used in Advanced Search. It allows you to search using everyday language instead of relying on keywords or Boolean operators

After doing several searches, you can combine them into a single search. Using your search history in this way helps refine your results even more. If you want this search history to be saved permanently, sign into My EBSCO.

• After multiple searches, click Recent activity found under My dashboard to see all the previous searches you have done in this session
• Click the boxes of the searches you wish to combine
• Remember to clear any previous search terms you have used otherwise they will be included in this search
• Click the combine search icon and select the Boolean operator you wish to use i.e. Combine AND, Combine OR, Combine NOT 
• The search will appear in the search box i.e.

• Click the magnifying glass to search
• A results list will display, and the combined search will be added to your search history under Recent activity
• Filters you applied to the original search do not stay, therefore add and apply any filters i.e. full text, date range, source type etc.
• Click the X in the search box to clear the search
• Note: Deleting a search using a combined search from your Recent activity will also delete the combined search e.g. If you have two searches S6 and S5 and they give you the S7 result, if you delete S6, it will also delete S7

Adding a Search Term to an Existing Search 

You can add a search term to a search in your search history to refine your results further

• Go to Recent activity
• Select a search e.g. S1
• Add a term in the search box e.g. New Zealand
• Click the combine search icon and select a combine with option
• Click the magnifying glass 

e.g.

Saving Searches

• To save searches into your Saved folder under My Dashboard, click the in the results panel (right hand side, next to the sort by box that displays Relevance, Date newest, Date oldest)
• If you want to save this search permanently, sign in to MyEBSCO 

Saving Articles or eBooks

• To save articles or ebooks, click theicon located in the top right of its record
• If you want to save the article or ebook permanently, sign in to MyEBSCO 
• Click located in the top right of the record to
  • Add to a project in MyEBSCO
  • Share to Google Drive, OneDrive or copy a permanent link
  • Download a copy i.e. a PDF version

Projects enable you to collect and organise the resources you find (articles, eBooks, etc.). If you are working on multiple assignments or research projects at the same time, you can create a folder for each topic then add different articles or eBooks to them. You can also give each folder a Due Date to help you manage your work. 

To Create a Project:

• Click Projects under My Dashboard 
• Click the blue Plus button on the right
• Enter a Name for your folder, choose a Due Date (optional)
• Click the Create button

Adding Items to Projects

Once your project is created you can begin adding your articles or eBooks to it.

• Click the and select Add to project
• Select an existing folder from the drop-down menu or click New project to create a new one
• Click Add Now

Many EBSCO databases have a subject specific thesaurus of subject terms that relate to content on those databases. 

• The thesaurus allows you to browse for subject terms you can use to search the database
• Subject terms are chosen based on what the article is about. This is so you can create a targeted search

Browsing Subjects

• From Advanced Search, click the Subjects tab 
• Enter your terms in the search box under Subjects, select to display subject terms by Relevancy ranked or Terms begins with
• Click the Magnifying glass

• Select one or more terms
• Click the Explode checkbox to search with all the subheadings beneath the main heading
• When selecting multiple terms, you can connect these terms using AND, OR, NOT found in the drop-down menu 
• Click Add to search to add the terms to the search box
• Click Search to see results

The CINAHL Ultimate and Medline Complete databases use CINAHL Subject Headings or MESH (Medical Subject Headings). These are controlled vocabulary that relate to the content found in these databases. They are not random words, they are predetermined, consistent terms used to organise information in a standardised way.

Under the search boxes in Advanced Search:

• Depending on the database being searched, click CINAHL Headings or MEDLINE - MeSH 2025. If you are searching multiple databases at one time, click More and select your option
• Enter your term in the search box then select either Relevancy ranking or Term begins with
• Click the magnifying glass
• Select a subject heading in the list and click Add to search
• You can also select a subheading and add it to the search
• You can view a scope note by clicking the    icon next to the subject heading. A scope note is an explanation providing information on how the subject heading is applied, as well as any broader terms, narrower terms, and related terms. (Note: This is an American database so will use American spelling)
• Terms will be added to the search box
• Click Search 
• Click All filters to refine your results

Exploding Subject Terms

• When you Explode a term, you create a search query that “explodes” the subject heading. They will find all resources that have a connection to that term as well as any connected to narrower subject terms
• In a database with a tree, such as MeSH or CINAHL Subject Headings, exploding a term finds all resources containing any of the subject terms below the term you selected