Advanced Search Techniques for Health & Life Sciences

1. Advanced Search Techniques for Health & Life Sciences

2. Finding the Evidence This presentation will introduce you to advanced search techniqes for locating evidence-based scholarly resources for your subject area, including: • Resources Available via the Library Website • Finding books and journals- electronic & print • Searching • Developing a search strategy • Searching Scopus • Searching Medline • Additional suggested E-Resources: • RefWorks • Internet resources for public health • Using Pearltrees links for Global Public Health • Support • Questions

3. E - books • e-books (electronic books) via Discoverhttp://libguides.liv.ac.uk/onlineprogrammesFurther e-book search options/ individual collections:http://libguides.liv.ac.uk/onlineprogrammes/ebooks • Search, Browse, Print & download • Register for a profile within e-book databases/ search platforms such as Discover for... • Save items to your bookshelf • Highlight and make notes on the book, see our guide on using a personal profile in Discover.

4. E - journals • Electronic journals or e-journals • Accessed via Discover or other major multi-source databases or individual collections/ platforms http://libguides.liv.ac.uk/onlineprogrammes/ejournals • Read online or print / download articles • Browse or search issues • To find articles on specific criteria visit the homepage of platforms/collections to see advanced search options (e.g. Discover Advanced Search Options):

5. What is a Database • An electronic index to journal articles, conference proceedings and papers, reports, government and legal publications, patents, books • Contains citations, abstracts and often links to the full text • Library has many different databases but they all work with the same concepts

6. Before you start! • Clear question • Appropriate keywords • Select keywords from question • A databases will retrieve exactly the words you type • Use ‘operators’ to link keywords together • Synonyms or similar terms • List similar terms or alternative spellings (pediatric OR paediatric, obese OR overweight ) • Construct your search strategy with these points in mind

7. Question Does weight loss and exercise help reduce high blood pressure? What are the key concepts? “high blood pressure” “Weight Loss” exercise Now you have your key concepts what do you do with them to help answer your question?

8. Keywords and Boolean operators • To retrieve relevant information you need to be able to link concepts/keywords together • Databases use Boolean operators to do this • There are three main operators: (broadens search) OR will show more results (narrows search) combines concepts (excludes a concept) use with CAUTION OR AND NOT

9. Truncation • Truncation – alcoho* ..will show: • alcoholic • alcohol • alcoholism • alcoholics • Proximity Searching • Database dependant See LibGuides – Guides for booleanhelp sheet

10. Phrases & Limits • Phrase searching • Inverted commas around a phrase or term • Heart disease will search for heart, disease, heart disease • “heart disease” will search for heart disease • Limits • Applying limits will focus your search • Publication date, age, publication types, peer-reviewed article, systematic reviews etc Remember limits are database dependant

11. Scopus • Scopus is the world’s largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature and quality web sources • Contains 45.5 million records, 70% with abstracts • Nearly 19,500 titles from 5,000 publishers worldwide • 70% of content is pulled from international sources • Includes over 4.6 million conference papers

12. Scopus - tips • Phrases need to be in “quotation marks” • Think of alternative terms for your topic – • obese • overweight • obesity • Try proximity operators –useful for some searches • Search terms separately and combine similar terms with OR • Use AND to combine these ‘groups’ of similar terms • Use limits to reduce the number of results

13. How to Access SCOPUS • From the main Library Web pages (http://liv.ac.uk) and the Electronic Library • From the Library for Online Programmes (left menu “Quick Search”) or E-Resources page):http://libguides.liv.ac.uk/onlineprogrammes • Go direct to SCOPUS at http://ezproxy.liv.ac.uk/login?url=http://www.scopus.com

14. Proximity operators • Used to find one word near to another word in a sentence or paragraph • There may be different ways to say the same thing • “Penicillin allergy” • allergy to penicillin • Using proximity operators increases the number of results • w/2 (within 2 words of each other) w/3 ( 3 words) etc “penicillin allergy” = 1,767 results penicillin w/2 allergy = 2,363 results A phrase search for 1 would not find 2

15. Searching Scopus A reminder of our question Does weight loss and exercise help reduce high blood pressure? “high blood pressure” exercise “Weight Loss”

16. Searching SCOPUS

17. Combining similar terms - OR Loss w/2 weight “weight loss” OR Los* w/2 weight OR “weight reduction diet” “weight loss” “weight reduction diet”

18. Combining terms using AND exercise “high blood pressure” OR hypertension “weight loss” OR Lossw/2weightOR “weight reduction diet” Area within the overlap contains one term from each set of results

19. Medline • MEDLINE is the premier, comprehensive biomedical database from the US National Library of Medicine • Updated daily -latest bibliographic citations and author abstracts • More than 3,900 biomedical journals • Journals from more than 70 countries • Abstracts are included in more than 75% of the records • Coverage 1948 to present

20. Medline - tips • Medline has a thesaurus – a controlled list of terms • Whatever terms the author has used the indexer will try and ‘map’ the term to a term on this list • These thesaurus terms are referred to as MeSH terms or ‘Medical Subject Headings’ or sometimes ‘subject headings’ • If your search terms ‘maps’ to a term in this list it will appear in your search history with a / hypertension/ • Exploding means including more specific terms lower down the thesaurus tree

