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Literature search techniques

The document provides guidance on developing an effective literature search strategy. It discusses starting a literature search through keywords, references, or journals. The main steps are defined as: defining the topic, turning it into a question, choosing search terms, selecting appropriate databases, running the search, and evaluating results. Specific databases are also outlined, including PubMed, CINAHL, Cochrane Library, and others. Guidance is given on using keywords, Boolean operators, and search history to refine results.

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LITERATURE SEARCH STRATEGIES Hajer Elkout
Purpose of a Literature Search • Broadens your knowledge on a topic. • Shows your skill at finding relevant information. • Allows for critical appraisal of research.
How to start? • There are many ways to begin literature search, generally we have: • Keywords (most commonly used) • Begin from a paper given by your mentor • References from a given paper • Journals in your interest of subject areas • Authors, if you know some … • In other words….Adapt a search strategy!! • PLAN • PLAN • PLAN
9. Appraise
Steps for effective search strategy • Defining your topic. • Turning our topic into a question. • Choosing your search terms. • keywords for each of the concepts in the question. • Which databases should I search? • Compiling the search and running it in a database. • Evaluate.
Define the topic/the question • What am I looking for exactly? Question before you search! • Test search to find out how much information is available. • If you are finding little information - broaden the question. • If you are finding lots of information - narrow the question.
Keywords for the concepts in the question • Break the question down into the main concepts. • Use all possible acronyms or synonyms. • Keep in mind that names change (Mongolism or down's syndrome). • US/UK spelling variations. • Databases will search for the term you have typed in, including any spelling mistakes!
Break the question down into the main concepts Which are the most effective ways to deliver maternity services to rural populations in low-income countries? Maternity Services • Maternal health service(s) • Maternal healthcare • Maternal health care • Maternal service(s) • Maternity care • Maternity service(s) • Postpartum care/service(s) • Postnatal care/service(s) • Prenatal care/service(s) • Antenatal care/service(s) Rural populations • Rural community/ties • Rural population(s) • Remote population(s) • Remote community/ties • Non-urban • Villages Low income countries • Developing country/countries • Developing nation(s) • Developing world • Low resource setting • LMIC(s) • Africa(n) • South East Asia(n) • South America(n)
Keywords…
Concepts and keywords Concept Key words Thrombosis Thrombosis, DVT, Leg thrombosis, Thrombus, Thrombotic, Thrombolic Thromboembolism, Thrombosis
Boolean example AND results
AND 3 terms results
You can run your search as one long search string, using brackets/parenthesis to separate the concepts… • ("maternity services" OR "maternal health services" OR "postnatal care" OR "postpartum care") AND ("rural populations" OR "remote populations" OR "rural communities" OR "remote communities" OR non-urban OR villages) AND ("developing country” OR "low income country" OR Africa OR "south America" OR "south east Asia")
Or you can search for each concept separately, and then combine the individual searches together with AND at the end. 1. (matern* OR postnatal OR postpartum OR prenatal) and (care OR service*). 2. rural communit* OR remote communit* OR rural population* OR remote population* OR village* OR non-urban. 3. developing countr* OR low-income OR africa* OR south america* OR south east asia* 4. 1 AND 2 AND 3.
Use Search History to combine your search results The total records found
Internet Search tools • Which search tools are needed? – Gateways. – Search Engines. – Databases.
Gateway/web portal • A webpage designed to attract visitors and search engines to a website on a specific topic(s). • Organize information in a structured way in general or subject categories. • Examples: – WHO A-Z health topics list www.who.int/topics/en/ – Essential Health Links www.healthnet.org/essential-links/
Search results on Google This is how Google presents the results of your search. Follow the links to the websites you wish to visit.
Search Engine • A program that searches documents for specified keywords and returns a list of documents where the keywords were found. • Examples • Google www.google.com • Google Scholar (more academic) www.scholar.google.com • Yahoo www.yahoo.com
When to use search engines • For general information. • When topic has many facets. • For current information. • For single article search.
Note the various options for refining a search including Reading level, Results per page, Language and File Type.
Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. You can search across many disciplines and sources: peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organisations.
Title links to abstract and possible source of full text “Find it with OLinks” links to full text version Link to articles that cited the work Link to related articles
Note the various options for refining a search and also that you can change the number of results per page.
Google Advantages • Searches articles, books and webpages. • Has advanced search options. • Can limit search by dates, document types, language, domain and more… Disadvantages • No indexing terms • Huge retrieval of almost any topic. • No ability to select citations for downloading or printing. • Built in relevancy ranking based on times cited. • Cannot limit to journal articles.
Google Scholar (search engine) Advantages • Searches journals, books and more academic sources. • Can download individual citations into bibliographic managers. • Contains citing information with links to sources citing a specific term. Disadvantages • No indexing terms. • Huge retrieval of almost any topic. • No ability to select citations for downloading or printing. • Built in relevancy ranking based on times cited… • May result in bias toward older literature.
Database • A collection of information organised in such a way that a computer can quickly select desired pieces of data. • An electronic filing system. • Traditional databases are organised by fields, records and files.
