Rocky Mountain University Resource
Center Practice Exercises
Please do these exercises by using Pubmed, Ebsco, and Ovid, without other student or instructor
help. If you run into trouble, feel free to call the library at 801-375-5125. These exercises are designed to
familiarize you with how to search, and we are perfectly willing to walk you through any aspect you do not
understand.
Please take your time and really try to understand the concepts of searching. When you have
finished, please submit your assignment by email to cmelenson@rmuohp.edu before the Module 2 start
date. Thank you!
(1) Pick a topic of interest to your discipline. State the problem or question, and then perform a
search. Remember to start broadly at first. Write down the steps and the number of articles you
get for each additional search term. Use a minimum of three search terms, and narrow your
search to 50 articles.
(2) Find the title and abstract of the following incompletely cited article:
Shbeeb MI. 1996, vol.71 [Hint: use PubMed’s Single Citation Matcher.]
(3) Search for full texts for the following articles. You may not be able to find the full text online
(not all articles are—especially for free!), but that is life. Write the steps you follow to search for
them.
(a) Long-term outcomes of surgical and nonsurgical management of lumbar spinal stenosis: 8 to 10
year results from the maine lumbar spine study.
Atlas SJ, Keller RB, Wu YA, Deyo RA, Singer DE.
Spine. 2005 Apr 15;30(8):936-43.
PMID: 15834339 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
(b) Bilateral deficits in fine motor control and pinch grip force in patients with unilateral carpal tunnel
syndrome. Fernandez-de-Las-Penas, C; Perez-de-Heredia-Torres, M; Martinez-Piedrola, R; de
la Llave-Rincon AI; Cleland JA. Exp. Brain Res. 2008 Dec 9
(c) Physical Examination Tests for Assessing a Torn Meniscus in the Knee: A Systematic Review
with Meta-analysis. Preview. SportEX Medicine. Oct 2007 Issue 34, p4. (English Abstract
Available).
(d) Environ Health Perspect. 2006 October: 114(10): 1567-1573. Published online 2006 June 8.
doi:10.1289/ehp.8461.Chlorinated Pool Attendance, Atopy, and the Risk of Asthma during
Childhood. Alfred Bernard, Sylviane Carbonnelle, Claire de Burbure, Olivier Michel, and Marc
Nickmilder.
(4) Find the full text of the article in the #(2) assignment above. Follow directions in #3 above.
(5) A term that is commonly invoked in searches is “Boolean Logic.” Search the term “Boolean
logic” in Google. a) Explain what it means and its effect on the search process. Note that Boolean
logic is not used the same way in all search engines/databases. b) Pick one database—PubMed,
Ovid, or EBSCO—and explain the place of Boolean logic in its search process.
(6) Each database allows you to put “limits” (parameters) on the topic that you are searching. List
5 kinds of limits that you can put on articles in each of the following three databases:
(a) PubMed
(b) Ovid
(c) EBSCO
(7) Please write a question you would like to search from within your field that you might enjoy
researching, to give the library an idea of current topics. Select a different topic from #1.
(8) (a) What is the most difficult part of conducting research, for you?
(b) Which search engine/database is the easiest for you to use? Why?
(c) Which search engine/database is the most difficult for you to use? Why?