INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE SEARCH

A Brief Guide to Information Searching for Students of the Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Gadjah Mada

prepared by Literature Searching TeamLibrary, Faculty of Medicine, UGM

2012

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OUTLINE :• What is literature search?

• Background of literature search

• Types of publications

• Search tools

• Stages in searching

• Tips for Effective Searches

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WHAT IS LITERATURE SEARCH?

• Literature search is an exhaustive search for published information on a subject conducted systematically using all available bibliographic finding tools, aimed at locating as much existing material on the topic as possible, an important initial step of any serious research project.http://www.abc-clio.com/ODLIS/searchODLIS.aspx

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BACKGROUND OF LITERATURE SEARCH

• Availability of various types of academic/scientific publications that support learning, teaching, and research activities.

• These publications are growing enormously over years, in line with the advancement of information and communication technology.

• Literature search is one of core academic skills that students and academicians as learned societies need to master to help in learning, doing research project or other academic tasks.

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OBJECTIVES OF LITERATURE SEARCHING AT FM UGM

• To introduce types of scientific publications in health/medicine

• To introduce search tools used in literature search

• To introduce scientific publications available locally at the Library, Faculty of Medicine, GMU and show how to access and locate them

• To introduce health information on the Internet (online resources) and how to access them

• To practice searching

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TYPES OF PUBLICATIONS• Scientific/academic/scholarly

• Text/Reference books

• Journals (BMJ, JAMA, NEJM, The Lancet, etc)

• Research reports (papers, theses, dissertations, etc)

• Non scientific

• Fiction books (novels, comics)

• Magazines

• Newspapers

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SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS

• Written by and aimed at academic community (students, lecturers, researchers, experts)

• Disseminate research findings

• Articles cite resources and are peer reviewed

• High quality and reliable information

• Slow to be published due to review process

• Access if often fee-based

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NON SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS

• Entertaining, relaxing

• Readable and light weight

• Current, popular issues/topics

• Not always reliable

• Transient, easily replaced by newer issues

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CHALLENGES IN LITERATURE SEARCH

• Growing quantity of publications may cause problems in searching and browsing (recall vs precision)

• Quality of information (unreliable for some reasons)

• Availability of information needed

• Constraints in access due to various reasons (technical, economical, policy)

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SKILLS IN LITERATURE SEARCH

• Able to identify various kinds of publications

• Able to know and use various search tools

• Able to conduct efficient and effective searches and implement relevant search strategies

• Able to evaluate the quality of information

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SEARCH TOOLS• Catalog

• Web search engines

• Search terms

• Subject headings

• Boolean operators

• Wildcard/Truncation

• Nesting

• Limits

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CATALOG

• A comprehensive list of the books, periodicals, maps, and other materials in a given collection, arranged in systematic order to facilitate retrieval (usually by author, title, and/or subject).

• In most modern libraries, the card catalog has been converted to machine-readable bibliographic records and is available online.

http://www.abc-clio.com/ODLIS/searchODLIS.aspx

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WEB SEARCH ENGINE

• A web search engine is a tool to search for information on the World Wide Web. The search results are usually presented in a list of results and are commonly called hits. The information may consist of web pages, images, information and other types of files.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_search_engine)

• Search engines:

Google and Google Scholar – find out the differences

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SEARCH TERMS

• Search term are sometimes also referred as keywords. They can be a subject, topic, or any distinct word used as a point of access.

• Using appropriate search terms is essential in the process of searching.

• Thus, before conducting a search it is necessary to brainstorm for possible search terms that represent our search queries.

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SUBJECT HEADINGS

• Subject headings are a list of controlled language commonly used to classify library material housed in the collection. They represent the key topic of a publication.

• An example is MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) developed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM)

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BOOLEAN LOGICBoolean is a system of logic developed by the English mathematician George Boole (1815-64) that allows the user to combine words or phrases representing significant concepts when searching an online catalog or bibliographic database by keywords. (http://www.abc-clio.com/ODLIS/searchODLIS.aspx)

Logical commands or “operators” commonly used in searching are AND, OR and NOT.

In some databases AND operator is represented by a symbol + and sometimes it is only used implicitly (no need to type it between terms).

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AND Operator(to combine two concepts and narrow a search)

the AND operator is used to combine two concepts e.g. hip AND fracture – in the shaded area; retrieves items containing all the search terms

BOOLEAN OPERATOR

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renal OR kidney – in the shaded area with the overlap in the middle having both search terms; retrieves items containing either search term or both search terms

OR Operator(to broaden search by including synonyms and related terms in the query)

BOOLEAN OPERATOR

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pig NOT guinea – in the shaded area; eliminates items in 2nd term (guinea) or both terms

NOT operator(to exclude unwanted records from search results)

BOOLEAN OPERATOR

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Nesting, represented by symbol ( ), is a technique of searching that considers similar concepts, indicated by logical command OR and expressed in different terms, as a single term.

Examples :(fever OR febrile)

(paracetamol OR acetaminophen)

(kidney OR renal)

GROUPING/NESTING

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• Truncation is a searching technique used in database in which a word ending is replaced by simbols.

(http://library-resources.cqu.edu.au/learning-objects/truncation.htm)

• Symbol of truncation can be (*) , (?) or ($) depending on the database

Examples :

When we type child* the result of our search will be documents that contain the words child, children, childhood, or childcare

TRUNCATION/WILDCARD

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• Most databases offer limit functions to help users limit search results that are too broad or too many

• Limits are commonly specified according to:- date of publication- type of publications (books, journals, news, etc)- age group- language- sex (male/female)- type of files

LIMITS/FILTERS

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• Define search topics

• Choose appropriate search terms/keywords that represent the topic

• Decide where to search/which sources to use (e.g. library catalog, online databases)

• Develop search strategy by optimizing search tools

• Observe search results

• Revise the search as necessary

STAGE IN SEARCHING

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SEARCHING IN PUBMED:An example

Search Phrase Pubmed( 30-07-2012)

(child* OR infant*) 2,191,167

(child* OR infant) AND malaria OR tuberculosis 210,899

(child* OR infant*) AND malaria AND tuberculosis 466

(child* OR infant*) AND malaria OR tuberculosis AND Southeast Asia 2,299

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• Plan your search – identify the words that represent the topic of your search

• Avoid using too broad or general terms, use specific terms instead to get limited but relevant results.

• Use limit/filter functions as necessary

• Create an account. Most online databases allow you to sign up for an account/personal folder in their database that helps you manage searches, search results or references, set up preferences, alerts, and many others.

TIPS FOR EFFECTIVE SEARCHES

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• Sessions for searching practice are carried out in smaller groups of students at different slot of time; some are undertaken in parallel.

• The materials include local collections (books, journals, research papers, multimedia) and online databases (ScienceDirect, EBSCO Medline with Full Text, Pubmed, ClinicalKey and other relevant sources in the Internet).

• Grouping of students in smaller size will be announced prior to practice.

SEARCHING PRACTICE AT FM UGM

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This Power Point Presentation is compiled by

Team of Literature Searching

Library Faculty of Medicine, UGM.