1. Refining the Research question & Searching the literature
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Helen Power

2. Agenda Identifying a research topic Refining a research question
Developing a thesis
Searching the literature
Identifying relevant articles

3. Developing a Research Strategy
Why is this important?
Saves time
Makes you think about your topic
Improves your searching techniques
Makes sure you find relevant articles

4. First steps What are the requirements for the assignment?
Read the entire assignment carefully before you begin
What is the purpose of the assignment?
Identify a research question
Turn the topic into a question that interests you
Make sure the question is answerable
Length of the paper
Time for research
Amount of literature available

5. Manipulating the question
The question can be broadened or narrowed, depending on the assignment and the amount of research available
Example:
What is the relationship between early onset dementia and exercise?

6. Broaden search
Example: What is the relationship between early onset dementia and exercise?
3 key concepts:
Early onset
Dementia
Exercise
Remove 1 concept, or broaden 1 or more concepts
Neurodegenerative disease and exercise
Central nervous system disease and exercise
Dementia and physical fitness
Dementia and physical/mental fitness
Dementia and general health

7. PICO P – Patient, Population or Problem I – Intervention or Indicator
Ex. Diagnostic test, exposure, therapy
C – Control or Comparator
Ex. Alternative strategy, test or therapy
O – Outcome
Consequence of the intervention
T – Time
Duration of research or data collection

8. Narrow Search Early onset dementia and exercise Population
Young adult women with dementia
Middle-aged women with dementia
Middle-aged women with Alzheimer’s
Intervention
Cardiovascular physical exercise
Comparator
Strength training
None
Outcome
Memory recall ability

9. Finding the right question…
When is a question too broad?
Raises too many questions that cannot be answered
Not specific enough
Too many competing ideas in the literature
When there is too much literature
When is a question too narrow?
Theoretically – never
Practically – when there is not enough research on this topic

10. Example:
1. What is the relationship between early onset dementia and exercise? 2. Does exercise reduce the prevalence of dementia in middle-aged women? 3. Does moderate cardiovascular exercise retard memory degradation in middle-aged women with Alzheimer’s?

11. Thesis Statement Short summary of the argument or analysis
Important because:
States your position
Pin-points your argument
Improves organization
Directs the search for supporting research
Our thesis: Moderate cardiovascular exercise significantly retards memory degradation in middle-aged women with Alzheimer’s

12. Break thesis into concepts
Alzheimer’s
Exercise
Intensity
Gender
Time
Outcome
Cardiovascular exercise
Aerobic exercise
Running
Jogging
Swimming
Cycling
Walking
Moderate
Low intensity
Non-strenuous
Women
Female
Sex
Early onset
Middle-aged
Young-adult
Memory
Recall
Recollection
Remembering

13. Search Tools AND – Used to combine concepts
OR – Used to combine synonyms/similar terms
“ ” – Used to keep words in a phrase together
* - used to represent 1 or more characters
Example:
Alzheimer* AND (“cardio* exercise” OR Aerobic*) AND (moderate OR “low intensity” OR “non-strenuous”) AND (women OR female) AND (“early onset” OR “middle-aged”) AND (memor* OR recall OR recollect* OR remember*)

17. No results. Need to broaden search.

18. As you go through adjusting these search parameters, keep your thesis in mind. You don’t want to cut out the most important aspects of your thesis (ex. Exercise or memory)

19. I cut out the gender limitation, and the age limitation

20. Modify your thesis
Moderate cardiovascular exercise significantly retards improves memory degradation function in middle aged women patients with Alzheimer’s
Cardiovascular exercise improves memory function in patients with Alzheimer’s
Keep broadening thesis until there’s enough literature on the topic.

22. Select fields – title to search only the title field
Select fields – title to search only the title field. Abstract to search only abstract—to get more specific results.

23. Add the best articles to your folder – so you can retrieve and read those articles easily later.
Limit results by the facets on the left-hand side.
Limit by date –ex. Most recent 5 years…
Limit by gender
Limit by age

24. Read the abstract first!
Read the abstract first to make sure the article is relevant to your topic!
Read the abstract first!

29. Summary Come up with a research question that fits the assignment
Develop a thesis
Do some research
Revise thesis
Broaden/narrow search

30. Assignment #1 Finding Research literature
25 Marks (5% of Final Grade)
Section 01 - Wednesday, September 21st   
Submit a one sentence statement of your group’s chosen topic. (1 mark)
Devise a broader and a narrower question based on the topic and provide a one sentence statement of each. (4 marks)
From your topic, develop a focused research question and an associated thesis. Provide a one or two sentence statement of each. (10 marks)
In CINAHL, search for and submit references for two scholarly sources that establish the thesis developed can be supported by available research. (6 marks)
Provide a copy of the search history. (4 marks)
Submit to:
 Due: Wednesday, September 28, 2016 at midnight

31. In-Class Assignment #1 Finding Research literature (5% of Final Grade)
Section 02 - Friday September 23rd
Section 95 - Monday September 26th
You may work in groups of 2 or 3 students to complete the assignment.
The topic of the assignment is to examine the whether family members stay with a patient during CPR.
Write a question that you would like to answer about the topic.
Write a PICOT statement to reflect your question.
Conduct a literature search and find 4-5 articles that may answer your question.
Each article must
Have been published within the last 5 years (2011 or later)
Be written from a nursing perspective, and
Be a research report
Using the articles that you have located, create a reference list in APA format
Your submission for the assignment should contain:
The names and student numbers of the members of the group who prepared it
A copy of your search history,
A reference list in APA format
Peggy Oldfield