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The following lecture has been approved for University Undergraduate Students

The following lecture has been approved for University Undergraduate Students This lecture may contain information, ideas, concepts and discursive anecdotes that may be thought provoking and challenging It is not intended for the content or delivery to cause offence

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The following lecture has been approved for University Undergraduate Students

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  1. The following lecture has been approved for University Undergraduate Students This lecture may contain information, ideas, concepts and discursive anecdotes that may be thought provoking and challenging It is not intended for the content or delivery to cause offence Any issues raised in the lecture may require the viewer to engage in further thought, insight, reflection or critical evaluation

  2. Literature Searches Electronic Searches Dr. Craig Jackson Senior Lecturer in Health Psychology School of Health and Policy Studies Faculty of Health & Community Care University of Central England craig.jackson@uce.ac.uk

  3. Aims & Objectives Aims Establish the importance of literature reviews Assist in the practicalities of performing a literature search Provide guidelines for the Critical appraisal of papers Objectives Introduction to literature searching Interviewing electronic data sources Allow critical appraisal of scientific papers To enable the production of a substantial piece of research within a speciality field, addressing a specific question and carried out in scientific manner

  4. Information sources among physicians Medical Other % % No time to search 25 20 Colleagues 52 67 Meetings 13 30 Textbook / Journal 30 21 Internet 14 18 Other 5 7 No info needed 21 2

  5. Searching Behaviour • Clinicians rely on expert based systems “wetware” • (consulting colleagues, journal reviews, textbooks, and continuing ed.) • Academic researchers rely on computer resources • hardware and software • Expert Based Information • Benefits • Wisdom through experience • Clinical nuggets that can’t be derived through the scientific method • Fill in the gaps in outcome-based knowledge with evidence derived from clinical experience • Detriments • Info may be out of date • Reverse gullibility: clinical experience favoured over patient oriented evidence • Knowledge may be based on highly selected population

  6. The “Revolutionary Changes” • Internet access to literature databases • Increase in volume of general medical literature • Systematic reviews are more common • Specialist medical, psychological, nursing, ergonomic databases • Practice guidelines based on reviews • On-line purchase of articles • On-line full-text journals

  7. P I C O Method for understanding papers • P Patient / Population characteristics • I Intervention / Exposure / Factor of interest • C Comparison / Control Condition • O Outcome

  8. PUBmed www.pubmed.com

  9. Good Research Questions Diagnostic QuestionsCompare with gold standard Etiologic QuestionsCase-Control study Intervention QuestionsRCT Prognostic QuestionsPatient cohort study

  10. Search Strategy Use MeSH browser (Medical Subject Headings) If MeSH-term not available, use “free text” Aim at maximum of 50 studies Sensitive search – miss little but gain useless studies Specific search - more exact but few results Search filters

  11. Quality Rules of Thumb Better quality if….. Medicine better versus Internet Journals with High Impact Factor English Language Journals Structured Abstracts (Intro, Methods, Results, Conclusion)

  12. Purpose • 1. Define a problem to be researched • 2. Review and summarise relevant literature (timescale) • 3. Present this as Literature Review (word count) within dissertation • 4. Viva considerations • “The selection of available documents (both published and unpublished) on a topic …….. and the effective evaluation of these documents in relation to the research being proposed” • Hart, C (1998) • The literature review justifies the topic chosen

  13. Benefits Understand previous research on topic by knowing: 1. The main theories in the subject area 2. Evolution / Acceptance of such theories 3. How the theories have been applied 4. Main criticisms that have been made of work on the topic 5. Theoretical limitations Underpins knowledge needed for dissertation

  14. Examiners like to see. . . • Identification of: • Main concepts, theories, theorists and methodological approaches • Understanding & Critical Evaluation • Literary flow • Systematic reasoning • Demonstration of the need for this research • Demonstration that the research contributes something new

  15. Too broad Key Points Appropriate breadth and depth Rigour Consistency Clarity Brevity Sound analysis Don’t base size on word-length Too deep just fine

  16. Process of searching Select key words in subject area Search sources using key words (CD ROMs, on-line bibliographic databases, library catalogues) Select key papers Other papers Obtain some key papers Obtain abstracts (e) (photocopy, ILL, subscription) (make database) Critically review key papers Critically review other papers Develop themes Write 1st draft of review

  17. Tips Earlier the better - informs methodology Thorough – having papers / abstracts to hand at write up helps Think how relevant paper is to subject – be strict at a later date Refine earlier attempts at searches – re-run every three months Journal e-subscriptions & e-alerts Information overload can be good

  18. Look for argument style problem events conclusions theory motives hypothesis standpoint politics justification concepts techniques questions evidence definitions ways of thinking perspective interpretation ethical consideration conflicts of interest funding validity methodology

  19. POEM analysis Patient Oriented Evidence that Matters R x V U = W U usefulness R relevance of info V validity of info W work required to get info 3 criteria: 1) address a question that researchers encounter 2) measure outcomes that researchers care about: symptoms, morbidity, quality of life, or mortality 3) they have the potential to change practise Slawson & Shaughnessy 2002

