PRESENTED TO INTERS OF SUDAN MEDICAL SPECIALIZATION BOARD

2. E-library resources
• Any library or information resources that can
be accessed electronically. They are either
free or have fee-based access:
– E- journals:(information research);
– Scholarly databases: (Pubmed; google
scholar….);
– E- books: ( http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/ebooks/
;google books; e-books initiative)
– Internet gateways and scholarlysearch engines

3. Why Use E-Resources???
• An up-to-date resources;
• Convenience;
• Extra features—e.g. search facilities, links
to other databases, supplementary
material ;
• Access to a wider range of material than
might otherwise be available within the
traditional library

6. Why Search Strategy is Important?
• Scholars are under continuous pressure to dig for
reliable, accurate, up-to-date information
• Information explosion: billions of documents in
the WWW; hard to find the ‘needle in the hay
stack’ and know which source is best for a
specific situation;
• Systematic search strategy should be adopted so
as to achieve desired results and avoid wasting
time.

7. Step 5. Select a Source

8. Tertiary Sources
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
Easy access Lag Time
Ease of use Outdated
Concise Incomplete information
Relatively inexpensive Incorrect interpretation
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
Rapid access to the primary literature Lag time
Generally high standard journals Command language varies
Ability to perform complex searches Proficient search skills are needed
Routine updates on selected topics
(alerts)
Can be expensive
Secondary Sources
Primary Sources
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
Original data Large volume data
Unbiased information Time consuming
Select a Source (Step 5)

9. Step 6. Search: construct a search using
the appropriate commands
Question: What health problems are associated with water pollution?
Concept 1 Concept 2 Concept 3 Concept 4
health pollutionwaterproblems
5. water
6. H2O
3. problems
4. complications
1. health
2. wellbeing
9 = 1 OR 2 10 = 3 OR 4 11 = 5 OR 6 12 = 7 OR 8
7. pollution
8. contamination
13 = 9 AND 10 AND 11 AND 12

10. Online Searching Techniques
• Boolean Operators
• Phrase Searching or Proximity Searching
• Truncation / Wildcard Searching
• Alternate spellings
10

11. Boolean Operators

12. Phrase or proximity searching:
“…” or (…)
allows you to search for an exact phrase, e.g.
pests AND (bean cultivation); “Kidney failure”

13. Truncation/wildcards: *
allow you to search alternative spellings and
plurals:
river* for river OR rivers
pesticide* for pesticide OR pesticides
program* for programme OR program

14. Alternate spellings: ?
can be used to substitute for characters
anywhere in a word:
wom?n for woman or women

15. Databases Versus Internet
Library database
• Best for credible research information,
full-text and scholarly articles;
• Articles written by experts &
professionals; content is evaluated for
accuracy & credibility and updated
regularly by experts;
• Subscriptions are paid by institutes,
Users need to have login credentials;
• Users specify advanced search
criteria, Results can be further filtered
for precision;
• Usually include a citation tool;
• Published content does not change, it
remains for a significant length of time.
The Free web
• Best for background information,
statistics , shopping & entertainment;
• No standards in place, anyone can
publish; Much of the information is not
evaluated for accuracy and reliability;
• Information is often free, 7 when it
comes from a legitimate source , users
have pay to access it;
• Lack of subject focus; results is many
times irrelevant or lack precision;
• Most web sites do not have a citation
tool;
• Content can often change; web page
may disappear for a number of
reasons.

16. Some Credible databases
• Pubmed: PubMed comprises more than 25
million citations for biomedical literature from
MEDLINE, life science journals, and online
books. Citations may include links to full-text
content from PubMed Central and publisher
web sites. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed

18. Some Credible databases
• Cochrane: is the leading resource for
systematic reviews in health care:
http://www.cochranelibrary.com/cochrane-
database-of-systematic-reviews/index.html

21. Some Credible databases
• Google scholar: https://scholar.google.de/

22. Some Credible databases
• WHO: http://www.WHO.int

24. Some Credible databases
• Scopus: Elsevier’s Scopus, the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed
literature. Search and access research from the science, technology, medicine, social ...
www.scopus.com/home.url
• CINHAL: provides broad content coverage including 50 nursing specialties, speech and
language pathology, nutrition, general health and medicine and more:
https://www.ebscohost.com/nursing/products/cinahl-databases/cinahl-complete
• OVID Medline: Offers you seamless and up-to-the-minute access to the latest bibliographic
citations and author abstracts from more than 5,500 biomedicine and life sciences journals in
nearly 40 languages. www.ovid.com
• Embase: is a biomedical and pharmacological database containing bibliographic records with
citations, abstracts and indexing derived from biomedical articles in peer reviewed journals, and is
especially strong in its coverage of drug and pharmaceutical research. www.ovid.com

25. Information Gateways
• HINARI: online information resources on biomedical and
health literature. Up to 15,000 journals (in 30 different
languages), up to 47,000 e-books, up to 100 other information
resources:
http://www.who.int/hinari/en/

28. Information Gateways
• OARI: online information resources on environmental
research. Up to 5710 peer reviewed journals and 1119 online
books, and other information resources:
http://www.unep.org/oare/

31. Open Access Journals???
• ‘Open Access’ (OA) journals are scholarly
journals that are available without financial
or technical barriers other than Internet
access.
• Articles are accessible either directly from
the publisher (e.g. PLOS – OA Gold) or
archived in a repository (e.g. PubMed
Central – OA Green) or through DOAJ
https://doaj.org/

33. Evaluating Web Information
• Criteria for Evaluation
- Accuracy
- Authority
- Currency
- Coverage
- Objectivity
• Criteria for evaluating Health Information
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/evaluatinghealthinformation.html

34. Referencing styles
Source: http://www.cite.auckland.ac.nz/index.php?p=which_referencing_style
FACULTY RECOMMENDED REFERENCING STYLES
Arts
Harvard, Chicago*, MLA*, APA*, University of
Auckland Style
Business and Economics APA*
See also The Business of Writing: Written
Communication Skills for Business Students
Creative Arts and Industries APA*, Chicago*, Harvard, MLA*
Education APA*
Engineering APA*, Harvard, Chicago*, UoA Engineering
Numbered Style
Law See New Zealand Law Style Guide
Medical and Health Sciences Vancouver, APA*
Science
See referencing styles recommended by Science
Departments
See also Scientific style and format : the CBE
manual for authors, editors, and publishers
Theology Chicago*

35. Reference management software

36. Other free RMS
• https://app.refme.com/home#/project/2475
873/reference/search
• Easy bib