• Cochrane Library (Systematic reviews and review protocols) • http://www.cochrane.org/ • TRIP (Turning Research Into Practice- Evidence based healthcare database) • http://www.tripdatabase.com/index.htm • NIHS (National Institute for Health Research) • http://public.ukcrn.org.uk/search/. • PubMed (biomedical literature from MEDLINE and other life science journals) • http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/ • Bandolier (Evidence based healthcare database) • http://www.medicine.ox.ac.uk/bandolier/ • National Guideline Clearing House (resource for evidence-based clinical practice guidelines) • http://www.guideline.gov/ • Effective Health Care • http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/crd/ehcb.htm
• The following databases are accessed through institutions (they have to purchase licenses to have access to these), and contain evidence based healthcare articles from a variety of health professions. • MEDLINE • http://www.ebscohost.com/nursing/products/medline-databases • CINAHL • http://www.ebscohost.com/cinahl/ • Embase • http://www.elsevier.com/online-tools/embase
Medline Medical LiteratureAnalysis and Retrieval System Online • Medline is the electronic database of indexed citations and abstracts of the US National Library of Medicine (NLM). • It includes bibliographic information for articles and abstracts covering medicine, nursing, pharmacy, dentistry, veterinary medicine, and health care, and preclinical sciences journal articles. • It contains >21 million records from approximately 5,000 selected publications from 1950 to the present.
EMBASE Excerpta Medica Database • Produced by Elsevier science. • > 24 million indexed records and > 7,600 indexed peer- reviewed journals. • 1974 to present. • Includes ≈ 30% of Medline records. • > European emphasis vs Pubmed. • Useful to search for non English language publications.
EMBASE Excerpta Medica Database • Core strengths: • Coverage and in-depth indexing of the drug-related clinical literature, with a particular focus on adverse drug reactions. • Emphasis on evidence based medicine (EBM) indexing including systematic reviews. • Coverage and indexing of journals and articles relevant to the development and use of medical devices.
WEB OF SCIENCE • Online academic citation index provided by Thomson Reuters®. • Provides access to 6 electronic databases. • Has indexing coverage from the year 1900 to present. • Encompasses 11,261 journals selected on the basis of impact evaluations and 46.1 million records (incl. conference proceedings). • All titles are translated in English.
Cochrane library • Important for clinical searches and especially for clinical trials or systematic reviews. • The core is the database of systematic reviews. • Includes also the Cochrane central register of controlled Trials and the Cochrane methodology register.
CINAHL Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature • Most important database for nursing sciences. • includes more than 5000 journals dating back to the 1930s and has more than 3.2 million citations. • Includes book chapters, audiovisuals, softwares, dissertations and conference proceedings. • • Emphasis also on biomedicine, behavioral sciences, education, etc... • No free version.
CINAHL Advantages • Well indexed and can 'explode' terms. • Very current. • Many ways of sorting retrieval. • Can select citations to download or print. Disadvantages • Access limited to nursing and allied health materials that are indexed in the database. • Does not search full-text for most items.
OVID • Commercial organization (Ovid Technologies) that provide access to several bibliographic databases, including Medline and Embase. • The database is available to you depends on the subscriber. • Less user friendly than Pubmed, but allows complex searches.
PubMed • PubMed is a service of the US National Library of Medicine (NLM) at the National Institute of Health (NIH). • It was developed in 1996 by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) at the National Library of Medicine. • 22 million citations from more than 5400 journals dating back to the 1940s. • Provides free access to MEDLINE. • Includes additional selected life sciences journals not in MEDLINE.
PubMed Advantages • Well indexed using Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). • Includes citations of e-journals prior to publication. • Can download info to bibliographic managers. • Can select citations to download or print. Disadvantages • Access limited almost exclusively to basic and health sciences journals that are indexed in the database. • Does not search full-text of articles.
Beyond databases • References in good articles. • Hand searching journals. • Clinical trials (clinicaltrials.gov). • Contact authors to identify additional unpublished work.
Search: Asthma in Pregnancy (performed 03 December 2009) • Google: 11,800,000 citations; first citation – October 2005; www.emedicine.com • Google Scholar: 79,000 citations; first citation – December 2000; American Journal of Medicine (first 2009 citation is 18th) • PubMed: 2076; first citation – December 2009; Obstetrics and Gynecology • CINAHL: 567 in basic search; 467 in advanced search; first citation – November 2009; Journal of Pediatrics Judkins, So You Want to use Google… MLANEWS, February 2010
Example (Steps 1-4) 1. Ask: What health problems are associated with water pollution? 2. Main Concepts: health, water, pollution 3. Need: scholarly primary research 4. Select terms: – Broader terms: ‘health’, environmental degradation’, ‘agricultural management’, – Synonyms: health, illness, disease, etc. water, rivers, lakes, sea, domestic water, etc. pollution, ‘oil spills’, chemical, biological, toxicity, etc – Alternative spellings: none – Plurals: river(s), lake(s), disease(s) – Capitals: e.g. name of a specific lake, disease, region
Conduct the search • Use your key words and Boolean Operators. • Use truncation symbols. • typing learn* into the Cochrane Library database would find learn, learns, learner, learners, learning • Wildcard may be used to search for alternative spellings or forms (?, #. !) • typing organi?ation into the Cochrane Library database would find both organisation and organization • typing wom?n into the Cochrane Library database would find both women or woman
Truncation and wildcards • Truncation allows you to search for variant forms of a word as a single search concept. • By adding/replacing characters at the end, beginning, or middle of the word with a truncation symbol, also known as a ‘wildcard.’ • Common truncation symbols include the *, #, $, and ?.