  20. Electronic searches are getting easier Despite the hassle…. Fast Cheap Reliable Common Simplistic Interface improvements Hard but not impossible to compete with the qualities of a real book

  21. Varieties of sources Papers Databases Search engines Datasets Journals Personal communication M.U.D’s Google “ask”

  22. The Useful Web No customs / No postman Good at what it does - it’s always there Instant / very fast Mostly free Interactive Bits not atoms Vast Regulation Quality control Transient nature No international referencing format Not easily transportable Not always easily accessible Bits not atoms Vast The Useless Web

  23. Maximizing the web Requirements Browser you feel comfortable with (16 to choose from) Netscape Navigator v Internet Explorer Reliable search engine(s) individual taste Adobe Acrobat / Reader allows viewing of PDF documents (Portable Document Format) Time to experiment to find own style

  24. Surfing is 90’s • Most of useful work done in first 50th % of interface • If not found early, info is of little use • Suggests www works • Information paradox Quality hits Searching time

  25. Useful Health Research websites www.occenvmed.com Occupational & Environmental Medicine www.bmj.com British Medical Journal www.fathom.com Fathom ehp.niehs.nih.gov/ Environmental Health Perspectives www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/index.html Units of measurement www.researchpaper.com Research paper.com www.ohsonline.com Occupational Health annhyg.oupjournals.org Annals of Occupational Hygiene www.thelancet.com The Lancet www.newscientist.com New Scientist www.niss.ac.uk Ovid database www.scit.wlv.ac.uk/ukinfo/uk.map.html Map of UK Universities www.occmed.oupjournals.org/ Occupational Medicine www.joem.org/ Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine www.fb4d.com Free books for doctors www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov Pub Med

  26. Recommended Search Engines http://search.netscape.com Netscape http://uk.yahoo.co.uk Yahoo http://www.excite.com Excite http://www.lycos.co.uk Lycos http://www.looksmart.com Looksmart http://www.google.com Google http://hotbot.lycos.com Hotbot www.copernic.com META-SEARCH ENGINE

  27. That which is not… • Journal Publications still the standard medium • Peer review still best process • Web not a shortcut to quality publication • Owning a (hard) copy of a journal paper is still essential • Web is there to facilitate access to journals and communication • www.craphound.com

  28. Accessing Worthwhile Research • PROBLEMS • Getting started . . . . . insurmountable task • Too much vs too little • Technology • Judging relevance • Unfamiliar literature • Awareness of available resources • Non-local materials • Keeping track of findings

  29. Keywords and Synonyms “WOMEN AND WORK IN HISTORY” Keywords: Women, Females, Girls, Gender Synonyms & near synonyms: Child, Adolescents Related items: Work, Employment, Labour, Workforce, Industry, Management Broader terms: Early, Medieval, Modern, Contemporary Britain, UK, England, Scotland

  30. Boolean Logic Basis of most modern search processes George Boole (19th C) 1. Mapping everything into Bits & Bytes 2. Pre-cursor to Logic gates - essential to computing 3. Excludes terms from a search The NOT Gate (Inverter) Takes an Input and produces an Output which is the opposite NOT GATE A Q 0 1 1 0 A Q

  31. Boolean Logic The NOT operative Excludes a term from a search “Pollution NOT oil” “Labour NOT politics” “Disease NOT cancer” A powerful operating term

  32. Boolean Logic Variety of search terms Think carefully about the search terms used Consider vocabulary - Scientific Medical Classical Variations (spelling) (name) (context) (hyphens) Reiterate search results and re-try Constant Refinement Process Use “set-building” for searches

  33. Boolean Logic Priority of Boolean process OR before AND then finally NOT “boys OR men AND hobbies NOT football” Use ( ) to group OR searches “Stress AND Sex” “Stress AND Women” “(Women OR Girls) AND Stress NOT Trauma”

  34. Boolean Logic Building sets Returns 1. “teenagers OR adolescents” 500 2. “#1 AND (aggressive OR violent)” 350 3. “#2 AND (treatment OR rehabilitation)” 215 4. “#3 NOT (females OR girls)” 196 5. “#4 AND (advantages)” 121 Logical relationships become clear Search is built step-by-step Mistakes (sudden drops in citations) easier to see

  35. eXcite for webservers More advanced form of searching than Boolean Logic Concept-based Query is simply a description of an information need Search for documents that are a best match for the words in query Also search for documents about the same concepts that query describes Sometimes bring back articles that don't mention any of the words in query The description / query can be as detailed as you want Common words are ignored: a and the

  36. Meta-search Engines Single search on a number of different search engines simultaneously DOGPILE INFERENCE FIND MAMMA METACRAWLER PROFUSION SAVVY SEARCH

  37. Limitation Awareness “No research project is perfect. What is important though, is that the researcher recognises this, justifies why design and analysis decisions were taken, and interprets the results in the light of these.” Hicks 1999

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