Chapter 6: Searching the Literature Flashcards
Where do we find evidence?
Scientific journals, magazines, government and professional websites, grey literature, primary and secondary sources, systematic reviews
What is grey literature?
Anything not produced by a commercial publisher. Government documents, reports, fact sheets, practice guidelines, conference proceedings, and theses or dissertations are some of the many nonjournal types of literature that fall under this category.
What is a primary source?
A primary source is a report provided directly by the investigator.
What is a secondary source?
A secondary source is a description or review of one or more studies presented by someone other than the original authors. Review articles and textbooks are examples of secondary sources, as are reports of studies that often appear in newspapers, professional magazines, websites, or television news.
What is a database?
A database is an index of citations that is searchable by keywords, author, title, or journal.
What are the most used databases in healthcare?
MEDLINE
CINAHL (The Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature)
The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
What are truncations and wildcards?
Truncation and wildcards are useful tools when a keyword has different forms, has alternate spellings, or could be pluralized. Truncation uses a symbol to replace endings on words and a wildcard uses a symbol to replace a letter in the middle of a word.
Most databases and search engines use a system called Boolean logic, which uses three primary operators: AND, OR, and NOT, describe each.
AND is used to combine two keywords, resulting in only citations that contain both.
OR broadens the search by combining two keywords, resulting in all citations that mention either word.
NOT excludes words from the search.
In the health sciences, the most well-known subject heading system has been developed by the NLM, called…
Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)
What are Medical Subjects Headings?
MeSH consists of sets of terms in a hierarchical structure or “tree” that permits searching at various levels of specificity. The tree starts with broad categories and gradually narrows to more specific terms
Clinical queries target…
a search for studies on therapy (interventions), diagnosis, etiology, prognosis, or clinical prediction rules
It will generate references for clinical trials and systematic reviews.
What is sensitivity in research?
Sensitivity is the proportion of relevant articles identified by a search out of all relevant articles that exist on that topic. It is a measure of the ability of the search strategy to identify all pertinent citations.
What is specificity in research?
Specificity is the proportion of relevant citations that the search can retrieve, or a measure of the ability of the search strategy to exclude irrelevant articles. A specific search has more precision, trying to find only relevant documents.
When is the research done?
You need to be thorough, but at the same time exercise judgment to know when you have found the bulk of relevant literature so you can move on to the next phase of your decision-making or research.
When is the research done?
You need to be thorough, but at the same time exercise judgment to know when you have found the bulk of relevant literature so you can move on to the next phase of your decision-making or research.