Beware of early truncation…
Utilise database features • Search fields:
• Apply filters:
• Limits:
Other Features • Search within results. • Related articles and links. • Check Search tips or search help in different databases… • Basic search. • Advanced search (multiple search terms in multiple fields). • Search history.
How to use PubMed? Interactive tutorials for training
PubMed Basic subject search Use Boolean operators (AND – OR – NOT)
• Use MeSH headings • MeSH headings are Medical Subject Headings How to improve the accuracy of your Pubmed search
The MeSH controlled vocabulary is a distinctive feature. Of Pub Med It imposes uniformity and consistency to the indexing of biomedical literature. MeSH terms are arranged in a hierarchical categorised manner called MeSH Tree Structures and are updated annually  25000 MeSH headings
Set up your limits/filters
Set up your limits/filters
Use PubMed advanced search builder
When you are happy with your search…
When you are happy with your search… • Save this file as a .txt file to your hard drive • This allows for future editing
The clipboard will hold the articles on your PC for 8 hours. At the end, click on Clipboard to collect your articles Save your searches on the CLIPBOARD
Save searches on the My NCBI Save search feature
PubMed creates this set by comparing words from the title, abstract, and MeSH terms using a powerful word-weighted algorithm. Citations are displayed in rank order from most to least relevant. Use the RELATED ARTICLES feature
Store your bibliography in a Reference Manager software EndNote ® Reference manager ®
Free Full Text Look for FREE FULL TEXTARTICLES 1 3 2
Example* • Case 1 A 50-year old male with new onset type II diabetes consults you for lipid management. Patient has an LDL Cholesterol of 96 mg/dl with HDL Cholesterol of 48 mg/ dl. He recently heard that diabetic patients with even low LDL cholesterol might derive benefit from the use of statin . • Your question is: Do patients with diabetes and low LDL cholesterol (P) have better outcomes (O) if they are treated with a statin medication (I) compared to no treatment (C)? * Sood and Ghosh. Literature Search Using PubMed: An Essential Tool for Practicing Evidence- Based Medicine. JAPI. 2006:54:303-308
Literature search, PubMed • Type in the search term, “diabetes AND low LDL AND treatment”. • Look at the search results. • You retrieve over one thousand citations. • Select ‘Limits’ and make the following selections: • Publication types - Randomized controlled trials • Ages – All Adult: 18+ years • Publication Date – From 2002 To 2004 • Subsets – Core clinical journals (Core Clinical Journals is a list of 120 clinical journals that are likely to be available at most medical school libraries). • You have much fewer articles that are more relevant.
Example 2 • In patients with sepsis (P), does treatment with steroids (I), compared with no steroids (C), alter mortality (O)? • adult human or any patients. • septic shock or severe sepsis. • Steroids or Methylprednisolone. • Modifications of the concepts leads to a different question: • In patients with septic shock, does treatment with steroids, compared with no steroids, alter outcome as reflected by mortality? • In adult human patients with severe sepsis, does treatment with methlyprednisolone, compared with no methlyprednisolone, alter outcome as reflected by mortality?
A different example* • CASE 5 You are an expert on the drug therapy of pulmonary tuberculosis. You would like to remain current with the literature on this topic. • Select the ‘Cubby’ feature from the ‘Side bar’. • Set up your own ‘Cubby’ account. • Now go back to PubMed homepage and enter the search term “pulmonary tuberculosis AND drug treatment” in the ‘Query box’. * Sood and Ghosh. Literature Search Using PubMed: An Essential Tool for Practicing Evidence- Based Medicine. JAPI. 2006:54:303-308
• Log on to your ‘Cubby’ account. Your search term is present in the ‘Cubby Search Name’ box. • Select ‘Store in Cubby’. • The search is stored in your ‘Cubby’ account. The date and time the search was performed is also stored. • Re-access your ‘Cubby’ account a few days from your first search. • Select the search by checking the box to the left of it. • Now select the option ‘What’s New for Selected’. • The output would comprise of citations added to PubMed since your last search.
Evaluate/Revise Review and refine you search • Be prepared to review/revise your search. • Keep your search terms in concept. • Sets/zones but remember to explore subtopics. • Try new sources of information. • Save the search and citations for future use. • Promote use of high-quality resources.
Manage Results • Download, print, save, e-mail results and search History. • Cite using a biomedical citation style. • Save search, set up alerts.
Evaluate-Who? What? When? Where? Why? • Does the paper cover the correct topic? Is it relevant to my patient(s)? • You are guaranteed to find at least one totally irrelevant paper in every search you do. • Is the information recent enough? • did you specify a date range? • Does it match the type of information you wanted • Qualitative, quantitative, research design? • Is the study significant? • Strengths and weaknesses. • If you found relevant articles – congratulations!
