Library Workshop
NMH Higher Research Degree Students
UTS Library
Wednesday 12 December 2012
(Prepared by Jane Van Balen)
Literature Searching and
Databases
Choosing the best database for your topic
• What databases are there to choose from?
• Why are there so many?
• What types of databases are there?
• Why do some have good indexing and few full text
but others have lots of full text and poor indexing?
Literature Searching and
Databases
What databases are there to choose from?
Medline; Cinahl; Cochrane DSR; Academic
Search Premier; Maternity and Infant Care;
ScienceDirect and Scopus; Proquest Central;
Health Source Nursing/Academic; PubMed
plus many more
Literature Searching and
Databases
What types of databases are there?
•
•
general and subject specific
academic and commercial
Databases
General
Subject Specific
Academic Search Premier
CINAHL
Expanded Academic ASAP
Maternity and Infant Care
ScienceDirect
Medline or PubMed
Wiley InterScience
Business Source Premier
Databases
Academic
Commercial / Publisher
Good indexing – little full text
Generally little attention to
indexing – lots more full text.
CINAHL
ScienceDirect (Elsevier)
Scopus (Elsevier)
Medline / PubMed
Wiley InterScience
Maternity and Infant Care
InterNurse (MA HealthCare)
PsycInfo
Taylor & Francis Online
Databases – divide is getting blurry…
In order to become more competitive, many
companies who provide access to academic
journals enhance their services with some really
useful services and features:
• Wiley InterScience provides access to the Cochrane Library
• Web of Science provides access to Cited References
• Google Scholar have even introduced Cited References
• Most databases provide links for exporting to referencing
software.
• Elsevier (producer of ScienceDirect) have Scopus which like
Web of Science provides information about impact factors etc.
Literature Searching - terms
Developing Search terms
from the topic or research question
How broad or narrow?
Synonyms – words with similar meanings
Syntax of the database
Searching
Video: Search Smarter, Search Faster
Produced by University of Sydney library
http://elearning.library.usyd.edu.au/learn/topic/index.php
Database finding tool
The search!
Choose a suitable database and try running your search
Does it use subject headings mapping?
How will this affect choice of search terms
What limits are available?
Can I use a limit instead of another term?
The search
Troubleshooting when searching
databases
• getting too few results (expanders)
• getting too many results (limiters)
For items not available at UTS Library use
Interlibrary Loan or Bonus
Evaluating your articles
Tools to assist :
• Abstracts
• Subject Headings (in OVID databases select
“Complete Reference)
• Authors names
• Personal accounts for saved searches and alerts
• Various options available in different databases
Group Activity – Evaluate!
Develop a set of criteria to determine the suitability of the
articles you have found.
This will assist you to be methodological and consistent.
Your criteria will be governed by your topic’s parameters.
Work with a partner and take turns to discuss your topic.
Jot down the criteria
This can include elements such as:
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•
•
•
•
Recency – how up to date do they need to be?
Research articles – what level of research/evidence?
Might also be topics to exclude (eg: patient education not professional education)
Should the articles be Australian? Or do the issues apply globally?
If there are too few relevant articles in your set, think about what will make them more relevant.
Test your criteria against your list of results.
Managing articles
Once you have found your articles… how
to make the most of them.
• Being systematic
• Writing notes and keeping records as you read
– eg which article had that great quote?
• Using referencing software
Referencing Software
UTS Library provides access, training and
support to two Referencing Software
services:
• Endnote
• RefWorks
Endnote vs Refworks
Endnote
Needs to have software downloaded
Write and Cite works very well
PDFs can be added to each record
Can convert Refworks libraries into Endnote
RefWorks
Online – no software to download except for Write and cite add in. Also
means it’s easily transferable - easily used on multiple computers.
Can link with SFX
Can convert EndNote libraries into Refworks