Post on 15-Jun-2015
Fishing for pearls…..How to get the most from your literature search.
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LIBRARYMEDICAL LIBRARY
Isla Kuhn
Deputy Medical Librarian
Medical Library
Happy world health day!
What are the public health issues for malaria and other parasitic disease in south east Asia?
How to ask a good question
• Topic -> question -> keywords
• PICO
• Patient/Population/Problem
• Intervention
• Comparison
• Outcome
Tools
• ATHENS password
• Databases
• Pubmed (http://tinyurl.com/campubmed)
• Embase (http://tinyurl.com/embase)
• Web of Knowledge (http://wok.mimas.ac.uk)
• ??
• Websites?
What are the public health issues for malaria and other parasitic disease in south east Asia?
Tools
• ATHENS password
• Boolean Logic = AND, OR, NOT
Tools – Boolean Logic
AND – to narrow the search by combining different topics
eg
“physiotherapy” and “stroke”
Both terms must be present in the results.
StrokePhysiotherapy
Tools – Boolean Logic
OR – to broaden your search, by combining similar terms
eg
“stroke” or “cerebral-vascular accident”
Either term can be present in the resulting set of articles.
Cerebral-vascular Accident
Stroke
Tools – Boolean Logic
NOT – to restrict your search so that it does not contain a particular term
eg
“physical therapy” not “manual therapy”
The first, but not the second, term must be present.
Manual Therapy
Physical Therapy
What are the public health issues for malaria and other parasitic disease in south east Asia?
1st Term
Or Or
AND
2nd Term
Or Or
AND
3rd Term
Or Or
What are the public health issues for malaria and other parasitic disease in south east Asia?
public health
AND
malaria OR parasitic disease OR bilharzia OR ??
AND
south east Asia OR Vietnam OR Laos OR Thailand OR ???
#1 public health #2 malaria #3 parasitic disease #4 bilharzia#5 #2 or #3 or #4#6 south east Asia#7 Vietnam#8 Laos#9 #6 or #7 or #8 #10 ???
Tools – Keywords
Free text
vs
Controlled vocabulary (MeSH?)
Tools - Limits
• Language
• Age of patient
• Age of article
• Type of article
Searching – the reality
http://tinyurl.com/campubmed
Where else to look?
• Websites:
• WHO? UNICEF? MSF? Red Cross/Red Crescent? Dept for International Development?
• http://delicious.com/ilk21/international-public-health
• (or get Google to do the hard work….)
Help!
email: ilk21@cam.ac.uk
phone: (01223 3) 36750
web: library.medschl.cam.ac.uk
Thank you.
Isla Kuhn
Reader Services Librarian
Medical Library
Box 111
Addenbrookes Hospital