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Postgraduate Course FeedbackBMS1503
Literature searching
March 2013
By the end of the session you will be able to…
• Use electronic databases to find out what BMS literature has been published in academic journals
• Plan an effective search strategy
• Identify and access useful journal articles
What is a journal?
• Similar format to a magazine
• Published regularly (in volumes and issues)
• Focuses on a particular academic discipline
• Contains articles by different authors
• Also contains book reviews & editorials
What is in a database of journal articles?
Details of articles, including…
• Author & title
• Volume, issue and page numbers
• Abstract
• Title of the journal in which it is published
• Subject keywords
• and sometimes… the full-text of the article
When you find an article
This is what a citation looks like:
Can you identify all the elements of the citation?
The complete record
Evaluation
You must evaluate your search results in order to pick the most useful articles.
What criteria do you think
you would you use to do this?
Evaluation
Currency When was it last updated?
Authority Who wrote it? Are they qualified?
Intent What is the purpose of the information?
Relevance Is this what I need? Will it answer my question?
Objectivity A balanced view?
Peer review
What are peer reviewed articles?
• A formal procedure for checking the quality of research before it is published.
• Articles are checked and authenticated by independent, third party academics (peers).
• The quality-control system of academic publishing for 100s of years.
Accessing journal databases
MyUniHub
My study
My library
Library subject guides
Biomedical Science
Resources
Finding journal articles / Using
databases
Key databases for BMS literature
Medline
The premier biomedical database
Science Citation IndexThe leading science and technical journals
Science DirectElsevier’s excellent online journal package
Good databases for full-text articles
Science DirectElsevier’s excellent online journal package
PubMed Central
Contains a lot of full-text articles
Plan your database search
In groups, use page 1 of the Literature Search Planning worksheet to:
1. Break the topic down into concepts
2. List the words or phrases that you could use for each concept (consider synonyms, alternative terms etc.)
Searching Medline
Search Medline for peer reviewed journal articles on...
clostridium tetani and vaccination
Searching Medline
Sample search
• Narrow your search
e.g. tetanus AND vaccine
• Widen your search
e.g. vaccination OR immunisation
• Find different spellings
e.g. Immuni?ation
• Truncate a word to get different endings
e.g. Vaccin*
Searching other databases
Now try searching one or more of:
• Science Direct
• Science Citation Index
• PubMed Central
Find some articles that look useful
If it’s not in the Library…
• Complete an online Inter-Library Loan Form with the full details of the article
• We will order it from the British Library (takes 1-2 weeks)
• You will receive a PDF link to the article via email
• There is a charge of £3 for this service
Other libraries
• Sconul Access Scheme http://www.sconul.ac.uk/using_other_libraries/access/
• British Library http://www.bl.uk/
Referencing
• It is vital that you follow the Natural Sciences Referencing guide. Find this at:
Biomedical Science subject guide
Information skills
Referencing and plagiarism
Useful links
• Library and IT pages on UniHub http://unihub.mdx.ac.uk/study/library/index.aspx
• Biomedical Sciences Library Subject Guide http://libguides.mdx.ac.uk/biomedicalsciences
Please ask us at the Library Helpdesk (or ‘Ask A Librarian’ on the Library Subject Guides) if you need any help!