Literature searchingHealth Promotion November 2014

Today we are going to cover...

• Formulating a research-focussed question

• Searching effectively for journal articles

• Identifying research articles from your search results

What Is Evidence?

“Information or signs indicating whethersomething is true or valid”Compact Oxford Dictionary for Students (2006)

You will need to provide appropriateevidence to support any claims or argumentsmade in your assignments

Evidence-Based Practice

“…involves the conscientious use of currentbest evidence in making decisions aboutpatient care…”

Evidence-based practice in nursing & healthcare: a guide tobest practice (2005)

The hierarchy of evidence

Source:Evidence-Based Practice in the Health Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago. http://ebp.lib.uic.edu/nursing/node/12 Under Creative Commons licence CC BY-NC-SA 2.5

Different assignments...

• ...need different types/combinations of evidence

• Can you think of examples? What types of resources do you need?

• High quality, peer-reviewed research in journal articles

• Policies and government documents

• Projects, reports, websites

Your topics

1 minute:

Find someone doing a similar topic to you

Aim to get into groups of 4 or 5

Your topic: Brainstorm!

In groups:

• What about your topic interests you? Is there a specific question you want to ask?

• Identify ideas, concepts and keywords for your topic.

• Think around your question.

Exercise 2: What exactly are you tryingto find out?

• Test your question against PICO (Population; Intervention; Comparison; Outcome)

or

• SPICE (Setting; Perspective; Intervention; Comparison; Evaluation)

Starting your search

Keywords

11

• Well worth a 5 minute brainstorm before you search – it will save you time later!

• Searching one word for your concept will not bring you all the results (and sometimes none!) Not everyone uses the same terminology for one idea

For any question:

• Consider the different keywords, related terms or subheadings within your question;

• Think of possible synonyms e.g. exercise or physical activity;

• Search each element separately;

• Combine searches on the same or similar subjects with OR e.g. obesity OR overweight;

• Combine searches on different subjects using AND e.g. smoking AND pregnancy.

Search scenario

Rising inactivity has led to an increase in health promotion campaigns aimed at encouraging healthy behaviour change. Find recent, peer-reviewed research on the effectiveness of health promotion interventions for increasing physical activity.

• Goodwin, D.M. (et al.) (2014) ‘From design to interpretation: Lessons from a public health campaign promoting physical activity’, Health Education Journal, 73(5), pp. 554-565.

Finding resourcesmyUniHub > My Study > My Library

Access all sorts of resources here!

Summon• Simple database useful as a starting point

• Will search across library resources: books, journals, newspaper articles

• Remember - NOT subject specific

Where’s the full text?

• If using Summon make sure you have ticked ‘Full text online’

• If you find a useful reference and you’re not sure if we have it:

- Check the library catalogue – Journal A-Z for Journal title

• In CINAHL/MEDLINE, ‘Check library holdings’ will do this for you

• Check Google Scholar for links to freely available papers

Access troubleshooting

• For best results, set the Middlesex cookie

• myUniHub> My Study > My Library

• Athens login = UniHub login

• N.B. If Middlesex isn’t mentioned on the screen, choose Alternative login

• Troubleshooting guide on library subject pages: http://libguides.mdx.ac.uk/accessingelectronicresources

But it’s not in the Library!

• Inter Library Loans

• SCONUL Access

• British Library

• RCN

• Institutional repositories http://www.opendoar.org/find.php

• More information: ‘Other Libraries’ page on Health Promotion guide

Primary or secondary?

• In your groups, look at the ABSTRACTS and/or first pages of the articles

• Is it primary or secondary research?

• How can you tell?

• Record your answers on the sheet

Distinguishing between primary and secondary sources

• Primary sources – original research published by the researchers in peer-reviewed journals. Use databases such as CINAHL to search for these.

• Secondary sources – work that summarises, critiques or reviews primary research. See for example NICE and the Cochrane Library.

Referencing

• Is very important

• Acknowledges other people’s work (avoids plagiarism)

• Shows you’ve read around the subject

• Supports your discussion and arguments

• Gets you better marks!

• Enables others to find your references

Referencing

On the front page of the HP guide...

Need help?

• Librarians in the Study Hub (1st floor) 9-5 Monday - Friday

• Ask a Librarian http://askalibrarian.mdx.ac.uk/• Health Promotion Library Subject Guidehttp://libguides.mdx.ac.uk/healthpromotion