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DATABASE SEARCH SKILLS: using Medline to find journal articles: 

DATABASE SEARCH SKILLS: using Medline to find journal articles Dr Helen Marlborough Dental Subject Librarian

What will be covered ?: 

What will be covered ? introduction to bibliographic databases and search techniques

MERLIN: 

MERLIN Catalogue E-Journals Other resources including databases

Electronic Databases: 

Electronic Databases Bibliographic Databases index journal articles give a summary of articles provide full bibliographic information the full text of some articles is available online

Databases that index articles on dental subjects: 

Databases that index articles on dental subjects Medline (OVID) and PubMed Medline Science/Social Science Citation Indexes via WEB of Science Cochrane Library

MEDLINE: 

MEDLINE Medline (OVID or PubMed ) indexes journals in medicine, dentistry and allied sciences, from 1966 onwards subject thesaurus to find references on related subjects, or subjects described differently by different authors

How to search electronic resources effectively & efficiently: 

How to search electronic resources effectively & efficiently Concepts you need to master are: choosing keywords using Boolean operators (and/or/not) to link keywords using truncation to find variant forms of a word using thesaurus terms and special search features e.g. Explode and subheadings

Choosing keywords: 

Choosing keywords Be clear about your topic area think of the individual concepts which form your topic for example: smoking and oral cancer think of related terms, variant terminology, alternative spellings e.g. cigarette/s or nicotine or smoking or smoker/s cancer or neoplasm/s or carcinoma/s or melanoma/s or tumor/s or tumour/s

Alternative spelling: 

Alternative spelling For example in American publications counselling counseling tumour tumor fibre fiber behaviour behavior discolouration discoloration

Truncation: 

Truncation Truncation is used to find references containing words which have alternative endings based on a common stem or root. Place the truncation symbol (* or a $) at the end of the root common to all variants to find all possible endings. e.g. periodont$ or periodont* to retrieve periodontal or periodontally or periodotology or periodontitis

Truncation continued: 

Truncation continued Beware of unlimited truncation, e.g. dent$ finds denture/s, denturist/s as well as dental, dentist/s, dentistry, dentition child* finds childbirth as well as child, childhood, children

Boolean operators: 

Boolean operators

Boolean Logic - Or: 

Boolean Logic - Or Combining terms with OR operator means that the search will find references that mention either term. This increases the number of records retrieved.

Boolean Logic - And: 

Boolean Logic - And Combining terms with AND means that both terms must appear in the same record. This finds fewer but more relevant references.

Boolean logic - Not: 

Boolean logic - Not NOT excludes references that mention the specified term. Use with caution as you may miss important references which mention the term you have excluded.

Thesaurus terms : 

Thesaurus terms thesaurus terms are standardised (controlled language) terms - articles on a particular topic have standard terms assigned to them, rather like labels, to describe the subjects covered in each article, even if authors use different terminology. thesaurus terms can help you find the right words to use when searching for a topic. one thesaurus term may cover several related keywords: for example the thesaurus term neoplasms covers articles that mention cancer or tumor$ or tumour$

Explode and Focus: 

Explode and Focus by selecting EXPLODE you can broaden the search by searching for the selected term and the more specific terms associated with it. This will find more references. by selecting FOCUS you can search for references in which the term/s you have selected are covered in some detail. This will find fewer references.

Refining search results: 

Refining search results Too many records add another keyword, using AND limit by year of publication, language, publication type or age group Too few records check spelling use truncation use OR to link related terms split phrases into words linked by AND use a broader term

You have found some relevant references: 

You have found some relevant references How do you save them? to find the full text of the article and to cite them correctly in your course work

Save references: 

Save references save onto a floppy disk or send to your e-mail address

Other databases: 

Other databases Web of Science Cochrane Library

Web of Science: 

Web of Science Indexes c. 6K journals in the sciences and social sciences (including medicine, dentistry and allied sciences) from 1981 onwards

Web of Science Search features: 

Web of Science Search features more up-to-date than Medline no thesaurus related records search feature citation search feature links to local holdings

Web of Science Citation search feature: 

Web of Science Citation search feature finds articles that refer to (cite) a known article or author articles that cite the known reference are likely to provide more recent information on a similar subject provides a mechanism for searching forward in time

Cochrane Library: 

Cochrane Library high quality evidence-based literature articles that report the outcomes of clinical interventions and best practice

Other databases?: 

Other databases? See handout

Electronic journals (e-journals): 

Electronic journals (e-journals) MERLIN E-journals linkl some databases link to e-journals that the Library subscribes to the full text of the article is displayed using Acrobat or HTML the most up-to-date issues are available online

Need help?: 

Need help? Contact me - Dr Helen Marlborough h.marlborough@lib.gla.ac.uk 330 6790