BME1450: Biomaterials and Biomedical Research Michelle Baratta Engineering & Computer Science Library Maria Buda Dentistry Library

Session Objectives  Focus, systematize your searches  Select best search tools  Engineering and multidisciplinary resources  Health sciences resources  Organize search results

Good sorting functions Many use controlled terminology Identify general or literature review articles easily Limit searches to specific treatments of topics: e.g., experimental, theoretical, applications, economic Advanced citation search features – identify significant papers, authors; track development of research through time Article Databases

Building A Search Strategy Before you begin searching in a database, you will have: 1. Defined the focus of your question 2. Identified the key concepts Search strategy will change depending on: - topic - resources used

Search Strategy Now you need to find alternate terms for your key concepts:  broader, narrower, related terms  acronyms  plural/singular, spelling variations - use the truncation symbol, usually *

Broadening your search Concept #1 Concept #2 Concept #3

PICO Clinical queries P = problem/population/patient I = intervention C = comparison O = outcome

Keywords searches titles, abstracts, subject headings problems  Typos in the database  False drops  You pick the wrong keywords you pick cancer, they use neoplasms, tumor, etc.

Thesaurus Searching uses a built-in list of subject terms  terms are assigned no matter what keywords the author uses  enables consistency  Powerful way to search  *only some databases use controlled terminology

Improving the quality & depth of your research: strategies for a literature review The search tools you use will greatly determine the quality and depth of sources you find One problem: no single database does the job

So, which ones to use? A strategy: Select 2 or 3 or even 4 likely databases Construct a search Use appropriate syntax, limits Use citation management software such as Endnote or RefWorks to manage citations, eliminate duplicates

Identifying Quality Sources Peer-reviewed journals  Articles are critically evaluated by experts on the subject before it is published Journal Ranking  ISI Journal Citation Reports database uses citation data to ‘rank’ journals No method is perfect

Assumption of correlation between ‘peer esteem’ and ‘citation rate’ Simple count does not take into account context of citation e.g., “by misinterpretation of their own data, Smith et al erroneously suggest that…” Some of these tools exclude important engineering literature: preprints, tech reports, patents, conference papers When using citation data, beware..

Engineering Databases for biomedical/biomaterials research Compendex Inspec IEEE Xplore SciFinder Scholar ACM Also multidisciplinary databases (ProQuest, Web of Science, Scopus)

Start at: engineering.library.utoronto.ca engineering.library.utoronto.ca

Off-Campus login

ProQuest Technology Research Database ProQuest Illustrata: Technology ProQuest Illustrata: Natural Sciences NTIS Database (National Technical Information Service) Biological Sciences Can be searched simultaneously

Which databases (that we discussed) allow you to search for review articles? a) Compendex b) Scopus c) Web of Science d) A and C e) All of the above

Which databases utilize controlled terminology? a) Web of Science b) Scopus c) Compendex d) A and C e) All of the above

Medical databases for biomedical/biomaterials research PubMed Ovid Medline

Start at: Gerstein Science Information Centre

PubMed U of T – includes links to UTL full-text holdings MEDLINE = 5400 indexed journals from the U.S. and 80 other countries Plus other health science journals, e-books, e- resources Articles indexed using MeSH – Medical Subject Headings (for more efficient searching)

PubMed

Ovid Medline Can search one database or multiple databases at one time Uses controlled vocabulary (MeSH for MEDLINE; Emtree for EMBASE) Limit searches Save searches, my workspace

Ovid Medline (and more)

What it the most appropriate database to find articles on adrenalin and heart rate? a. MEDLINE b. EMBASE c. PsychInfo d. Film/TV Documentation Collection

What is the most efficient way to search PubMed? a. Basic search b. MeSH search c. MoSt search d. Google search

UTL Catalogue You do not need the exact author, title Searches electronic and print resources Searches the whole system or just a specific library

UTL Catalogue

RefWorks Importing citations from all databases Create a citation list of the style you choose in a word document Write-N-Cite: creates bibliography as you write your paper Can share citations with your group

RefWorks

Questions

Michelle Baratta Engineering & Computer Science Library Maria Buda Dentistry Library x4607