Finally… Apply–Answer the question.
Issues… • Problem 1 – I can’t find any papers • Check your spelling • Are you searching the most relevant database? • Have you tried using truncation or wildcards to capture all forms of your keyword? • Problem 2 – I have too many irrelevant papers • Check your search terms, are they specific to the information you want to find? • Add limits to your search, i.e.: limit to a particular language, years of publication or peer reviewed only.
Important notes 1. You need to accept your search and be realistic. your “ideal” search, even if conducted correctly, may miss a few papers that will be relevant to the topic. 2. Pre-defined criteria and specific research question. decide on research design, populations, outcomes, timeframes, comparators etc. before you start to search for papers. make sure you have a very clear question you want to answer. 3. There is no magic number to make a ‘manageable’ result list. each search will be different, some topics will have huge amounts of articles relating to them, others not.
• The overall goal is to locate all published studies relevant to key questions. • A balance must be achieved between recall and precision: • Recall = how much of the relevant literature is retrieved. • Precision = how much of the retrieved literature is relevant. • An optimal balance depends on the context. The target is to conduct a comprehensive and thorough search while minimising the resources needed to review retrieved citations.
Last note to take … • Effective literature search really depends on many factors, some of which are: • How much you have known a subject. • Your research experience. • Guidance from mentors. • Your library resources … access to the right literature, etc And …
The literature searching process “is not an exact science but an art.” Samuel Butler Try to think of the process as a “journey not a destination” Hearst
Research with the Internet
How To Tell the Good from the Bad • Web site evaluation criteria: • Who runs the site? • Who pays for the site? • What is the purpose of the site? • Where does the information come from? • What is the basis of the information? • How is the information selected? • How current is the information? • How does the site choose links to other sites? • What information about you does the site collect, and why? • How does the site manage interactions with visitors? ”Ten Things to Know about Evaluating Medical Resources on the Web,” National Cancer Institute, http://www.cancer.gov/cancerinfo/ten-things-to-know
The Criteria 1. Who runs the site? • Eg. – MEDLINEplus - http://medlineplus.gov • Header on all MEDLINEplus pages • “A service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health.” • Footer • Links to both organisations are located at the bottom of each page.
The Criteria 2. Who pays for the site? • The URL ends in .gov which indicates that the site is sponsored by the government. • Some other kinds of sites: .com indicates a corporate site, e.g. http://www.merck.com .edu indicates a site affiliated with an educational institution, e.g. http://www.harvard.edu .org indicates a non-profit organisation’s website, e.g. http://www.americanheart.org
The Criteria 3. What is the purpose of the site? • “MEDLINEplus is designed to help you find appropriate, authoritative health information.” http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/criteria.html
The Criteria 4. Where does the information come from? • NLM • NIH • ADAM (Encyclopedia) • Merriam-Webster (Dictionary) • News (Reuters) • Various health organisations & their websites
The Criteria 5. What is the basis of the information? • Varies by link • Research links sections tend to have more evidence based links • e.g. of evidence: • http://cis.nci.nih.gov/fact/5_6.htm • http://www.marchofdimes.com/professionals/681_1189.asp
The Criteria 6. How is the information selected? http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/criteria.html • The site mainly uses full-text publications produced by the NIH and other federal government organizations • External links are also chosen based on criteria listed under “selection criteria” (see criteria #8).
The Criteria 7. How current is the information? • MEDLINEplus pages list last updated date at bottom. • Most pages have been reviewed or updated within the last 2-3 years. • e.g. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/antioxidants.html
The Criteria 8. How does the site choose links to other sites? • MEDLINEplus - http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/criteria.html • Their criteria: • Quality, authority and accuracy of content. • Purpose of site is educational, not selling a product and offers information free of charge. • Availability and maintenance of the web page. • Special features.
The Criteria 9. What information about you does the site collect, and why? • e.g. MEDLINEplus - http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/privacy.html • Privacy Statement located in the Privacy link at the bottom of each page. It states that they collect the following information: • IP address from which you access the Internet • Date and time you viewed their page or pages • Internet address of the Web site from which you linked directly to their site • Name of the file or the words you searched • Browser used to access their site. • Any information you personally provide to them.
The Criteria 10. How does the site manage interactions with visitors? • e.g. MEDLINEplus - http://medlineplus.gov • “Contact Us” button top of pages in the header. • Email form to be filled out by the user. • No personal information is required. • Only ask for an email address if you want a reply. • The direct email address is also provided in case the form does not work.

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Literature search techniques

  • 1.
  • 2.
    Purpose of aLiterature Search • Broadens your knowledge on a topic. • Shows your skill at finding relevant information. • Allows for critical appraisal of research.
  • 3.
    How to start? •There are many ways to begin literature search, generally we have: • Keywords (most commonly used) • Begin from a paper given by your mentor • References from a given paper • Journals in your interest of subject areas • Authors, if you know some … • In other words….Adapt a search strategy!! • PLAN • PLAN • PLAN
  • 6.
  • 8.
