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Evidence-based management:

Search for the best available scientific evidence

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The 5 steps of EBP

1. Formulate a focused question (Ask)

2. Search for the best available evidence (Acquire)

3. Critically appraise the evidence (Appraise)

4. Integrate the evidence with your professional

expertise and apply (Apply)

5. Monitor the outcome (Assess)

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4 sources of evidence

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4 sources of evidence

Where & how to get scientific evidence?

?

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Searching evidence

Where do we search?

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Articles in peer reviewed journals

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The way of the past …

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The way of the present …

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Online research databasesPostgraduate Course

ABI/INFORM

Business Source Elite

PsycINFO

Web of Knowledge

ERIC

Google Scholar

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Comparing databasesPostgraduate Course

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Searching evidence

How do we search?

Search Strategy

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Two types of search strategies

Search strategy

Building blocks methodSnowball method

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3. Building blocks2. Snowball1. Shotgun

Three types of search strategies

Search strategy

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1. Shotgun method

Do a generic search on the Internet with the most

important keywords from your PICOC (Intervention

or Outcome).

Try to find out which related terms / words /

subjects are being used and look for references.

The output of your search will be input for

the snowball and building blocks method.

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2. Snowball method

Starting from one book or article, you search for other literature on the same topic.

Snowballing backward to older publications by finding out

which publications were used by the author (see

bibliography of book or article).

Snowballing forward to more recent publications by

finding out how often that book or article has been

cited by other authors (see Web of

Knowledge or Google Scholar).

Postgraduate CourseRelevant PICOC terms

Input for forward snowballing

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Synonyms or

related terms

• ….

• ….

• ….

• ….

Synonyms or

related terms

• ….

• ….

• ….

• ….

Synonyms or

related terms

• ….

• ….

• ….

• ….

PICOC term 1 PICOC term 2 PICOC term 3

AND AND

OR OR

3. Building blocks method

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P = back office employees

I = merger, integration, back office

C = status quo

O = economy of scale

C = healthcare, different organizational culture, unequal

1. Underline the keywords

2. Number the order of importance from 1-4

3. Building blocks: an example

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P = back office employees

I = 1. merger, 3. integration, back office

C = status quo

O = 4. economy of scale

C = 5. healthcare, different 2. organizational culture, unequal

1. Underline the keywords

2. Number the order of importance

3. Building blocks: an example

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Search terms

Operationalise your Pico elements!

O = long term profitability?

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Search with these combinations

1. Thesaurus (su) OR Title (ti)

When there is no thesaurus term available search with

2. Title (ti) OR Abstract (ab)

1. su(“pay for performance") OR ti("pay for performance”)

2. ti(”360 degree feedback”) OR ab(”360 degree feedback”)

Postgraduate Course

The advantages of ‘subjects’ or

‘thesaurus terms’

One single term for variations in spelling or synonyms

(organization, organization, company, corporation)

The term is relevant (therefore, so is the article)

Automatic “Explode” function (narrower terms are

automatically included)

Extra search options (subheadings, major topics, etc.)

3. Building blocks: thesaurus

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The disadvantages of ‘subjects’ or

‘thesaurus terms’

Recent articles not yet indexed

“Index errors”

Sometimes there are no suitable subjects or thesaurus

terms (new concept, specific term)

3. Building blocks: thesaurus

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corporate culture: organizational character, corporate identity

self steering teams: autonomous teams, self managed teams

360 degree feedback: multisource feedback, upward feedback,

Using the keywords from your PICOC may be sufficient, but always consider to do an additional search with:

synonyms

alternate spelling, translations

related terms / words / subjects

narrower or broader terms

3. Building blocks: additional search

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1. Search with #1 PICOC term (incl. alternative terms,

synonyms, alternate spellings, truncations, etc.) in the

thesaurus OR title or title OR abstract

2. Search with #2 PICOC term (incl. synonyms, etc.)

3. Combine the results of step 1 and 2 with AND using the

search history

3. Building blocks: search query

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3. Building blocks: Boolean operators

AND = both terms (apples AND oranges)

OR = either one of these terms (apples OR oranges)

NOT = without this term (fruit NOT oranges)

NEAR = near this term (apples NEAR oranges)

* = replaces 0,1 or more characters (apple*= apple,

apples, applejack, applejuice, applepie, etc.)

?= replaces 1 character (organi?ation= organisation,

organization)

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orangesapples

apples AND oranges apples OR oranges

orangesapples

3. Building blocks: Boolean operators

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3. Building blocks: an example

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• Merger

• Fusion

• Combination

• Take over

• Acquisition

• Unification

• …

1. Merger

• Healthcare organization

• Non profit

• Not for profit

3. Health care

Intervention Context

• Corporate culture

• Organizational

behavior

• Organizational

character

• Corporate

identity

• Core beliefs

• Shared values

2. Culture

Comparison

AND

OR

Define keywords & related terms

OR

AND

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Start up

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Always search for thesaurus terms

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Always search for thesaurus terms

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Use the history function to combine results

Combining results

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Use the history function to combine results

Combining results

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Narrow your results

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Narrow your results

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Save your results

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3. Building blocks: summary

1. Formulate a focused question and break it down into keywords (PICOC),

2. Underline the 2 to 4 most relevant keywords,

3. Start with the most relevant keyword: is it listed in the thesaurus? If not: search with (title OR abstract).

4. Repeat your search with alternative terms, synonyms or alternate spellings.

5. Combine the outcome: (thesaurus OR title) + (title OR abstract) + (alternative terms) with OR (use the history function!)

6. Repeat above steps for keyword 2

7. Combine the outcome of your search with keyword 1 and 2 with AND (use the history function!)

8. Filter the articles with “studies” (subject > studies)

9. Read the titles and abstracts of your results, select the relevant articles and safe them.

TIP: No full text available in ABI/Inform or BS Premier? Try Google Advanced.

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Learning through play !

Try all buttons

Make lots of mistakes

Have fun !