This document provides guidance on conducting research for a project on childhood obesity among Mexican Americans. It outlines the research process, including developing research questions, search strategies, identifying relevant databases, and tips for effective searching. Some key tips include using appropriate keywords and subject headings, combining concepts, and utilizing field searching or limiting options if results are too broad or narrow. Assistance from a librarian is also offered for any additional support needs.

1. FINDING SOURCES:
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
& RESEARCH PROPOSAL
CHLS 470
Latin@s and Health
Susan Luévano
Ethnic Studies Librarian
susan.luevano@csulb.edu

2. Research Process
■ Create a research statement
■ Childhood obesity among Mexican
Americans is a major health crisis.
■ Define the questions
– Ask why????

3. Search Strategy
■ What research question(s) should be addressed ?
■ Childhood obesity among Mexican
Americans is a major health crisis.

4. Having trouble creating
research questions?
■ Use prompts
– Who
– What
– Where
– Why
– How
■ How do you define obesity?
■ What are the % of Mex American children who are obese?
■ What are the causes?
■ What there successful interventions/programs to combat
childhood obesity?

5. Research Process
■ Using the right vocabulary is the key to successful research
■ Identify key concepts using most unique words
■ Less is more
■ Childhood obesity among Mexican Americans
is a major health crisis.

6. Boolean Operators
■ AND narrows a search
– both variables must appear in same citation
– terms are different in meaning
– example: “Diabetes AND Hispanics”
■ OR broadens a search
– terms are similar in meaning
– either term may appear in the record
– example: “Latinos OR Hispanics”

7. Research process
Find articles
where all 3
concepts
appear.

8. Truncation
■ Searches root word to retrieve variant
endings
■ Command: Asterisk (shift 8) *
■ Obes*
■ Obese
■ Obesity
■ Obeso
■ Obesidad

9. Finding Peer-Reviewed Articles
■ Http://www.csulb.edu/library
1) OneSearch: Test or preliminary search for journal articles, books & more
2) Structured Databases

10. Databases by Topic:
CHLS, Health Administration, Women Studies

11. Adjacency
■ Searches word next to each other in order
listed
■ Command: quotation marks “xx”
– i.e. “childhood obesity”
– i.e. “Mujeres de Maiz”
– i.e. “comprehensive school health”
– i.e. “people of color”

12. PubMed @CSULB
• Largest bio-medical database in the
world
• Includes pre-publication & Medline data
• Free version
• Key word & MeSH searching options
• 1940 -

13. Medline
– The National Library of Medicine’s international, biomedicine &
health journal database covering all areas of medicine,
including dentistry, nursing, veterinary medicine, the health
care system, preclinical sciences.
■ OVID Mostly journals
■ 1951 to present
■ Availability

14. CINAHL
■ An authoritative resource for the nursing, health
administration, and allied health literature – journals, books,
pamphlets, audiovisuals, software, research instruments,
dissertations, etc
■ 1982 to present
■ Availability

15. PsychInfo
■ 1,300 journals in all areas of psychology. Also includes
references to dissertations, media, and books.
■ 1,300 journals
■ Abstracts
■ Availability

16. Academic Search Complete
■ General subject database containing indexing and abstracts
for over 5,400 journals & 4,400 peer reviewed journals
■ 1985 to present
■ Mostly full-text
■ Availability

17. Full-text not provided:
Use Get it @ CSULB

18. Link to full-text

19. Need full-text articles
NOT available: Use BeachReach

20. Search Strategy Tips
– Start with:
■ Keywords that describe your topic
– Move to:
■ Specific headings that might better define your
topic. Most databases have a subject
thesaurus or controlled vocabulary (like MeSH
for MEDLINE & PubMed@CSULB).

21. Search Strategy Tips
■ What to do if you get too much?
Limit options, e.g. age, geography, ethnicity, gender
Field searching, e.g. subject headings, date, language
Combine searches or add more concepts
■ What to do if you get too few?
Eliminate concepts/use broader topic
Related articles (PubMed, Get it @CSULB)
Cited references

22. Still need a little help?
■ Ask at the Research & Information Desk, 1st
floor
■ Use the “Ask a CSULB Librarian”
– Chat service

23. Still need a little help?
■ Research Guides (Library home page)
– Chicano & Latino Studies 470
– http://csulb.libguides.com/chls4
70
– Health Administration
– Health Science
■ Set up a research consultations with
– Susan Luévano
– Susan.luevano@csulb.edu
– Office Hours: Wed., 2:30 -4:30 PM
– Room 416, 4th
floor, U Library

24. Questions?