    Steps for effectivesearch strategy • Defining your topic. • Turning our topic into a question. • Choosing your search terms. • keywords for each of the concepts in the question. • Which databases should I search? • Compiling the search and running it in a database. • Evaluate.
  • 9.
    Define the topic/thequestion • What am I looking for exactly? Question before you search! • Test search to find out how much information is available. • If you are finding little information - broaden the question. • If you are finding lots of information - narrow the question.
  • 10.
    Keywords for theconcepts in the question • Break the question down into the main concepts. • Use all possible acronyms or synonyms. • Keep in mind that names change (Mongolism or down's syndrome). • US/UK spelling variations. • Databases will search for the term you have typed in, including any spelling mistakes!
  • 11.
    Break the questiondown into the main concepts Which are the most effective ways to deliver maternity services to rural populations in low-income countries? Maternity Services • Maternal health service(s) • Maternal healthcare • Maternal health care • Maternal service(s) • Maternity care • Maternity service(s) • Postpartum care/service(s) • Postnatal care/service(s) • Prenatal care/service(s) • Antenatal care/service(s) Rural populations • Rural community/ties • Rural population(s) • Remote population(s) • Remote community/ties • Non-urban • Villages Low income countries • Developing country/countries • Developing nation(s) • Developing world • Low resource setting • LMIC(s) • Africa(n) • South East Asia(n) • South America(n)
  • 12.
  • 13.
    Concepts and keywords ConceptKey words Thrombosis Thrombosis, DVT, Leg thrombosis, Thrombus, Thrombotic, Thrombolic Thromboembolism, Thrombosis
  • 17.
  • 18.
    AND 3 termsresults
  • 19.
    You can runyour search as one long search string, using brackets/parenthesis to separate the concepts… • ("maternity services" OR "maternal health services" OR "postnatal care" OR "postpartum care") AND ("rural populations" OR "remote populations" OR "rural communities" OR "remote communities" OR non-urban OR villages) AND ("developing country” OR "low income country" OR Africa OR "south America" OR "south east Asia")
  • 20.
    Or you cansearch for each concept separately, and then combine the individual searches together with AND at the end. 1. (matern* OR postnatal OR postpartum OR prenatal) and (care OR service*). 2. rural communit* OR remote communit* OR rural population* OR remote population* OR village* OR non-urban. 3. developing countr* OR low-income OR africa* OR south america* OR south east asia* 4. 1 AND 2 AND 3.
  • 21.
    Use Search Historyto combine your search results The total records found
  • 23.
    Internet Search tools •Which search tools are needed? – Gateways. – Search Engines. – Databases.
  • 24.
    Gateway/web portal • Awebpage designed to attract visitors and search engines to a website on a specific topic(s). • Organize information in a structured way in general or subject categories. • Examples: – WHO A-Z health topics list www.who.int/topics/en/ – Essential Health Links www.healthnet.org/essential-links/
  • 25.
    Search results onGoogle This is how Google presents the results of your search. Follow the links to the websites you wish to visit.
  • 26.
    Search Engine • Aprogram that searches documents for specified keywords and returns a list of documents where the keywords were found. • Examples • Google www.google.com • Google Scholar (more academic) www.scholar.google.com • Yahoo www.yahoo.com
  • 27.
    When to usesearch engines • For general information. • When topic has many facets. • For current information. • For single article search.
  • 28.
    Note the variousoptions for refining a search including Reading level, Results per page, Language and File Type.
  • 29.
    Google Scholar providesa simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. You can search across many disciplines and sources: peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organisations.
  • 30.
    Title links to abstractand possible source of full text “Find it with OLinks” links to full text version Link to articles that cited the work Link to related articles
  • 31.
    Note the variousoptions for refining a search and also that you can change the number of results per page.
  • 32.
    Google Advantages • Searches articles, booksand webpages. • Has advanced search options. • Can limit search by dates, document types, language, domain and more… Disadvantages • No indexing terms • Huge retrieval of almost any topic. • No ability to select citations for downloading or printing. • Built in relevancy ranking based on times cited. • Cannot limit to journal articles.
  • 33.
    Google Scholar (searchengine) Advantages • Searches journals, books and more academic sources. • Can download individual citations into bibliographic managers. • Contains citing information with links to sources citing a specific term. Disadvantages • No indexing terms. • Huge retrieval of almost any topic. • No ability to select citations for downloading or printing. • Built in relevancy ranking based on times cited… • May result in bias toward older literature.
  • 34.
    Database • A collectionof information organised in such a way that a computer can quickly select desired pieces of data. • An electronic filing system. • Traditional databases are organised by fields, records and files.
  • 35.
    • Cochrane Library(Systematic reviews and review protocols) • http://www.cochrane.org/ • TRIP (Turning Research Into Practice- Evidence based healthcare database) • http://www.tripdatabase.com/index.htm • NIHS (National Institute for Health Research) • http://public.ukcrn.org.uk/search/. • PubMed (biomedical literature from MEDLINE and other life science journals) • http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/ • Bandolier (Evidence based healthcare database) • http://www.medicine.ox.ac.uk/bandolier/ • National Guideline Clearing House (resource for evidence-based clinical practice guidelines) • http://www.guideline.gov/ • Effective Health Care • http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/crd/ehcb.htm
  • 36.
