PUB 315 lecture 4_MZ.pdf

RESEARCH ESSENTIALS Michelle L. Zafron, MLS Starting out What types of information do you need? Background: books, websites, review articles ‘- Statistics: websites Government/agency reports: websites Journal a...

RESEARCH ESSENTIALS Michelle L. Zafron, MLS Starting out What types of information do you need? Background: books, websites, review articles ‘- Statistics: websites Government/agency reports: websites Journal articles: research databases Magazine & newspaper articles: research databases 2 What to search? Break down your topic into concepts Brainstorm terms Synonyms? ‘- Different spellings? Acronyms vs whole words 3 Smarter web searching When should you Google? How to Google efficiently Advanced search Google hacks ‘- 4 Google Hacks Phrase searching: "smoking cessation” Forced Boolean: "smoking cessation“ +programs Double full stop: "smoking cessation" +programs 2019..2024 Domain search: "smoking cessation" site:.gov ‘- Site search: "smoking cessation" site:cdc.gov Allintitle: allintitle:"smoking cessation" Excluding irrelevant results: smoking cessation -site:.com File type: "smoking cessation" filetype:pdf 5 Google Scholar What it is Google’s attempt to index the scholarly web Advantages Cross-disciplinary ‘- Familiar interface Limitations What is Google crawling? What is Google missing? Hard to hone your results 6 Databases - PubMed What it is: Premier biomedical database in the world Recommend entering through the library to maximize full-text access Advantages: ‘- Primarily peer-reviewed Allows for targeted searching Limitations: Tends to have a clinical focus Not as good for social science related topics 7 Databases: Academic Search Complete What it is: Multidisciplinary database Advantages: Has broad coverage on a variety of areas ‘- Easy to search Limitations: Contains a lot of magazine and newspaper content (limit to peer-reviewed to get around this) More general in focus 8 Databases: APA PsycInfo What it is: Largest resource devoted to peer-reviewed literature in behavioral science and mental health Advantages: ‘- Useful for topics related to what motivates people or for topics related to psychological/psychiatric coverage Easy to search Limitations: Contains a lot of magazine and newspaper content (limit to peer-reviewed to get around this) Smaller in size compared to PubMed 9 Other databases Web of Science Global Health Many many more ‘- 10 Combining terms AND – limits your search, increases relevance smoking AND nicotine replacement - Requires both topics to be present OR – broadens your search, decreases relevance smoking cessation OR tobacco cessation ‘- - Will search for either of those topics smoking AND nicotine replacement 11 Filtering Population/patient characteristics Age Gender Publication specifics ‘- Peer-reviewed/scholarly Publication type Publication dates Language 12 Evaluating results Scan hits – looking at titles and abstracts (summaries) for relevancy Not on target? – go back and rework your search ‘- 13 Finding full-text – Method #1 ‘- 14 Finding full-text - Method #2 Go OneSearch https://library.buffalo.edu/ Paste in the title of the article you are looking for Spelling counts Quotes help Log in ‘- 15 Finding full-text – Method #3 http://library.buffalo.edu/delivery/ Free service for students, faculty, & staff Request ‘- Journal articles – delivered electronically Book chapters – delivered electronically Physical items – delivered to lockers or UB Library of your choice 16 Questions? Michelle Zafron Subject specialist for the departments in the School of Public Health & Health Professions 716-829-5746 ‘- [email protected] https://research.lib.buffalo.edu/PUB315 Make an appointment with me 17