The Library and Reviewing Literature

Six steps to an effective literature search

www.lshtm.ac.uk/library

Information skills for DL Infectious Diseases

students

Library & Archives Service

Dophil Maternity and Nursing Home, nr Siaya, W. Kenya

by Moving Mountains Trust

http://www.flickr.com/photos/movingmountainstrust/505063

4424/

Reproduced under a Creative Commons Licence

Six steps to an effective literature search:

1.• Scoping your search topic

2.• Choosing the resources to search

3.• Choosing your search terms

4.• Compiling your search strategy and running your search

5.• Finding the full text

6• Managing your information







What do you want the literature

to tell you?

Ask questions…

Question x4 by Mike Coghlan

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikecogh/4256561918/








Search engines

• Includes Google

• Good for grey literature

• Can return thousands of

results

• No quality control

• Gives full text

• Covers all subject areas

and types of information

• Free

Databases

• Includes PubMed

• Good for academic

literature

• Items are chosen to be

included

• Usually only gives an

abstract

• Covers a specific subject

area and type of information

• Often need to subscribe

Doesn’t PubMed has all the

information I need?

All academic peer-reviewed

literature

All biomedical academic

peer-reviewed literaturePubMed

Doesn’t PubMed contain all of

Embase?

380 306

1411

15201533

3235

1586Figures reproduced with permission from

www.cabi.org. Global health: solving local problems

with global information. Figure 1. Online at:

http://www.cabi.org/Uploads/ProductAdmin/a832dacf

-4063-4669-9c1f-4023856fa767.pdf

Global Health

EmbaseMedline

Only 15% of titles

are found in all

three databases

http://www.cabi.org/

http://www.cabi.org/Uploads/ProductAdmin/a832dacf-4063-4669-9c1f-4023856fa767.pdf









So, how many databases should I

search?

Background search

• 1 or 2

MSc dissertation (primary research)

• 3 or 4

MSc dissertation (secondary research)

• 4 or 5

PhD

• As many as are practicable

This is a general guideline only. The number of resources to

search is dependent on the scope of your search







Dophil Maternity and Nursing Home, nr Siaya, W. Kenya

by Moving Mountains Trust

http://www.flickr.com/photos/movingmountainstrust/505063

4424/


Identifying your concepts

What subjects must items you find address in

order to answer your search question?

Which interventions are the most effective at

preventing maternal transmission of HIV?

Using synonyms

US and UK spellings

(behavior and behaviour)

US and UK terminology

(physiotherapist and physical therapist)

Abbreviations

(acquired immunodeficiency

syndrome and AIDS)

Different word endings

(climate and climatic)

Generic and trade names of drugs

( Fluoxetine and Prozac)

Diseases and disease vectors

(dengue and aedes)

Which interventions are the

most effective at preventing

maternal transmission of HIV?Maternal transmission

• vertical transmission

• maternal transmission

• fetal transmission

• foetal transmission

• fetomaternal transmission

• mother-to-child transmission

• PMTCT

• MTCT

• perinatally acquired

HIV

• HTLV-III

• HTLV-III-LAV

• human immunodeficiency virus

• T-Lymphotropic Virus Type III

What are subject headings?

Indexing terms added to each article by the database compilers NOT the author

Terms are chosen from a pre-defined list, updated annually

Terms are specific to each database

Can help make subject searches more comprehensive

Example from Medline®

Myer L, Zulliger R, Black S, Pienaar D, Bekker LG. Pilot programme for the rapid initiation of antiretroviral therapy in pregnancy in Cape Town, South Africa. AIDS Care 2012; 24(8): 986-92.

Adult*Anti-HIV Agents / administration & dosageCD4 Lymphocyte CountFemale*HIV Infections / drug therapyHIV Infections / transmissionHumans*Infectious Disease Transmission, Vertical / prevention & control

Pilot ProjectsPregnancy*Pregnancy Complications, Infectious / drug therapy*Prenatal Care / organization & administrationSouth AfricaYoung Adult