    • The followingdatabases are accessed through institutions (they have to purchase licenses to have access to these), and contain evidence based healthcare articles from a variety of health professions. • MEDLINE • http://www.ebscohost.com/nursing/products/medline-databases • CINAHL • http://www.ebscohost.com/cinahl/ • Embase • http://www.elsevier.com/online-tools/embase
  • 37.
    Medline Medical LiteratureAnalysisand Retrieval System Online • Medline is the electronic database of indexed citations and abstracts of the US National Library of Medicine (NLM). • It includes bibliographic information for articles and abstracts covering medicine, nursing, pharmacy, dentistry, veterinary medicine, and health care, and preclinical sciences journal articles. • It contains >21 million records from approximately 5,000 selected publications from 1950 to the present.
  • 38.
    EMBASE Excerpta MedicaDatabase • Produced by Elsevier science. • > 24 million indexed records and > 7,600 indexed peer- reviewed journals. • 1974 to present. • Includes ≈ 30% of Medline records. • > European emphasis vs Pubmed. • Useful to search for non English language publications.
  • 39.
    EMBASE Excerpta MedicaDatabase • Core strengths: • Coverage and in-depth indexing of the drug-related clinical literature, with a particular focus on adverse drug reactions. • Emphasis on evidence based medicine (EBM) indexing including systematic reviews. • Coverage and indexing of journals and articles relevant to the development and use of medical devices.
  • 40.
    WEB OF SCIENCE •Online academic citation index provided by Thomson Reuters®. • Provides access to 6 electronic databases. • Has indexing coverage from the year 1900 to present. • Encompasses 11,261 journals selected on the basis of impact evaluations and 46.1 million records (incl. conference proceedings). • All titles are translated in English.
  • 41.
    Cochrane library • Importantfor clinical searches and especially for clinical trials or systematic reviews. • The core is the database of systematic reviews. • Includes also the Cochrane central register of controlled Trials and the Cochrane methodology register.
  • 42.
    CINAHL Cumulative Indexto Nursing and Allied Health Literature • Most important database for nursing sciences. • includes more than 5000 journals dating back to the 1930s and has more than 3.2 million citations. • Includes book chapters, audiovisuals, softwares, dissertations and conference proceedings. • • Emphasis also on biomedicine, behavioral sciences, education, etc... • No free version.
  • 43.
    CINAHL Advantages • Well indexedand can 'explode' terms. • Very current. • Many ways of sorting retrieval. • Can select citations to download or print. Disadvantages • Access limited to nursing and allied health materials that are indexed in the database. • Does not search full-text for most items.
  • 44.
    OVID • Commercial organization(Ovid Technologies) that provide access to several bibliographic databases, including Medline and Embase. • The database is available to you depends on the subscriber. • Less user friendly than Pubmed, but allows complex searches.
  • 45.
    PubMed • PubMed isa service of the US National Library of Medicine (NLM) at the National Institute of Health (NIH). • It was developed in 1996 by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) at the National Library of Medicine. • 22 million citations from more than 5400 journals dating back to the 1940s. • Provides free access to MEDLINE. • Includes additional selected life sciences journals not in MEDLINE.
  • 46.
    PubMed Advantages • Well indexedusing Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). • Includes citations of e-journals prior to publication. • Can download info to bibliographic managers. • Can select citations to download or print. Disadvantages • Access limited almost exclusively to basic and health sciences journals that are indexed in the database. • Does not search full-text of articles.
  • 47.
    Beyond databases • Referencesin good articles. • Hand searching journals. • Clinical trials (clinicaltrials.gov). • Contact authors to identify additional unpublished work.
  • 48.
    Search: Asthma inPregnancy (performed 03 December 2009) • Google: 11,800,000 citations; first citation – October 2005; www.emedicine.com • Google Scholar: 79,000 citations; first citation – December 2000; American Journal of Medicine (first 2009 citation is 18th) • PubMed: 2076; first citation – December 2009; Obstetrics and Gynecology • CINAHL: 567 in basic search; 467 in advanced search; first citation – November 2009; Journal of Pediatrics Judkins, So You Want to use Google… MLANEWS, February 2010
  • 49.
    Example (Steps 1-4) 1.Ask: What health problems are associated with water pollution? 2. Main Concepts: health, water, pollution 3. Need: scholarly primary research 4. Select terms: – Broader terms: ‘health’, environmental degradation’, ‘agricultural management’, – Synonyms: health, illness, disease, etc. water, rivers, lakes, sea, domestic water, etc. pollution, ‘oil spills’, chemical, biological, toxicity, etc – Alternative spellings: none – Plurals: river(s), lake(s), disease(s) – Capitals: e.g. name of a specific lake, disease, region
  • 50.
    Conduct the search •Use your key words and Boolean Operators. • Use truncation symbols. • typing learn* into the Cochrane Library database would find learn, learns, learner, learners, learning • Wildcard may be used to search for alternative spellings or forms (?, #. !) • typing organi?ation into the Cochrane Library database would find both organisation and organization • typing wom?n into the Cochrane Library database would find both women or woman
  • 51.
