Strategies For Answering Research Questions

Strategies for Answering Research Questions Introduction to Health Informatics April 8, 2010 Robin Featherstone, BA, MLIS Clinical Medicine Librarian Allyn & Betty Taylor Library [email_address] Presentation available at: http://www.slideshare.net/featherr

Objectives ,[object Object],[object Object]

Level of Evidence Pyramid Qualitative Studies Trip searches both

What’s a Research Lit Review? ,[object Object],[object Object]

7 tasks in the Research Lit Review ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]

Scenario ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]

How questions influence search results Relevancy Retrieval (# of search results) Broad Questions Narrow Questions High = lots of articles Low = very few articles High = directly relevant articles Low = mostly irrelevant articles

Exercise ,[object Object],[object Object]

Lit reviews depend on data from seven sources ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]

Exercise ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]

Why do I have to select a database first? ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]

Different databases have different subject headings ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],Database Subject Headings Medline MeSH EMBASE EMTREE CINAHL CINAHL Headings Cochrane Library MeSH Web of Science N/A Scopus N/A AMED AMED Subject Headings

Breaking down your question ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]

Exercise: Identify Concepts ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],Concepts: #1: High Blood Pressure #2: Type 1 Diabetes #3: Ambulatory BP Readings

Exercise: Identify Subject Headings ,[object Object],+ = explode Concepts: #1: High Blood Pressure #2: Type 1 Diabetes #3: Ambulatory BP Readings Subject Heading: Hypertension Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 + Blood Pressure Monitoring, Ambulatory Subject Heading: Hypertension, Malignant

Exercise: Identify keywords ,[object Object],Concepts: #1: High Blood Pressure #2: Type 1 Diabetes #3: Ambulatory BP Readings Subject Heading: Hypertension Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 + Blood Pressure Monitoring, Ambulatory Subject Heading: Hypertension, Malignant Keyword: ((high OR elevated) ADJ ( blood pressure OR bp).tw. ((type 1 OR insulin?dependent OR juvenile?onset OR sudden?onset) AND diabet$).tw. ((ambulatory OR self OR home) AND monitor$ AND blood pressure).tw. Keyword: hypertensi$.tw. IDDM.tw.

Some key operators in Ovid Note: These are recommended operators for research lit reviews. There are many, many more operators... Use Ovid‘s Help menu to locate them. Operator Command $ Truncation (finds alternate endings) ? Wildcard (finds alternate spellings) .tw. Text Word (tells Ovid to search for your term in the Title or Abstract fields) () Parentheses control the order of search operations Adj Adjacency operator (can be followed by a number) tells Ovid terms must appear adjacent to one another AND all terms must appear in results OR any terms will appear in results

Running your search(es) ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]

Running your search(es) Search #2 = Search #3 = Search #4 = Search #5 = #1 OR #2 OR #3 OR #4 Search #1 = Concept 1 Search #6 = Search #7 = Search #8 = Search #9 = Concept 2 Search #10 = #6 OR #7 OR #8 OR #9 Search #11 = #5 AND #10 Results

Evaluate your results ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]

Applying practical & methodological screening criteria

Screening ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]

Practical Screening Criteria – some examples ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]

Exercise: Practical Screens ,[object Object],[object Object]

Methodological Screening Criteria - some questions to ask ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]

Saving and Managing Results ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]

Moving to another source ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]

Exercise ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]

Hand searching and final steps ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]

Synthesizing the results Tip: Use a synthesis matrix – http://www.ncsu.edu/tutorial_center/writespeak/download/Synthesis.pdf

Use your results to... ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]

Recap ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]

Strategies For Answering Research Questions

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