pharmacy libguide slideshare
TRANSCRIPT
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The Research Question
La Trobe University
• You cannot conduct an effective search without a well formulated question.
• Think about the concepts within your research question.
• Identify and list the keywords and their synonyms that identify the concepts.
• Consider the ‘level of evidence’ to be sought – the research methodologies that will help eliminate bias.
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Levels of Evidence
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Developing a search strategy: PICO
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1. Break the research question down into concepts
Example:
The outcome and the effect of oxygen vs no oxygen given to a patient suffering from a cardiac arrest in an out of hospital setting
2. Identify for each facet:
• Synonyms• Spelling variations• Subject headings
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PICO
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Population / Problem Intervention Comparison Outcome
Research Design (if applicable)
Cardiac arrest
Oxygen No Oxygen Survival If applicable: which study type will give the highest level of evidence to answer the question
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Useful search tips
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• Terminology: If you are not sure of the terminology, use related text books or Google to gather a basic understanding of your topic.
• Spelling variations: replace letters with ? to retrieve words with variable spelling, such as organization OR organisation
• e.g. organi?ation• Truncation: replace word endings with the truncation symbol to
retrieve words such as child, children, children's. e.g. child*
• Phrase searching: place quotation marks around common phrases to retrieve records with a specific phrase. For example water therapy
e.g. “cardiac arrest”
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Linking terms: BOOLEAN operators
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• AND retrieves records contacting both of two terms:
Cardiac Arrest AND oxygen
• OR retrieves records containing any of the terms (OR retrieves more records):
Cardiac Arrest OR Myocardial Infarction
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Example of a completed PICO map
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Population / Problem Intervention Comparison Outcome
Research Design (if applicable)
“Cardiac Arrest”OR “Myocardial infarction”
Oxygen No oxygen Surviv*OR“Chain of survival”
RCT
AND
OR
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Databases
La Trobe University
• Electronic indexes that help you identify journal articles in your research area
• NO single database indexes every journal possible in a subject area – only those that match their selection criteria
• Efficient, effective and less biased searching therefore requires multiple database searching
• Select by database name or by subject area under the Database tab from the Library home page - latrobe.edu.au/library
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Types of databases
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• Citation databases:
Entries have the citation, subject headings and often an abstract, often they will link to full text. Example CINAHL and Medline
• Full text databases:
Entries have the citation and abstract and in most cases the full text of an article. Examples: Health, & Medical Complete (Proquest), Informit Health
• Pre-appraised evidence databases:
The Cochrane Library is a multi-database resources which varies in output. For example the Cochrane Database for Systematic reviews contains complete systematic reviews
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Systematic searching
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• Systematic searches are a combination of using the terminology of the database (Subject Headings) combined with the free text or keyword searching (alternate terms encountered in the literature).
• While there may be some overlap, you will also find many different articles when using both ways of searching for the same concept.
• Comprehensive systematic searching requires both subject heading and keyword searching.
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Systematic searching : What are subject headings & keywords?
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Controlled Vocabulary (Subject Searching) Keyword Searching
A fixed list of terms that are arranged in a hierarchical structure and show the relationships between terms. These are referred to differently depending on the database e.g. Medline uses MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) terms.
Natural language words that describe your topic. Keywords are used when searching Google.
Provides consistency in the description of the content of the articles.
Useful for searching for a specific term or phrase when there is not an appropriate subject heading.
Do not need to think of synonyms for your topic. Useful for searching topics that use new concepts or terminology (subject headings take a while to be developed)..
Less flexible to search by - need to know the exact controlled vocabulary term.
More flexible to search by - can combine together in many ways..
Database looks for subjects only in the subject heading or descriptor field, where the most relevant words appear.
Useful for searching topics that use new concepts or terminology (subject headings take a while to be developed).
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Database terminology
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• Subject Headings (Controlled vocabulary or Thesauri): used to overcome differences in individual authors’ use of terminology.
• Scope note: describes how the term is used in the database, the ‘scope’ of the term; the history of the indexing.
• Explode: To explode a term means to include narrower terms for that subject heading.
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Decreasing or Increasing your results
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• Decrease results by using limits. Choose limits according to your search criteria. For example: limit by population, study type or date.
• Increase your results by using another keyword, or a broader search term. Remove the least important concept, or try another database.
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Tracking research
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• If you find an article that is ideal for your assignment, check the reference list to see cited articles.
•
• Use Google Scholar to forward track by searching for the article title and checking Cited by and Related articles.
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Google Scholarscholar.google.com
La Trobe University
• Search scholarly literature for articles, theses, books, abstracts, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites across the world of scholarly research.
• You can access items held in the Library through Google Scholar. See instructions
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Search results – finding the full text.
La Trobe University
• Some databases will have a Full Text finder icon or pdf link
• If not, search the title of the journal via the Journal tab on the library home page and follow the links to the full text
• If not held by the Library, request the article via Document Delivery
Thank you
Jill StokesSenior Learning Advisor (Library)Science, Health and EngineeringCurricular Services
Library | La Trobe University | Bendigo 3550
T: 03 5444 7395| E: [email protected] | W: www.latrobe.edu.au/library
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