    Truncation and wildcards •Truncation allows you to search for variant forms of a word as a single search concept. • By adding/replacing characters at the end, beginning, or middle of the word with a truncation symbol, also known as a ‘wildcard.’ • Common truncation symbols include the *, #, $, and ?.
  • 52.
    Beware of earlytruncation…
  • 53.
  • 54.
  • 55.
  • 56.
    Other Features • Searchwithin results. • Related articles and links. • Check Search tips or search help in different databases… • Basic search. • Advanced search (multiple search terms in multiple fields). • Search history.
  • 57.
    How to usePubMed? Interactive tutorials for training
  • 58.
    PubMed Basic subjectsearch Use Boolean operators (AND – OR – NOT)
  • 59.
    • Use MeSHheadings • MeSH headings are Medical Subject Headings How to improve the accuracy of your Pubmed search
  • 60.
    The MeSH controlledvocabulary is a distinctive feature. Of Pub Med It imposes uniformity and consistency to the indexing of biomedical literature. MeSH terms are arranged in a hierarchical categorised manner called MeSH Tree Structures and are updated annually  25000 MeSH headings
  • 61.
    Set up yourlimits/filters
  • 62.
    Set up yourlimits/filters
  • 63.
    Use PubMed advancedsearch builder
  • 64.
    When you arehappy with your search…
  • 65.
    When you arehappy with your search… • Save this file as a .txt file to your hard drive • This allows for future editing
  • 66.
    The clipboard willhold the articles on your PC for 8 hours. At the end, click on Clipboard to collect your articles Save your searches on the CLIPBOARD
  • 67.
    Save searches onthe My NCBI Save search feature
  • 68.
    PubMed creates thisset by comparing words from the title, abstract, and MeSH terms using a powerful word-weighted algorithm. Citations are displayed in rank order from most to least relevant. Use the RELATED ARTICLES feature
  • 69.
    Store your bibliographyin a Reference Manager software EndNote ® Reference manager ®
  • 70.
    Free Full Text Lookfor FREE FULL TEXTARTICLES 1 3 2
  • 71.
    Example* • Case 1 A50-year old male with new onset type II diabetes consults you for lipid management. Patient has an LDL Cholesterol of 96 mg/dl with HDL Cholesterol of 48 mg/ dl. He recently heard that diabetic patients with even low LDL cholesterol might derive benefit from the use of statin . • Your question is: Do patients with diabetes and low LDL cholesterol (P) have better outcomes (O) if they are treated with a statin medication (I) compared to no treatment (C)? * Sood and Ghosh. Literature Search Using PubMed: An Essential Tool for Practicing Evidence- Based Medicine. JAPI. 2006:54:303-308
  • 72.
    Literature search, PubMed •Type in the search term, “diabetes AND low LDL AND treatment”. • Look at the search results. • You retrieve over one thousand citations. • Select ‘Limits’ and make the following selections: • Publication types - Randomized controlled trials • Ages – All Adult: 18+ years • Publication Date – From 2002 To 2004 • Subsets – Core clinical journals (Core Clinical Journals is a list of 120 clinical journals that are likely to be available at most medical school libraries). • You have much fewer articles that are more relevant.
  • 73.
    Example 2 • Inpatients with sepsis (P), does treatment with steroids (I), compared with no steroids (C), alter mortality (O)? • adult human or any patients. • septic shock or severe sepsis. • Steroids or Methylprednisolone. • Modifications of the concepts leads to a different question: • In patients with septic shock, does treatment with steroids, compared with no steroids, alter outcome as reflected by mortality? • In adult human patients with severe sepsis, does treatment with methlyprednisolone, compared with no methlyprednisolone, alter outcome as reflected by mortality?
  • 74.
    A different example* •CASE 5 You are an expert on the drug therapy of pulmonary tuberculosis. You would like to remain current with the literature on this topic. • Select the ‘Cubby’ feature from the ‘Side bar’. • Set up your own ‘Cubby’ account. • Now go back to PubMed homepage and enter the search term “pulmonary tuberculosis AND drug treatment” in the ‘Query box’. * Sood and Ghosh. Literature Search Using PubMed: An Essential Tool for Practicing Evidence- Based Medicine. JAPI. 2006:54:303-308
  • 75.
    • Log onto your ‘Cubby’ account. Your search term is present in the ‘Cubby Search Name’ box. • Select ‘Store in Cubby’. • The search is stored in your ‘Cubby’ account. The date and time the search was performed is also stored. • Re-access your ‘Cubby’ account a few days from your first search. • Select the search by checking the box to the left of it. • Now select the option ‘What’s New for Selected’. • The output would comprise of citations added to PubMed since your last search.
  • 76.
    Evaluate/Revise Review and refineyou search • Be prepared to review/revise your search. • Keep your search terms in concept. • Sets/zones but remember to explore subtopics. • Try new sources of information. • Save the search and citations for future use. • Promote use of high-quality resources.
  • 77.
    Manage Results • Download,print, save, e-mail results and search History. • Cite using a biomedical citation style. • Save search, set up alerts.
  • 78.
