SEARCHING FOR EVIDENCE. Intro to Library Resources

Transcription

1 SEARCHING FOR EVIDENCE Intro to Library Resources

2 What the Library has? Databases: Medline (Ovid or PubMed) largest health sciences database CINAHL largest nursing database Cochrane Library home of the Cochrane Systematic Reviews Other Health Business Elite, etc.

3 What the Library has 2 3 Point of Care: Up To Date evidence-based monographs on specific topics and conditions, written by experts in the field. Clinical Key overviews, 600+ full-text articles, 1,000+ full-text books, etc. More! E-books STAT!Ref Natural Medicines Micromedex

4 The Evidence Pyramid

5 Where to look? Looking for evidence? Use a database (start with MEDLINE): PubMed or Ovid MEDLINE more than 22 million references in medicine, nursing, public and allied health, includes Cochrane Cochrane home of the systematic reviews CINAHL 3.4 million references in nursing and allied health Looking for background information? UpToDate Clinical Key Textbooks e-books on library page or print at your local library Looking for that one perfect article? PubMed using keywords Discovery (library super search box) Google Scholar (linked to library holdings)

6 How to Look? Start with a focused topic Develop your PICO/T Identify keywords/subject headings you want to search and plan how you are going to connect the terms Search each keywords/subject separately Use filters and limits to narrow your search

7 PICO(T) Refresher P I C 0 (T) Population or problem Intervention or interest Comparator Outcome Time

8 Subject Headings vs Keywords Subject Headings: standardized set of terms used to index articles and books, for example MeSH Medical Subject Headings or CINAHL subject headings Keywords: words from a title, abstract, etc.

9 Subject Headings Pros & Cons Pros: More precise, fewer irrelevant results Don t need to think of synonyms Cons: Need to know the exact word or phrase used in the database or catalog you re using. No guessing! Only looks for the term in the subject field Subject heading may not exist Human indexing is imperfect

10 Keywords Pros & Cons Pros: looks for words in many places in the record don t need to know specialized language/terms larger number of results Cons: have to think of all synonyms may get too many results; more irrelevant hits can t be sure you ve gotten all the results on your topic

11 Keyword quick tips When searching textwords use wildcard characters to truncate the word or find spelling variations: nurs* will find articles with the words nurse, nurses, nursing, nurse s wom?n will find woman or women in Ovid or CINAHL. In PubMed use the less frequently encountered form. Woman will find both woman or women. Women will not find articles with woman.

12 Organizing your search Search each term keyword or subject heading separately It will give you more flexibility in combining terms Combine your terms using Boolean operators

13 Boolean Operators 13 AND narrows the search; finds articles that include both terms. OR broadens the search; finds articles that include each of the terms. NOT narrows the search; finds articles that exclude one term. Use with caution! * Note: most databases require that you capitalize Boolean operators. Ovid MEDLINE does not.

14 Boolean Searching Ohio University Libraries. (2013). Research tips: How I search for information. Retrieved from

15 Finding levels of evidence You can find specific levels of evidence by selecting the corresponding article types or combining your results with the study type Subject headings (MeSH) Cohort Studies and Case- Control Studies Search MeSH and use AND to combine with your topic Publication Type Systematic Reviews, Meta-Analyses, Randomized Controlled Trials, Case Reports, Editorial, Guideline Limit to Publication Type in PubMed or use Additional Limits Publication Type in Ovid

16 Ovid MEDLINE shortcuts.ti. title word, for example zika.ti..mp. word in the title, abstract, subject headings, for example inpatient*.mp. will capture the keywords inpatient or inpatients or the subject heading inpatients.au. author

17 Questions or more information? To schedule a hands-on in-person or virtual search training us at: librarian@providence.org