Post on 02-Jul-2015
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
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/
Reproduced under a Creative Commons Licence
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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…’
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
Help available via
IT Training
More help
• Email library@lshtm.ac.uk
• DL staff and students can ask a question on the Moodle
discussion boards
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