    Evaluate-Who? What? When?Where? Why? • Does the paper cover the correct topic? Is it relevant to my patient(s)? • You are guaranteed to find at least one totally irrelevant paper in every search you do. • Is the information recent enough? • did you specify a date range? • Does it match the type of information you wanted • Qualitative, quantitative, research design? • Is the study significant? • Strengths and weaknesses. • If you found relevant articles – congratulations!
  • 79.
  • 81.
    Issues… • Problem 1– I can’t find any papers • Check your spelling • Are you searching the most relevant database? • Have you tried using truncation or wildcards to capture all forms of your keyword? • Problem 2 – I have too many irrelevant papers • Check your search terms, are they specific to the information you want to find? • Add limits to your search, i.e.: limit to a particular language, years of publication or peer reviewed only.
  • 82.
    Important notes 1. Youneed to accept your search and be realistic. your “ideal” search, even if conducted correctly, may miss a few papers that will be relevant to the topic. 2. Pre-defined criteria and specific research question. decide on research design, populations, outcomes, timeframes, comparators etc. before you start to search for papers. make sure you have a very clear question you want to answer. 3. There is no magic number to make a ‘manageable’ result list. each search will be different, some topics will have huge amounts of articles relating to them, others not.
  • 83.
    • The overallgoal is to locate all published studies relevant to key questions. • A balance must be achieved between recall and precision: • Recall = how much of the relevant literature is retrieved. • Precision = how much of the retrieved literature is relevant. • An optimal balance depends on the context. The target is to conduct a comprehensive and thorough search while minimising the resources needed to review retrieved citations.
  • 84.
    Last note totake … • Effective literature search really depends on many factors, some of which are: • How much you have known a subject. • Your research experience. • Guidance from mentors. • Your library resources … access to the right literature, etc And …
  • 85.
    The literature searchingprocess “is not an exact science but an art.” Samuel Butler Try to think of the process as a “journey not a destination” Hearst
  • 86.
  • 87.
    How To Tellthe Good from the Bad • Web site evaluation criteria: • Who runs the site? • Who pays for the site? • What is the purpose of the site? • Where does the information come from? • What is the basis of the information? • How is the information selected? • How current is the information? • How does the site choose links to other sites? • What information about you does the site collect, and why? • How does the site manage interactions with visitors? ”Ten Things to Know about Evaluating Medical Resources on the Web,” National Cancer Institute, http://www.cancer.gov/cancerinfo/ten-things-to-know
  • 88.
    The Criteria 1. Whoruns the site? • Eg. – MEDLINEplus - http://medlineplus.gov • Header on all MEDLINEplus pages • “A service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health.” • Footer • Links to both organisations are located at the bottom of each page.
  • 89.
    The Criteria 2. Whopays for the site? • The URL ends in .gov which indicates that the site is sponsored by the government. • Some other kinds of sites: .com indicates a corporate site, e.g. http://www.merck.com .edu indicates a site affiliated with an educational institution, e.g. http://www.harvard.edu .org indicates a non-profit organisation’s website, e.g. http://www.americanheart.org
  • 90.
    The Criteria 3. Whatis the purpose of the site? • “MEDLINEplus is designed to help you find appropriate, authoritative health information.” http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/criteria.html
  • 91.
    The Criteria 4. Wheredoes the information come from? • NLM • NIH • ADAM (Encyclopedia) • Merriam-Webster (Dictionary) • News (Reuters) • Various health organisations & their websites
  • 92.
    The Criteria 5. Whatis the basis of the information? • Varies by link • Research links sections tend to have more evidence based links • e.g. of evidence: • http://cis.nci.nih.gov/fact/5_6.htm • http://www.marchofdimes.com/professionals/681_1189.asp
  • 93.
    The Criteria 6. Howis the information selected? http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/criteria.html • The site mainly uses full-text publications produced by the NIH and other federal government organizations • External links are also chosen based on criteria listed under “selection criteria” (see criteria #8).
  • 94.
    The Criteria 7. Howcurrent is the information? • MEDLINEplus pages list last updated date at bottom. • Most pages have been reviewed or updated within the last 2-3 years. • e.g. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/antioxidants.html
  • 95.
    The Criteria 8. Howdoes the site choose links to other sites? • MEDLINEplus - http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/criteria.html • Their criteria: • Quality, authority and accuracy of content. • Purpose of site is educational, not selling a product and offers information free of charge. • Availability and maintenance of the web page. • Special features.
  • 96.
    The Criteria 9. Whatinformation about you does the site collect, and why? • e.g. MEDLINEplus - http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/privacy.html • Privacy Statement located in the Privacy link at the bottom of each page. It states that they collect the following information: • IP address from which you access the Internet • Date and time you viewed their page or pages • Internet address of the Web site from which you linked directly to their site • Name of the file or the words you searched • Browser used to access their site. • Any information you personally provide to them.
  • 97.
    The Criteria 10. Howdoes the site manage interactions with visitors? • e.g. MEDLINEplus - http://medlineplus.gov • “Contact Us” button top of pages in the header. • Email form to be filled out by the user. • No personal information is required. • Only ask for an email address if you want a reply. • The direct email address is also provided in case the form does not work.