Transcultural Mental Health

Paula Funnellp.a.funnell@qmul.ac.uk

Senior Academic Liaison Librarian (Medicine and Dentistry)

Searching for Information

Learning outcomes

• To be introduced to the library search tools

• To know where to look for good quality information on the web

• To be able to do a simple search on key databases

Library website

www.library.qmul.ac.uk

Search engines

• Search engine = supermarket

• Photo by vauvau (http://flic.kr/p/75yAAb)

• Searches across many DIFFERENT things

Healthcare specific search engines

• Search specifically across healthcare related resources

• Search across good quality internet resources

• Much more manageable number of results

• Ability to filter your results

Evidence Search

• Easy to use• Searches across high-quality

healthcare specific resources• Provided and managed by NICE• Wide range of filters allow you to

narrow down your search e.g. by type of information or date of publication

www.evidence.nhs.uk

TRIP

• One simple search box• Results are colour coded giving an at

a glance indication of quality of information

• Results vary widely - including primary research, reviews, textbooks and news

www.tripdatabase.com

Databases

• Databases – florist

• Photo by stevewhis (http://flic.kr/p/a4h4RJ)

• Collection of SAME thing

Databases

• Vast collections of references of published research

• Filters can be applied to narrow results down

• Searches can be combined and saved for future use

• References can be imported to EndNote

MEDLINE (PubMed)

• PubMed is a search interface for the MEDLINE database

• Database of references and abstracts of journal articles

• Covers the broad field of biomedicine• Special QM PubMed address for

easier full-text access

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?otool=igbqmullib

Broadening your search

• Truncation – add an asterisk to the stem of a word

• ethnic* will search for ethnic, ethnical, ethnicity . . .

Broadening your search

• An OR search – combine two synonyms to give a larger number of results

• Ethnic* OR cultur* will search for any articles containing one or both of the terms

Narrowing your search

• Phrase searching – enclose phrase within quotation marks

• “anorexia nervosa” will return results where anorexia and nervosa appear side by side in the title or abstract

Narrowing your search

• An AND search – combine two elements of your search question to give a smaller number of results

• Ethnic* AND anorexia nervosa will search for any articles containing both of the terms

Web of Science

• Part of ISI Web of Knowledge• Contains:

– Science Citation Index– Social Sciences Citation Index– Arts and Humanities Citation Index

• Need to log in off campus

www.webofknowledge.com

Scopus

• World’s largest abstract and citation database

• Search across a range of subject areas

• Includes Medline coverage• Need to log in off campus

www.scopus.com

The Cochrane Library

• High quality systematic reviews• Already been critically appraised• Full text available• Also contains abstracts of other

systematic reviews and clinical trials

www.thecochranelibrary.com

PsycINFO

• A database covering psychology and related disciplines, including psychiatry

• Access through the library catalogue• Need to login off campus

Summary

• Use the library search tools to access resources paid for by Queen Mary

• Use specialist search engines to search across a wide range of good quality web resources

• Use databases to find academic research articles, both primary research as well as review articles

Drop-ins