1. Literature Searching for Research Research master class: finding the evidence - literature searching 14/06/06 Catherine Ebenezer Library, Royal College of Midwives

2. Royal College of Midwives 2 Purposes of literature searching Identify extent and quality of work already carried out in the subject area Identify key contacts Avoid duplication!

3. Royal College of Midwives 3 Types of literature: 1 Primary literature Preprints Conference proceedings Informally published reports (“grey literature”) Journal articles

4. Royal College of Midwives 4 Types of literature: 2 Secondary literature Reviews Structured abstracts + comments Books: edited collections Books: monographs/surveys

5. Royal College of Midwives 5 Types of literature: 3 More on “grey literature”… Theses Reports Official publications (not Stationery Office) Conference proceedings

6. Royal College of Midwives 6 Sources for literature searching: 1 Databases of articles and books Bibliographic e.g. MIDIRS, MEDLINE, etc. Full text e.g. PsycArticles, Cochrane Database, WHO Reproductive Health Library Library catalogues (COPAC, British Library, RCM etc.) Research databases e.g. National Research Register, HERO (UK), CRISP (USA)

7. Royal College of Midwives 7 Sources for literature searching: 2 …Not forgetting…. Hand searching of core journals Reference lists / footnote chasing Printed bibliographies World wide web search engines (NB not just Google – see www.philb.com for others)www.philb.com Picking colleagues’ brains (such as they are…)

8. Royal College of Midwives 8 Bibliographic databases: 1 Maternity and Infant Care (MIC) Produced in UK by MIDIRS Comprehensive coverage of core subject literature Journals Conference proceedings Grey literature Book chapters Available via individual or institutional subscription ‘Advanced’ search features of individual version rather crude First resort!

9. Royal College of Midwives 9 Bibliographic databases: 2 Medline 4000+ journals indexed Produced by National Library of Medicine (USA) Available free at http://www.pubmed.govhttp://www.pubmed.gov European journals not particularly well covered Maternity services coverage is reasonable, but tends to be US-oriented Strong on acute medical specialities – good for ‘medical’ topics

10. Royal College of Midwives 10 Bibliographic databases: 3 Psychological Abstracts (PsycINFO, PsycLIT, ClinPsyc-clinical subset) Produced by American Psychological Association A “cash cow”—but available free to NHS staff in England via National Core Content Covers all aspects of psychology Useful for psychological aspects of midwifery care

11. Royal College of Midwives 11 Bibliographic databases: 4 CINAHL Covers nursing, midwifery, PAMs, health management, health information Recent records include references US bias but increasingly strong coverage of UK and Australasian literature Available on National Core Content Good for midwifery and maternity services Some journals very obscure

12. Royal College of Midwives 12 Bibliographic databases: 5 AMED: Allied and Complementary Medicine Produced in UK by British Library Aims to complement MEDLINE Best source of UK PAMs literature on National Core Content

13. Royal College of Midwives 13 Bibliographic databases: 6 Cochrane Library Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews NHS Economic Evaluations Database DARE: Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effectiveness Medical editors’ trials amnesty HTA database Now free on the web in England via NLH

14. Royal College of Midwives 14 Bibliographic databases: 7 Citation indexes Identify a significant piece of published research Find out who has cited it in later work  SciSearch  Social SciSearch (includes nursing)  included in Web of Science

15. Royal College of Midwives 15 Bibliographic databases: 8 Others…. ChildData (child health and welfare) ASSIA (applied social sciences) Social Care Online (social work) British Nursing Index – on NCC DH Data (health management) – on NCC King’s Fund (health management) – on NCC

16. Royal College of Midwives 16 Bibliographic databases: 9 BiblioSleep: sleep PHEL: Public Health Electronic Library (NICE) Aegis AIDS-HIV NARIC: disability DrugScope: drug abuse CAMbase – complementary therapies Education-line: education SPIN: science policy ETOH : alcohol abuse POPLINE - population ERIC: education … lots of web-accessible databases on specialist areas, e.g.:

17. Royal College of Midwives 17 Citation styles: 1 Harvard style – social sciences Ebenezer, C M (2001) The trials of life: the work of a midwifery librarian. Health Information and Libraries Journal 18(4) 234- 239 Vancouver style – biomedicine Ebenezer C M. The trials of life: the work of a midwifery librarian. Health Information and Libraries Journal 2001; 18(4) 234-9

18. Royal College of Midwives 18 Citation styles: 2 Citing electronic sources Styles less established than for citing printed formats-- --need to include: Bibliographic details (as applicable): author, title, etc. URL Date downloaded Ebenezer, C M (2001) From nether hell thy people save: BMA Library open day 12/09/2001. London-I 5 12-14 At www.londonlinks.ac.uk [17/01/2002].www.londonlinks.ac.uk

19. Royal College of Midwives 19 Research information: 1 Research in progress Findings/outcomes Research funding and opportunities

20. Royal College of Midwives 20 Research information: 2 National Health Service R&D pages Information on all aspects of NHS research: includes National Research Register: ongoing and recently completed research projects funded by or of interest to the NHS www.rdforum.nhs.uk/home.htmwww.rdforum.nhs.uk/home.htm Research Findings Electronic Register (ReFeR): findings of completed NHS research www.refer.nhs.uk Health Technology Assessment (HTA) programme monographs www.ncchta.org www.refer.nhs.uk www.ncchta.org

21. Royal College of Midwives 21 Research information: 3 R&D Info http://www.rdinfo.org.uk http://www.rdinfo.org.uk A digest of health-related funding and training opportunities Current Controlled Trials: mRCT A register of randomised controlled trials currently in progress http://www.controlled-trials.com Virginia Henderson International Nursing Library http://www.nursinglibrary.org/Portal/Main.aspx?PageID=4001 Registry of Nursing Research Database An e-library of completed and ongoing research http://www.controlled-trials.com http://www.nursinglibrary.org/Portal/Main.aspx?PageID=4001

22. Royal College of Midwives 22 Research information: 4 Medical research charities Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC) http://www.amrc.org.uk Links to individual charities, funding guide http://www.amrc.org.uk

23. Royal College of Midwives 23 Research information: 5 Higher education Research councils: Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Medical Research Council (MRC ) HERO: Information on research opportunities and funding within UK higher education http://www.hero.ac.uk/uk/research/index.cfm http://www.hero.ac.uk/uk/research/index.cfm

24. Royal College of Midwives 24 Further training: 1 Online resources Lots at www.rcm.org.uk library pages, e.g.www.rcm.org.uk Literature searching for research (Bath) http://www.bath.ac.uk/health/rdsu/hints_search.htm http://www.bath.ac.uk/health/rdsu/hints_search.htm Information retrieval skills for biological sciences (Leicester) http://www.le.ac.uk/li/sources/subject3/biol/ist/sources.html http://www.le.ac.uk/li/sources/subject3/biol/ist/sources.html Intute online tutorials: nursing and midwifery http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk

25. Royal College of Midwives 25 Further training: 2 External training providers 1 CILIP runs a variety of courses on information searching in health care (these were formerly provided by the British Library) http://www.cilip.org.uk http://www.cilip.org.uk BMA Library runs workshops covering online searching, evidence- based healthcare, and critical appraisal skills http://www.bma.org.uk/ap.nsf/content/LIBCoursesUpdate http://www.bma.org.uk/ap.nsf/content/LIBCoursesUpdate

26. Royal College of Midwives 26 Further training: 3 External training providers 2 EPPI-Centre (Institute of Education) Provides cross-disciplinary training in systematic reviewing – focus is on social interventions http://eppi.ioe.ac.uk/cms/ http://eppi.ioe.ac.uk/cms/