Presentation slides on the Library web pages

2. Using databases for your researchBDS1 May 2013Sonya Lipczynskasonya.lipczynska@kcl.ac.ukResearch & Learning Support

3. Presentation slides on the Library web pages • Library icon on internal page • Subject support on the left hand menu • Dentistry • Induction and subject specific training presentations (under Training) • Using Databases for your Research BDS 1

4. Workshop outline • Why databases? • Why not Google? • Planning searches • Using databases to find journal articles - Medline and Web of Science • Further useful info and where to find it!

5. Why search for journal articles? • Many articles are written by acknowledged experts in your field • You can find the latest and most up-to-date information, as well as trace the progression of a particular intervention or technique • Peer reviewed • You may not find this research elsewhere (e.g. textbooks)

6. Making sense of journal citations Author Year Article title Oosterink FM, de Jongh A, Aartman IH. (2008)What are people afraid of during dental treatment? Anxiety-provoking capacity of the dental setting. Eur J Oral Sci116(1):44-51. Vol Issue Pages Journal title

7. Why databases • Properly indexed records • Databases (e.g. Medline) only index journals which meet certain criteria • You can create complex searches using keywords, language tools and limits (e.g. year or age limits) • You can save your searches on the database website to retrieve later • Accuracy...

8. Why not just Google it? • Chung, Matthew ... [et al] – Safe Infant Sleep Recommendations on the Internet: Let’s Google It Journal of Pediatrics http://www.jpeds.com/webfiles/images/journals/ympd/JPEDSChung-Moon.pdf • Looked at the accuracy of recommendations about safe infant sleep on the internet and compared it to the recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics • Used 13 key phrases and analysed the first 100 search results for each phrase

9. What they found (1) • Only 43.5% of the web sites found contained information that was in line with the AAP recommendations • 28.1% contained inaccurate information • 28.4% contained irrelevant information • 19% were retail-product review web sites • 19% were web sites associated with specific products or interest groups

10. What they found (2) • Product-review web sites were the least accurate. Government web sites the most accurate • Educational web sites only had 50.2% accurate information (out of date) • The majority of books provided outdated or irrelevant information

11. How to find journal articles If you need to search for articles on a specific subject, use databases of journal references such as: • Medline • Embase • Web of Science See the Key Databases for Health Sciences user guide for information about the databases: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/library/help/guides.aspx

12. Plan your search • Before you search for information it is important to develop a search strategy • Create a focused question – if it’s too general you’ll get too many results, so make it more specific • Identify the key concepts & keywords • Identify any synonyms, alternative spellings etc

13. Focus your question or topic Unfocused topic: • The use of sedation in dental treatment Focused topic: • Is sedation preferable to general anaesthesia when providing dental treatment for primary age children?

14. Select the key topics • Dental treatment • Sedation • Conscious sedation • General anaesthesia Age limit: Primary age children (approximately 4-11)

15. Think of any alternative terms:

16. What is Medline?

17. What is the Web of Science?

18. Practical – login to Medline

19. Subject headings Use subject heading where possible, e.g. in MEDLINE or Embase as it’s an effective way of searching Applied to articles to provide a consistent vocabulary, e.g. cancer maps to the subject heading Neoplasm Articles are tagged with subject headings that describe the topics within the article Not all databases include subject headings, e.g. Web of Science

20. AND Retrieves results containing only both terms This search will find articles only if they contain BOTH terms e.g. general anaesthetic AND sedation Makes search more specific

21. OR OR - any of the specified terms will be present Use to describe the same topic using different keywords e.g. general anaesthetic OR general anaesthesia Makes search broader

22. Free text searching • Free text, keyword, or ‘natural language’ searching • The strategy used for searching the web and any database • Finds results if the words you are searching for are present in: • article title • abstract • keywords • You will find an article if you use the same terminology as the author(s)

23. Truncation Use the ‘truncation’ symbol – an asterisk* to find alternative word endings:

24. Wildcards Use wildcards (?) to search for variations within a word

25. Practical – go to the Web of Science • Repeat the search you did in Medline (demonstration)

26. Find full text Finding full text Electronically as ‘e-journals’ In print at King’s libraries In print at other libraries (e.g. other UL colleges) Document delivery – interlibrary loans Look out for the SFX@King’s logo – link to full text

27. Group exercise: solve a clinical query Get into groups of approximately 4-6 Create a search strategy for your provided clinical scenario Search for appropriate journal articles to solve the question Ask for help if needed! Be prepared to report your findings at the end of the class. k

28. Tips Use the provided search template to plan your search Write down the main keywords in the columns For each keyword, if you can think of any alternative terms, write those down as well You could split up within your group and search different databases k

29. Further information and support User guides on specific interfaces and databases at available at http://www.kcl.ac.uk/library/libraries/guides.aspx Contact the Information Specialist for Dentistry, Sonya Lipczynska sonya.lipczynska@kcl.ac.uk