Katrina Dalziel [email protected]. Some basic advice Choose a medical topic of real interest to...
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Searching for articles for your literature review – example using PubMed Katrina Dalziel [email protected]
Katrina Dalziel [email protected]. Some basic advice Choose a medical topic of real interest to you Be aware that for some subjects the pool of published
Some basic advice Choose a medical topic of real interest to
you Be aware that for some subjects the pool of published primary
research is small Do some quick & dirty searches to identify
trends, language and vocabulary used for your topic
Slide 3
Conceptual breakdown of the research question Identify search
terms Boolean operators AND/OR/NOT Truncation
Slide 4
Im interested in people using hypnosis to stop smoking. Maybe
younger people Does it work? Is hypnosis effective in reducing
smoking levels in teenagers?
Slide 5
Within concepts Think about search terms which may be in the
title, abstract or subject headings of an article Synonyms Related
terms Consider more general/specific terms Consider different
spellings e.g. Pre-hospital/out of hospital/roadside/emergency/
out-of- hospital/ambulance
Slide 6
Concept A Key terms Concept B Key terms Concept C Key terms Any
more concepts or issues to capture? Hypnosis Hypnoses Hypnotism
Hypnotherapy Autohypnosis Smoking Tobacco Nicotine Cigarettes
Teenagers Adolescents Juveniles Youths Young people Young person Is
hypnosis effective in reducing smoking levels in teenagers? Key
word search
Slide 7
Concept A Key terms Concept B Key terms Concept C Key terms Any
more concepts or issues to capture? HypnosisSmoking Tobacco
Nicotine Smoking cessation? Prevention & Control subheading?
Adolescent Is hypnosis effective in reducing smoking levels in
teenagers? MeSH Subject headings & subheadings
Slide 8
AND combines 2 different concepts to make results smaller OR
combines similar search terms within one concept to make results
bigger NOT excludes terms or concepts BUT use with care may exclude
relevant items
Slide 9
Truncation symbol in most databases is the asterisk * e.g.
hypnotherap* would pick up hypnotherapy or hypnotherapies Assess
which terms could benefit from truncation
Slide 10
Explore and test your terms and truncation! Too many records?
Remove the least helpful terms Add another concept Not many
records? Explore effect of removing a concept Add in some broader
terms to concepts in use There may be only be a small literature
More concepts usually produces fewer results Fewer concepts usually
produces more results
Slide 11
Hypnosis [mh] OR hypnosis [tiab] OR hypnoses [tiab] OR
hypnotism [tiab] OR hypnotherp* [tiab] OR authhypnos* [tiab]
Smoking [mh] OR tobacco [mh] OR nicotine [mh: noexp] OR smok*
[tiab] OR tobacco [tiab] OR nicotine [tiab] OR cigarette* [tiab]
Adolescent [mh] OR teenage* [tiab] OR adolescen* [tiab] OR
juvenile* [tiab] OR youth* [tiab] OR young people [tiab] OR young
person* [tiab] [tiab] = title/abstract [mh] = major heading Find
all PubMed search tags at:
http://tinyurl.com/ak2jt9zhttp://tinyurl.com/ak2jt9z
Slide 12
Is it of interest? Why was it done? How was it done? What has
it found? What are the implications? What else is of interest?
Crombie, I. K. (1996). The pocket guide to critical appraisal.
London: BMJ Publishing.
Slide 13
Several available. Best known are; CASP CASP CEBM CEBM
Slide 14
Research questions need to be broken down into concepts Combine
concepts using AND Identify search terms Within concepts link
search terms using OR Use appropriate search tools All searches are
tradeoffs There is rarely a single right search Appraise the
evidence you find Ask a Librarian!
[email protected]@swansea.ac.uk