literature searching for research
DESCRIPTION
Literature Searching for Research. Catherine Ebenezer Library and Information Service October 2011. Purposes of literature searching. Identify extent and quality of work already carried out in the subject area Identify key contacts Avoid duplication!. Planning your search: PICO. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Literature Searching for Research
Catherine EbenezerLibrary and Information Service
October 2011
Purposes of literature searchingIdentify extent and quality of work
already carried out in the subject area
Identify key contactsAvoid duplication!
Planning your search: PICOPatient/population/problemIntervention/exposureComparison/control (may be
implicit)Outcomes
Try it for yourselves!Effect of different types of flooring on incidence
of falls in frail elderly peopleAre ACE inhibitors effective in delaying
admission to nursing/residential care for people with Alzheimer’s disease?
What interventions can reduce challenging behaviour in dementia?
A search framework: 1Identify synonyms for each search concept as
identified in your PICO frameworkUse Boolean OR to combine synonyms for
each PICO componentUse Boolean AND to combine the grouped
PICO components to execute your search
A search framework: 2P I C O
acute stroke blood pressure reduction no treatment secondary prevention
cerebrovascular accident cerebrovascular event ischaemic stroke
anti-hypertensive agents hypertension – drug therapy diuretics, atenolol etc. lowering blood pressure placebo
secondary prophylaxis reduce mortality risk reduction
AND AND AND
OR OR OR OR
Search techniques: 1To increase the number of results you retrieve:Combine free text with subject headings using ORTruncate
Stem: e.g. psychiatr* retrieves psychiatrist, psychiatric Internal / wildcard: Schultz or Schulz? Schul?z will find both
Explode Expands database subject headings to include narrower terms e.g. exp Dementia/ will include Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, Lewy
body dementia etc.
Search techniques: 2To increase the number of results you retrieve:Related articles – from any relevant articleCited by – for key papersReference lists in CINAHL
Search techniques: 3To restrict / decrease the number of results you retrieve:Use ‘restrict to focus’ / ‘major descriptors’Add more subject terms to your search strategySelect subheadings (only if you are really swamped!)Use limit features
Language - English Age group – your target population Publication type – consider searching for reviews only Date range – most recent
Use clinical filters
Types of literature: 1Primary literature Journal articlesPreprintsConference proceedingsInformally published reports –
(“grey literature”)Theses
Types of literature: 2Secondary literatureReviewsBooks: edited collectionsBooks: monographs / surveysOfficial publicationsCATs, POEMs etc.
Sources for literature searching: 1Databases of articles and books
Bibliographic e.g. MEDLINE, PsycINFO Full text e.g. PsycArticles, Cochrane Database
Library catalogues e.g. COPAC, British Library, LIBERO
Research databases e.g. NIHR Portfolio Database / NIHR Research Portal, Virginia Henderson International Nursing Library (USA), Research Register for Social Care
Sources for literature searching: 2… not forgetting …Hand searching of core journalsReference lists / footnote chasingPrinted bibliographies (older material)Search engines (NB Google Scholar, Google Books)Specialised Web portals Picking colleagues’ brains / contacting key researchers – can yield
unpublished materialSocial networking with other researchers
Characteristics of the literatureMental health literature is problematicmultidisciplinary“poorly controlled” in some areasscattered across many different databases:
none is comprehensive all need to be looked at in a thorough search
Brettle A J and Long A F (2001) Comparison of bibliographic databases for information on the rehabilitation of people with severe mental illness. Bull Med Libr Assoc 89(4) 353-361
Bibliographic databases: 1MEDLINE ATHENS4000+ journals indexed; 1948-Produced by National Library of Medicine (USA)Available free at www.pubmed.gov and via NHS
Evidence European journals not particularly well coveredMental health coverage reasonableStrong on acute medical specialitiesPubMed version has useful ‘related articles’ feature
Bibliographic databases: 2Psychological Abstracts
(PsycINFO, PsycLIT, ClinPsyc) ATHENS
Produced by American Psychological Association: 1806-
Not available anywhere free, but short-term access via web can be purchased
Covers all aspects of psychology
Comprehensive but some US bias
Bibliographic databases: 3EMBASE ATHENSEuropean commercial product: 1980-Comprehensive psychiatry coverageStrong on pharmacology and drug therapy
issuesThesaurus terms very “old-fashioned” First resort!
