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!