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