Literature Searching for Research

Literature Searching for Research : Literature Searching for Research Lambeth Research Forum 14th February 2002 Catherine Ebenezer Multidisciplinary Library, Reay House


Purposes of literature searching : Purposes of literature searching Identify extent and quality of work already carried out in the subject area Identify key contacts Avoid duplication!


Types of literature: 1 : Types of literature: 1 Primary literature Preprints Conference proceedings Informally published reports (“grey literature”) Journal articles


Types of literature: 2 : Types of literature: 2 Secondary literature Reviews Books: edited collections Books: monographs/surveys


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


Sources for literature searching: 1 : Sources for literature searching: 1 Databases of articles and books Bibliographic e.g. MEDLINE, PsycINFO etc. Full text e.g. PsycArticles, Cochrane Database Library catalogues (COPAC, British Library, South Thames Libraries etc.) Research databases e.g. National Research Register, MRC (UK), CRISP (USA)


Sources for literature searching: 2 : Sources for literature searching: 2 …not forgetting…. Handsearching of core journals Reference lists/ Footnote chasing Printed bibliographies World Wide Web search engines (e.g. Google) Picking colleagues’ brains (such as they are…)


Characteristics of the literature : Characteristics of the literature Mental health literature is problematic: “Poorly controlled” Scattered across many different databases none is comprehensive all need to be looked at in a comprehensive search Brettle A J and Long A F (2001) Comparison of bibliographic databases for information on the rehabilitation of people with severe mental illness. Bull Med Libr Assoc 89(4) 353-361


Bibliographic databases: 1 : Bibliographic databases: 1 MEDLINE 4000+ journals indexed Produced by National Library of Medicine (USA) Available free at http://www.pubmed.gov European journals not particularly well covered Mental health coverage not especially good Strong on acute medical specialities


Bibliographic databases: 2 : Bibliographic databases: 2 Psychological Abstracts (PsycINFO, PsycLIT, ClinPsyc-clinical subset) Produced by American Psychological Association A “cash cow”—not available anywhere free, but short-term access via WWW can be purchased Covers all aspects of psychology Comprehensive but some US bias


Bibliographic databases: 3 : Bibliographic databases: 3 EMBASE Psychiatry European commercial product Comprehensive psychiatry coverage Strong on pharmacology and drug therapy issues Thesaurus terms very “old-fashioned” First resort!


Bibliographic databases: 4 : Bibliographic databases: 4 CINAHL Covers nursing, PAMs, health management Recent records include references US bias but increasingly strong coverage of UK and Australasian literature Good for psychiatric nursing Some journals very obscure


Bibliographic databases: 5 : Bibliographic databases: 5 AMED: Allied and Complementary Medicine Produced in UK by British Library Aims to complement MEDLINE Best source of UK PAMs literature


Bibliographic databases: 6 : Bibliographic databases: 6 Cochrane Library Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews NHS Economic Evaluations Database NHS CRD Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effectiveness Medical Editors’ Trials Amnesty HTA Database


Bibliographic databases: 7 : 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)


Bibliographic databases: 8 : Bibliographic databases: 8 Others…. ChildData (child health and welfare) ASSIA (applied social sciences) caredata (social work) ENB database (nursing) HMIC (health management) See http://slamlibrary.net for these and more….


Bibliographic databases: 9 : Bibliographic databases: 9 BiblioSleep: sleep HealthPromis: health promotion PsycheMatters: psychotherapy Aegis AIDS-HIV NARIC: disability PIE: mental health policy BEI: education ETOH: alcohol abuse CHID: public health ERIC: education SPIN: science policy JourLit/BookRev: psychoanalysis …more at http://www.leidenuniv.nl/ub/biv/freebase.htm …lots of web-accessible databases on specialist areas, e.g.:


Citation styles: 1 : Citation styles: 1 Harvard style – social sciences Ebenezer, C M (2001) The trials of life: the work of a mental health librarian. Health Information and Libraries Journal 18(4) 234-239 Vancouver style – biomedicine Ebenezer C M. The trials of life: the work of a mental health librarian. Health Information and Libraries Journal 2001; 18(4) 234-9 …more on citation styles at http://slamlibrary.xiy.net


Citation styles: 2 : 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 http://www.londonlinks.ac.uk/london_I/ [17/01/2002].


Research information: 1 : Research information: 1 Research in progress Findings/outcomes Research funding and opportunities


Research information: 2 : Research information: 2 National Health Service R&D pages http://www.doh.gov.uk/research/rd3/nhsrandd/rd3index.htm 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 Research Findings Electronic Register (ReFeR): findings of completed NHS research Health Technology Assessment (HTA) programme monographs R&D Info http://www.rdinfo.org.uk A digest of health-related funding and training opportunities


Research information: 3 : Research information: 3 Current Controlled Trials: mRCT A register of randomised controlled trials currently in progress http://www.controlled-trials.com/


Research information: 4 : Research information: 4 Medical research charities Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC) http://www.amrc.org.uk/ Links to individual charities, funding guide WISDOM database of biomedical research funding http://wisdom.wellcome.ac.uk/wisdom/fundhome.html Information on 400+ funding schemes offered by UK organisations supporting biomedical research


Research information: 5 : Research information: 5 Higher education 1 Research councils: Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Medical Research Council (MRC) NEST database: provides information on current research funded by the UK research councils: http://www.nest.ac.uk/research_g.html


Research information: 6 : Research information: 6 Higher education 2 HERO research zone: Information on research opportunities and funding within UK higher education http://www.hero.ac.uk/research/


Further training: 1 : Further training: 1 Online resources Literature searching for research (Bath) http://www.bath.ac.uk/Departments/PostMed/rdsu/hints_search.htm Information retrieval skills for medicine (Leicester) http://www.le.ac.uk/library/teach/irsm/irsm1.html Resource Discovery Network online tutorials: psychology, social work, medicine, social policy, social research methods http://www.vts.rdn.ac.uk


Further training: 2 : Further training: 2 NHS and academic libraries Reay House library provides training in database searching or assistance with literature searches; group sessions can be organised HealthFirst provides training in database searching or assistance with literature searches, basic and advanced internet searching King’s College London health sciences libraries provides hands-on workshops on searching bibliographic databases and electronic journals


Further training: 3 : Further training: 3 External training providers 1 Library Association runs a variety of courses on information searching in health care (formerly these were provided by the British Library) http://www.la-hq.org.uk BMA Library runs workshops on MEDLINE http://library.bma.org.uk/


Further training: 4 : Further training: 4 External training providers 2 Systematic Reviews Training Unit (UCL) Offers training and short courses in systematic review methodology for health professionals http://www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/srtu/ NHS CRD Provide training in the use of the Cochrane Library for research coordinators, clinical audit and clinical governance staff, and librarians http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/crd/cochlib.htm