1. Accessing Sources of Evidence For Practice How to search Karen Smith Department of Health Sciences University of York

2. Accessing Sources of Evidence For Practice How to search Objectives:  Know how to develop simple and effective search terms and strategies to search for information and apply them to a research question  Have practical experience of using search strategies and techniques  Know how to carry out a focussed search

3. Accessing Sources of Evidence For Practice Why Learn To Search?  Save time and stress by know how to carry out effective and focused searches by using simple techniques  Improve the quality of your reference list at the end of your essay  Acquire a skill that will help you keep up to date as a student and as a qualified nurse

4. Accessing Sources of Evidence For Practice The Question  What is the question?  Break it down into separate terms  Think about the terms you will be searching with

5. Accessing Sources of Evidence For Practice Example of a question  How effective is radiotherapy in the treatment of breast cancer?

6. Accessing Sources of Evidence For Practice Search Strategy  Make a grid and list your search terms if it helps: PopulationIntervention ComparisonOutcome breast cancerradiotherapy neoplasm$irradiation

7. Accessing Sources of Evidence For Practice Search Strategy  Make a grid and list your search terms if it helps: PopulationIntervention ComparisonOutcome breast cancerradiotherapy neoplasm$irradiation

8. Accessing Sources of Evidence For Practice Textword Search There are two differerent ways to search: 1. Using textwords or keywords 2. Using subject headings Today we will do a textword search but your workbook will show you how to do both.

9. Accessing Sources of Evidence For Practice Combining Searches Using“or”  Make up a search using the terms in your grid. Use or to join all the similar terms together  e.g. breast cancer or neoplasm radiotherapy or irradiation

10. Accessing Sources of Evidence For Practice

11. OR breast cancer neoplasm$ #1 OR #2 #3

12. Accessing Sources of Evidence For Practice OR  So you have a set of articles which mention either : 1. breast cancer or neoplasm$ 2. radiotherapy or irradiation

13. Accessing Sources of Evidence For Practice Combining Searches Using “and”  Then use and to join different terms e.g. breast cancer or neoplasm and radiotherapy or irradiation  The database will then be searched for all these terms

14. Accessing Sources of Evidence For Practice

15. AND breast cancer or neoplasm$ AND radiotherapy or irradiation #2 breast cancer or neoplasm$ #1 #3

16. Accessing Sources of Evidence For Practice AND  So you have a set of articles which mention either : breast cancer or neoplasm$ AND radiotherapy or irradiation

17. Accessing Sources of Evidence For Practice Combining Terms  If you combine terms using and you will be able to search more accurately  It will allow you to find article on two or more subjects e.g breast cancer and radiotherapy

18. Accessing Sources of Evidence For Practice Truncation  Offered by a lot of databases  Enables the searcher to look for variations of a word  If you wanted to search for references on hypnosis you want to include hypnotise, hypnotised, hypnotising, hypnotics and US spelling hypnotize

19. Accessing Sources of Evidence For Practice Truncation Ctd  So in Medline to retrieve all words relating to hypnosis type: hypno$  Some databases might use a * instead of $  Take care with this e.g rat$ would retrieve rat, rats, ratio, rational, rationale, rate etc

20. Accessing Sources of Evidence For Practice A Simple Search Strategy 1.breast cancer 2.neoplasm$ 3.1 or 2 4.radiotherapy 5.irradiation 6.4 or 5 7.3 and 6

21. Accessing Sources of Evidence For Practice What if I have a lot of references?  Try limiting your search

22. Accessing Sources of Evidence For Practice Limiting Searches  Use with care, as you can miss important references  They are visible under the search box  Apply them one at a time so you can see the effect each is having on your references

23. Accessing Sources of Evidence For Practice Other Features  Author – useful if you know the name of an expert  Article title – for finding specific articles  Journal title – you might want to search a specific title  Just click on the icons to do the above

24. Accessing Sources of Evidence For Practice Evaluating Results- Titles  Do they look relevant?  The right level – too basic or too technical?

25. Accessing Sources of Evidence For Practice Evaluating Results - Source  Are they peer reviewed?  Not academic ie. a magazine  Geographically based or a specific language

26. Accessing Sources of Evidence For Practice Evaluating Results - Date  What period does it cover, do you want to limit to a specific period?  Are the oldest and recent references relevant?  Is a specific time period required?

27. Accessing Sources of Evidence For Practice Evaluating Results - Abstract  Is it structured i.e. objectives, methods, results and conclusion?  Detailed or brief?  How many references are listed

28. Accessing Sources of Evidence For Practice Evaluating Results – Other Fields  PT or DT – Publication Type or Document Type is it a review article/journal article/book review etc.?  Pages – how many, is the article long or just one page?

29. Accessing Sources of Evidence For Practice Locating Articles  You can find them through the database – links are provided to full text where it is available to the University  You can find them through the Library Catalogue  You can find them through the Electronic Journals site

30. Accessing Sources of Evidence For Practice Locating Articles Ctd.  If you find an article using the above methods it can be requested by using the Interlending and Document Supply Service http://www.york.ac.uk/services/libr ary/guides/interlending.htm

31. Accessing Sources of Evidence For Practice Searching Top Tips Prepare your search before you do it: 1.Break down your search into elements (population, intervention, condition, outcome) 2. Identify search terms for each element 3.Search for each element using OR (this will always increase the number of references found)

32. Accessing Sources of Evidence For Practice Searching Top Tips Ctd 4.Combine each element using AND (this will reduce the number of references found) 5.Consider using relevant limits 6.If in doubt ask a librarian.