Subject tree for HIV Infections in

Medline®• Diseases

– Virus Diseases

• RNA Virus Infections

– Retroviridae Infections

» Lentivirus Infections

• HIV Infections

• Acquired Immunodeficiency

Syndrome

• AIDS Arteritis, Central Nervous

System

• AIDS-Associated Nephropathy

• AIDS Dementia Complex

• AIDS-Related Complex

• AIDS-Related Opportunistic

Infections

• HIV-Associated Lipodystrophy

Syndrome

• HIV Enteropathy

• HIV Seropositivity

• HIV Wasting Syndrome

Exploding your subject

• Diseases

– Virus Diseases

• RNA Virus Infections

– Retroviridae Infections

» Lentivirus Infections

• HIV Infections

• Acquired Immunodeficiency

Syndrome

• AIDS Arteritis, Central Nervous

System

• AIDS-Associated Nephropathy

• AIDS Dementia Complex

• AIDS-Related Complex

• AIDS-Related Opportunistic

Infections

• HIV-Associated Lipodystrophy

Syndrome

• HIV Enteropathy

• HIV Seropositivity

• HIV Wasting Syndrome

Focusing your subject

• Adult

• *Anti-HIV Agents / administration & dosage

• CD4 Lymphocyte Count

• Female

• *HIV Infections / drug therapy

• HIV Infections / transmission

• Humans

• *Infectious Disease Transmission, Vertical / prevention & control

• Pilot Projects

• Pregnancy

• *Pregnancy Complications, Infectious / drug therapy

• *Prenatal Care / organization & administration

• South Africa

• Young Adult

Subheadings

• Adult

• *Anti-HIV Agents / administration & dosage

• CD4 Lymphocyte Count

• Female

• *HIV Infections / drug therapy

• HIV Infections / transmission

• Humans

• *Infectious Disease Transmission, Vertical / prevention & control

• Pilot Projects

• Pregnancy

• *Pregnancy Complications, Infectious / drug therapy

• *Prenatal Care / organization & administration

• South Africa

• Young Adult







Using Boolean operators -

OR

Human immunodeficiency

virus

HIV

HTLV-III

HTLV-III-LAV

HIV OR human

immunodeficiency

virus OR HTLV-III OR

HTLV-III-LAV

Using Boolean operators -

AND

HIVMaternal

transmission

HIV AND maternal

transmission

Truncation

• Truncation finds alternative endings to words.

• Enter the beginning of the word, then end with

the truncation symbol (usually *)

Example

You could type in ‘transmission’, ‘transmitted’, ‘transmit’

OR

You could type in ‘transmi*’

Wildcards

Optional

• Character does NOT have to be present

• Useful for US/UK spelling

• eg tumo?r

Compulsory

• Character DOES have to be present but can be any letter

• Useful for US/UK spelling

• eg organi#e

Proximity searching

• Look for words in the same sentence or within n words of

each other

• Useful when the vocabulary used to describe your

subject is variable

Example

You could type in vertical transmission or maternal

transmission or fetal transmission or foetal transmission or

fetomaternal transmission or mother-to-child transmission

OR

You could type in (vertical OR maternal OR fetal OR foetal

OR fetomaternal OR mother-to-child) ADJ3 transmiss*

Impact of increased complexity on

comprehensiveness of results1 Mother-to-child transmission 2,328

2 Mother-to-child transmi* 2,349

3 vertical transmi*or maternal transmi* or fetal transmi*or foetal

transmi* or fetomaternal transmi* or mother-to-child transmi* or

PMTCT or MTCT or perinatal* acquire*

2,889

4 ((vertical OR maternal OR fetal OR foetal OR fetomaternal OR

mother-to-child) ADJ3 transmi*) OR PMTCT OR MTCT OR

perinatal* acquire*

15,689

5 ((vertical OR maternal OR fetal OR foetal OR fetomaternal OR

mother-to-child) ADJ3 transmi*) OR PMTCT OR MTCT OR

perinatal* acquire* or Infectious Disease Transmission,

Vertical/

15,736

Numbers correspond to number of results retrieved from

Ovid MEDLINE® 1946 to September week 4 2012.

Putting it all together

1. ((vertical OR maternal OR fetal OR foetal OR fetomaternal

OR mother-to-child) ADJ3 transmiss*) OR PMTCT OR MTCT

OR perinatal* acquire*

2. Infectious Disease Transmission, Vertical/

3. 1 OR 2

4. HIV OR HTLV-III OR HTLV-III-LAV OR human

immunodeficiency virus OR T-Lymphotropic Virus Type III

5. HIV Infections/

6. 4 OR 5

7. 3 AND 6







Why is authentication required?

Cost of electronic resources linked to the number of

users

Licences limit use to current staff and students of the institution

Allows publishers and librarians to analyse usage

patterns

Routes to access

IP address

Linked to the computer you are

using

Must be using designated

computer for this to work

Resource specific password

Can be used from any computer

Requires users to remember

multiple passwords

Institution specific password

Can be used from any computer

Users only need to remember one

password

The School uses IP addresses and the institutional password

system called Shibboleth. We do NOT use Athens

Which password do I use?

The username and password you use to log on to Moodle / School email

Staff

This is provided by IT Services and is derived from your department

and your name

London-based students

This is provided by IT Services and begins

‘lsh…’

Distance learning students

This is provided by the University of London

and begins ‘lon…’







Help available via

IT Training

More help

• Email [email protected]

• DL staff and students can ask a question on the Moodle

discussion boards

mailto:[email protected]

Six steps to an effective literature search:







Education

The Library and Reviewing Literature