1. INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE SEARCH
A Brief Guide to Information Searching for Students of the Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Gadjah Mada
prepared by Literature Searching Team
Library, Faculty of Medicine, UGM
 2012

2. OUTLINE : What is literature search? Background of literature search
Types of publications
Search tools
Stages in searching
Tips for Effective Searches

3. WHAT IS LITERATURE SEARCH?
Literature search is an exhaustive search for published information on a subject conducted systematically using all available bibliographic finding tools, aimed at locating as much existing material on the topic as possible, an important initial step of any serious research project.

4. BACKGROUND OF LITERATURE SEARCH
Availability of various types of academic/scientific publications that support learning, teaching, and research activities.
These publications are growing enormously over years, in line with the advancement of information and communication technology.
Literature search is one of core academic skills that students and academicians as learned societies need to master to help in learning, doing research project or other academic tasks.

5. OBJECTIVES OF LITERATURE SEARCHING AT FM UGM
To introduce types of scientific publications in health/medicine
To introduce search tools used in literature search
To introduce scientific publications available locally at the Library, Faculty of Medicine, GMU and show how to access and locate them
To introduce health information on the Internet (online resources) and how to access them
To practice searching

6. TYPES OF PUBLICATIONS Scientific/academic/scholarly
Text/Reference books
Journals (BMJ, JAMA, NEJM, The Lancet, etc)‏
Research reports (papers, theses, dissertations, etc)‏
Non scientific
Fiction books (novels, comics)‏
Magazines
Newspapers

7. SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS
Written by and aimed at academic community (students, lecturers, researchers, experts)
Disseminate research findings
Articles cite resources and are peer reviewed
High quality and reliable information
Slow to be published due to review process
Access if often fee-based

8. NON SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS
Entertaining, relaxing
Readable and light weight
Current, popular issues/topics
Not always reliable
Transient, easily replaced by newer issues

9. CHALLENGES IN LITERATURE SEARCH
Growing quantity of publications may cause problems in searching and browsing (recall vs precision)‏
Quality of information (unreliable for some reasons)‏
Availability of information needed
Constraints in access due to various reasons (technical, economical, policy)‏

10. SKILLS IN LITERATURE SEARCH
Able to identify various kinds of publications
Able to know and use various search tools
Able to conduct efficient and effective searches and implement relevant search strategies
Able to evaluate the quality of information

11. SEARCH TOOLS Catalog Web search engines Search terms Subject headings
Boolean operators
Wildcard/Truncation
Nesting
Limits

12. CATALOG
A comprehensive list of the books, periodicals, maps, and other materials in a given collection, arranged in systematic order to facilitate retrieval (usually by author, title, and/or subject).
In most modern libraries, the card catalog has been converted to machine-readable bibliographic records and is available online.

13. WEB SEARCH ENGINE
A web search engine is a tool to search for information on the World Wide Web. The search results are usually presented in a list of results and are commonly called hits. The information may consist of web pages, images, information and other types of files. (
Search engines:
Google and Google Scholar – find out the differences

14. SEARCH TERMS
Search term are sometimes also referred as keywords. They can be a subject, topic, or any distinct word used as a point of access.
Using appropriate search terms is essential in the process of searching.
Thus, before conducting a search it is necessary to brainstorm for possible search terms that represent our search queries.

15. SUBJECT HEADINGS
Subject headings are a list of controlled language commonly used to classify library material housed in the collection. They represent the key topic of a publication.
An example is MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) developed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM)‏

16. BOOLEAN LOGIC
Boolean is a system of logic developed by the English mathematician George Boole ( ) that allows the user to combine words or phrases representing significant concepts when searching an online catalog or bibliographic database by keywords. (
Logical commands or “operators” commonly used in searching are AND, OR and NOT.
In some databases AND operator is represented by a symbol + and sometimes it is only used implicitly (no need to type it between terms).

17. AND Operator (to combine two concepts and narrow a search)‏
BOOLEAN OPERATOR
AND Operator (to combine two concepts and narrow a search)‏
the AND operator is used to combine two concepts e.g. hip AND fracture – in the shaded area; retrieves items containing all the search terms

18. BOOLEAN OPERATOR OR Operator
(to broaden search by including synonyms and related terms in the query)‏
renal OR kidney – in the shaded area with the overlap in the middle having both search terms; retrieves items containing either search term or both search terms

19. (to exclude unwanted records from search results)‏
BOOLEAN OPERATOR
NOT operator
(to exclude unwanted records from search results)‏
pig NOT guinea – in the shaded area; eliminates items in 2nd term (guinea) or both terms

20. GROUPING/NESTING
Nesting, represented by symbol ( ), is a technique of searching that considers similar concepts, indicated by logical command OR and expressed in different terms, as a single term.
Examples :
(fever OR febrile)‏
(paracetamol OR acetaminophen)‏
(kidney OR renal)

21. TRUNCATION/WILDCARD
Truncation is a searching technique used in database in which a word ending is replaced by simbols. (
Symbol of truncation can be (*) , (?) or ($) depending on the database
Examples :
When we type child* the result of our search will be documents that contain the words child, children, childhood, or childcare

22. LIMITS/FILTERS
Most databases offer limit functions to help users limit search results that are too broad or too many
Limits are commonly specified according to:
- date of publication
- type of publications (books, journals, news, etc)
- age group
- language
- sex (male/female)
- type of files

23. STAGE IN SEARCHING Define search topics
Choose appropriate search terms/keywords that represent the topic
Decide where to search/which sources to use (e.g. library catalog, online databases)
Develop search strategy by optimizing search tools
Observe search results
Revise the search as necessary

24. SEARCHING IN PUBMED: An example Search Phrase Pubmed ( 30-07-2012)
(child* OR infant*)
2,191,167
(child* OR infant) AND malaria OR tuberculosis
210,899
(child* OR infant*) AND malaria AND tuberculosis
466
(child* OR infant*) AND malaria OR tuberculosis AND Southeast Asia
2,299 22

25. TIPS FOR EFFECTIVE SEARCHES
Plan your search – identify the words that represent the topic of your search
Avoid using too broad or general terms, use specific terms instead to get limited but relevant results.
Use limit/filter functions as necessary
Create an account. Most online databases allow you to sign up for an account/personal folder in their database that helps you manage searches, search results or references, set up preferences, alerts, and many others.

26. SEARCHING PRACTICE AT FM UGM
Sessions for searching practice are carried out in smaller groups of students at different slot of time; some are undertaken in parallel.
The materials include local collections (books, journals, research papers, multimedia) and online databases (ScienceDirect, EBSCO Medline with Full Text, Pubmed, ClinicalKey and other relevant sources in the Internet).
Grouping of students in smaller size will be announced prior to practice.

27. This Power Point Presentation is compiled by
Team of Literature Searching
Library Faculty of Medicine, UGM.