21. Exploding Exploding - includes all terms LOWER in the thesaurus tree If you chose to ‘explode’ your term will appear in your search history with an exp e.g.: exp hypertension/

22. Searching MEDLINE A reminder of our search terms “high blood pressure” “Weight Loss” exercise

23. How to Access MEDLINE • From the main Library Web pages (http://liv.ac.uk) and the Electronic Library • From the Library for Online Programmes, then see the E-Resources page):http://libguides.liv.ac.uk/onlineprogrammes

24. Happy with the results? • Then save that search! • Use the saved search function to save time and effort • Create an account by clicking on the link (top of page), fill in your details, save your search • Keep a note of which keywords you’ve used - which were most / least useful • Results – click on to find the article

25. Reference Management Software - Refworks • Reference management packages • Collect, organise & manage references • Articles, books & websites • Software will cite in your chosen format and create your bibliography • See our Refworks step-by-step guide and further guides/ video:http://libguides.liv.ac.uk/onlineprogrammes/refworks

26. RefWorks • Access RefWorks via Library for Online Programmes (right menu or Refworks help pages): • Off campus use group code - available from the library website http://libguides.liv.ac.uk/onlineprogrammes/refworks • Export references into your Refworks account directly from databases/ collections. • Continue access after leaving Univ of Liverpool http://www.refworks-cos.com/alumni-program/faqs-user.html • How to use RefWorks on You Tube http://www.youtube.com/user/ProQuestRefWorks

27. Results not what you expect? • Common problems: • Spalling mistakes • Tyyping errors • Searching with the wrong keywords • Incorrect symbols for Boolean, truncation or wildcard • Searching on the wrong database Check online help or ask a librarian

28. Have you tried... • Do you have a good article already? Look it up on the database and see how its indexed. Have you used these terms? Would it expand / widen your search? • Is there an author who writes on your topic? Have you searched to see what else they have written? • If you have found a good result are there similar article suggested by the database or the ‘Find it @ Liverpool’ option?

29. Other databases 1

30. Other databases 2

31. Medical information on the Internet • Medical information needs to be • Accurate - be based on best evidence • Current and Clear • Medical information on the Internet – • Much is of high quality • Much is inaccurate - possibly dangerous • Select your sources carefully! – Internet Detective http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/detective/

32. Useful Websites for Public Health • Healthtalkonlinehttp://www.healthtalkonline.org/ or www.youthtalkonline.org Over 60 topics including - Drugs & Alcohol, HIV, Sexual Health, Health & Weight • Behind the Headlines http://www.nhs.uk/News/Pages/NewsArticles.aspx Unbiased and evidence-based analysis of health stories that make the news

33. NHS Evidence www.evidence.nhs.uk • NHS Evidence - wide range of health information much is freely available • Produced by NICE (National Institute for Health & Care Excellence) • Fast, easy to use search engine on the site • Refine by – Areas of Interest, Type of Information, Sources • Accreditation Mark - organisations providing information for the site meet high quality standards

34. Health On the Netwww.hon.ch • Set up in 1995 by medics wanting some quality control for healthcare websites • Evaluates health websites – accreditation symbol • Suggestion - two ways to use – • Look for HON code on the website being viewed • Search database of HON accredited sites • 8 criteria for evaluating websites www.hon.ch/HONcode/Conduct.html

35. Public Health England (Public Health Observatories) www.apho.org.uk • Providing meaningful health intelligence from information and data to support decision making • 12 public health observatories across the UK • Health profiles for Local Authorities and Counties • Reports produced by all the PHO’s • egOlder People’s Health and Wellbeing Atlasproduced by West Midlands PHO

36. GOV.UK – Inside government https://www.gov.uk/ • Website to find Government services and information • News, information, publications and statistics from central government departments, agencies and public bodies • Set up Email alerts / RSS feeds on your area of interest

37. World Health Organisation Library Database www.who.int/library/databases/en/ • Indexes all WHO publications 1948 onwards, articles from WHO-produced journals, technical documents 1985 to date. • Some full text links EQUATOR Network www.equator-network.org/ • Resource centre for good reporting of health research studies • International initiative to enhance reliability & value of medical research literature by promoting transparent and accurate reporting of research studies.

38. Health & Social Care Information Centre https://indicators.ic.nhs.uk/webview/ • Collection of health and social care indicators http://www.hscic.gov.uk/public-health • Public Health information –statistical, data collections etc Hospital Episode Statistics hhttp://www.hscic.gov.uk/hesttp:// http://www.hscic.gov.uk/hes • Hospital episode statistics • Details of all NHS inpatient treatment, outpatient appointments, A&E attendances in England • Monthly topics of interest focusing on areas of the data

39. Pearltrees • A place to collect, organize, discover and share everything you like on the web • Share and work in a collaborative way • Link trees • Global Public Health tree – set up by librarian at British Library • Register and create or just view • http://www.pearltrees.com/#/N-f=1_ 3622024&N-fa=3070313&N-u=1_ 328129&N-p=28586298&N-s=1_3622024

40. Off-Campus Access & Help • See your Librarian contact details under the “Contacts” area of the sitehttp://libguides.liv.ac.uk/onlineprogrammes/contacts • Virtual help online • 9am-5pm Mon - Fri - live help • Skype/ Skype number • Web form/ email