Using the Biomedical Library & Its Resources: Becoming Efficient Information Managers BMD 201 Fall 2013

Clista Clanton, MSLS Education Coordinator Contact Information: Phone: (251)

University of South Alabama: Biomedical Library Sites Baugh Biomedical Library – Campus Site Primarily supports the academic health sciences (College of Medicine, Colleges of Nursing & Allied Health)

University of South Alabama: Biomedical Library Sites Third floor of the University Medical Center site and now called the Health Information Resource Center Primarily supports the clinical medicine specialties-collection concentrates on patient care and treatment

What is Evidence Based Practice (EBP) Short definition: “the integration of best research evidence with clinical expertise and patient values.” 4

The Health Science Literature Primary – original research Experimental (an intervention is made or variables are manipulated) Randomized Control Trials Controlled trials Observational (no intervention or variables are manipulated) Cohort studies Case-control studies Case reports Qualitative (research dealing with phenomena that are difficult or impossible to quantify mathematically, such as beliefs, meanings, attributes, and symbols)

Secondary – reviews of original research Meta-analysis/metasynthesis Systematic reviews Practice guidelines Reviews Decision analysis Consensus reports Editorial, commentary The Medical Literature

Do you need… Practice Guideline/Evidence Professional literature (journal articles) Consumer/Patient Info A fact or data set To contact a colleague News item, image, or ???

What Does “Peer Reviewed” or “Refereed” Mean? Peer Review is a process that journals use to ensure the articles published represent the best scholarship currently available. Articles submitted to peer reviewed journals are sent out to other scholars in the same field (the author's peers) to get their opinion on the quality of the scholarship, relevance to the field, appropriateness for the journal, etc. Publications that don't use peer review (Time, Cosmo, Salon) rely on the judgement of the editors for inclusion, which makes them less authoritative/reliable.

How Do I Determine if a Journal or Article is Peer-Reviewed? CINAHL has a “peer-reviewed” limiter Google the web site of the journal and read it’s description Beware of “predatory publishing tactics”

What Does the Research Literature Say?

More than 35 databases, so check scope notes

Assignment Presentation and assignment can be found at: brary/?q=BMD201 brary/?q=BMD201 Assignment due on Friday, October 18 th