Researching and Evaluating the Literature 63-171 Helen Power helen.power@uwindsor.ca September 2018

Learning outcomes By the end of this session, you will be able to Refine a research question Search the literature for relevant research Evaluate resources

Developing a Research Strategy Why is this important? Saves time Makes you think about your topic Improves your searching techniques Makes sure you find relevant articles

First steps What are the requirements for the assignment? Read the entire assignment carefully before you begin What is the purpose of the assignment? Identify a research question Turn the topic into a question that interests you Make sure the question is answerable Length of the paper Time for research Amount of literature available

Research Questions Quantitative RQ P – Patient/Population I - Intervention C - Comparator O – Outcome Qualitative RQ P – Patient/Population S – Situation

Example: Midwifery Population – Perinatal women Intervention – Midwife providing care Comparator Obstetrician No care No Comparator Outcome – healthy pregnancy Research Question: How does a midwife improve the health of perinatal women compared to an obstetrician?

Example: Midwifery Population – pregnant women Situation – care of a midwife Research Question: How do pregnant women experience being under the care of a midwife?

Activity 1: Practice with your topic Quantitative RQ P – Patient/Population I - Intervention C - Comparator O – Outcome Qualitative RQ S – Situation What will your research question be?

Break research question into concepts A concept is one of the key ideas that you need to find in the literature This is the time to look at the different aspects you need to answer for the assignment Ex. Include “benefits” and “challenges” Concepts: Midwife Role Pregnant women Health outcomes Benefits Challenges

Break research question into concepts Midwife Benefits Challenges Pregnancy Midwife Midwives midwifery Benefit Health outcomes Others? Challenge Challenges Costs Education Pregnant Pregnancy Childbirth Brainstorm: Synonyms Similar terms Alternate spellings Broader terms Narrower terms

Activity 2: Brainstorm Keywords Brainstorm keywords for your research topic Come up with: Related terms Alternate spellings Broader terms Narrower terms Image from: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/39/ff/7b/39ff7bf55096a5240b259a25b06499d6.jpg

Research Tools

Research Tools: AND midwife benefits Midwife AND benefits   Midwife AND benefits Makes sure you’re getting articles that have both terms Use AND between all concepts Midwife AND benefits AND pregnancy

Research Tools: OR Pregnant OR Pregnancy Makes sure you’re getting articles that have one term or both terms

Research Tools: “ ” “perinatal care” Phrase Searching Makes sure you’re getting articles that have those words together in that order

What types of resources do you use for research?

Encyclopedias and dictionaries Excellent overviews – useful for introduction to a topic Well-organized Wide range of topics Examples: Encyclopedia Britannica Wikipedia is a non-scholarly encyclopedia

Newspapers and Magazines Can provide current information Accessible reading level Not scholarly Examples: Maclean’s, Globe and Mail, Nature, Biology Today

Books/Monographs Covers many aspects of a topic Written by experts, edited by publishers Can take years to research, write, and publish

General Websites Can provide broad information, or focus on a specific aspect of a topic May or may not be current Are available on practically any topic Information is not always reliable

Scholarly articles Research or review articles written by experts Evaluated by scholars Very specialized Reviewed by experts before being published Sometimes too specific for an overall picture of a particular topic

Where can you find scholarly articles? Library catalogue Databases CINAHL ProQuest Nursing and Allied Health Source PubMed Google Scholar Nurses’ Associations websites Brainstorm session

Evaluating Resources Websites Books Articles And more… Image from: https://s3.amazonaws.com/contenthub-static/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/plagiarism.jpg

CRAAP Test Currency Relevance Authority Accuracy Purpose When was it published? When was it last updated? Does your topic need more recent information? Relevance Does this resource answer your question? Who is this intended for? Authority Who is the author/publisher? What are their credentials? Accuracy Where is the information from? Are arguments supported? Is the source peer reviewed? Purpose Is it meant to educate, to sell something, to entertain? Is there bias? Is the information fact or opinion?

Activity 4: Apply the CRAAP criteria assigned to you to evaluate this website Is it a reliable source? Should you use it for your assignment? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midwife

CRAAP Test Currency Relevance Authority Accuracy Purpose Continuously updated Relevance Intended for general public Authority Anyone can be an author… Accuracy References at the bottom Purpose Meant to educate, might be biased

Finding scholarly resources

http://leddy.uwindsor.ca/

Mention the two guides on the right List of additional nursing research tools

Read the abstract first!

PRIMO

Activity 3: Searching the literature Practice searching CINAHL for your research question Use the keywords you brainstormed with AND, OR, “ ” Adjust your search depending on the number of results and the relevance of the articles to your topic

Summary Refining a research question using PICO elements Developing a strategy for searching a database Evaluating resources to be read and included in assignments

Helen Power Information Services Librarian Leddy Library Email: helen.power@uwindsor.ca Phone: 519-253-3000 ext. 3205 Office: W118 Leddy Library