N.B. OVID EMBASE now includes non-overlapping MEDLINE records
Bibliographic databases: 4CINAHL ATHENSCovers nursing, allied health professions, health
management, health librarianship; 1982-Recent records include references – can search –
good for tracking down older materialUS bias but increasingly strong coverage of UK and
Australasian literatureGood for psychiatric nursingIncludes detailed abstracts of US / Canadian nursing
thesesSome journals very obscure
Bibliographic databases: 5Psychology and Behavioral Sciences CollectionATHENS575 full text publicationsnearly 550 peer-reviewed titles covers emotional and behavioural
characteristics, psychiatry and psychology, mental processes, anthropology, and observational and experimental methods
Bibliographic databases: 6AMED ATHENS
Produced in UK by British Library: 1985-Allied and Complementary MedicineAims to complement MEDLINEBest source of UK allied health literature
Bibliographic databases: 7Cochrane Library Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews NHS Economic Evaluations Database (EED) NHS CRD Database of Abstracts of Reviews of
Effectiveness (DARE) HTA Database Cochrane Methodology Register Central Register of Controlled Trials
Bibliographic databases: 8Citation indexesIdentify a significant piece of published research in
your fieldFind out who has cited it in later work
Web of Science citation indexes(available in university libraries)
OVID databases – ‘ find citing articles’ featureGoogle ScholarBMJ Journals
Bibliographic databases: 9Others …ChildData (child health and welfare)ASSIA (applied social sciences)Social Care Online (social work)OTSeeker (occupational therapy)PEDRO (physiotherapy)HMIC (health management) ATHENSDissertation Abstracts
Bibliographic databases: 10lots of web-accessible databases on specialist areas:
BiblioSleep: sleep Autism Data autism /ASD Aegis: AIDS-HIV NARIC: disability CIRRIE: rehabilitation PIE: mental health policy Campbell Collaboration: social
policy reviews CAMEOL: complementary
therapies speechBITE – speech pathology
BEI: education (UK) ERIC: education (US) Alcohol Concern Knowledge Base:
alcohol DrugData: substance misuse PEP-WEB: psychoanalysis Health Systems Evidence: health
management Dementia Catalogue PsycBITE – psychological effects
of ABI
Bibliographic databases: 11Google Scholar http://scholar.google.com Incorporates results from
bibliographic databases (e.g. MEDLINE) preprint servers and institutional repositories library catalogues publishers’ catalogues
Ranks results by relevance (how?) Links to:
full text where available (NB links to content of TEWV e-journals on site)
references citing the work ‘related articles’
Can use limits and Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT)BUT – what does it contain? And not contain? Inconsistent!
Specialist search enginesScirus: scientific content - includes scientists'
homepages, courseware, pre-print server material, institutional repository and website information
OAIster: institutional repository contentSHERPA Search: full-text search of UK repositoriesOpenDOAR: world-wide directory of open access
institutional repositoriesEThOs – BL electronic theses online
Specialist portals
Useful for background information, contactsNHS EvidenceNational Institute for Mental Health in England Centre for Mental Health PsychNet-UKPsychology WikiPsychCentralBrainSource.com
Current awareness servicesCurrent awareness
bulletinsElectronic tables of
contentsSubject-based
alertingRSS feeds
Monitoring changes in web pages
Health news servicesSaved searches in
health databasesNetvibes portal:
www.netvibes.com/tewv.lis
Managing your referencesMany bibliographic databases will allow you to export
and save your search results in different formats (e.g. XML, WebCharts, HTML, PDF, tagged text) and / or email them to yourself or to other people
Bibliographic management applications can be used to manage references. These let you:
collect and organise references from many different resources into your own personal, searchable database
create formatted bibliographies and reading lists develop lists of cited articles as footnotes or as endnotes at the conclusion of
papers
Managing your referencesInstalled on your PCEndNoteReference ManagerProCite JabRef (free!)
Web-basedRefWorksConnotea (free!)CiteULike (free!)Mendeley (free!)
Wikipedia article: Comparison of reference management software
Research information: 1Current / ongoing researchNIHR portal and National Research Register archive: ongoing and
recently-completed research projects funded by or of interest to the NHS
Research Register for Social Care: current and completed UK social care research
NIH RePORTER (USA): federally-funded biomedical research Current Controlled Trials: information about RCTsDatabase of Uncertainties about the Effects of Treatment:
publishes uncertainties about the effects of treatment which cannot currently be answered via systematic reviews
Research information: 2Current / ongoing researchMental Health Research NetworkDementias and Neurodegenerative
Diseases Research Network RCN Research and Development
Co-ordinating Centre
Research information: 3Guidance and funding for researchers: nationalAssociation of Medical Research
Charities: good practice in researchRDInfo / RDFunding: training, funding
opportunities, adviceResearch Councils UK
Research information: 4Guidance and funding for researchers: localMental Health Research Centre
at Durham UniversitySPIRE seminars Involvement in MHRN studiesResearch clinics Research training: modules in research methods up
to master’s level
