Week 3: Literature search Flashcards
Briefly describe Google Scholar
- largest data base
- links to google scholar author profiles
- links to pdfs and other relevant papers
- provides APA citation
- can create alerts
Disadvantages of Google Scholar
- non selective: also access non refereed sources
- does not use Boolean operators for searching
PsycINFO
- maintained by the APA
- behavioural sciences and mental health
- lists the psychological tests used by the study and other useful features
- more than 8 million cited references
What are Boolean operators?
Search engine definers that help narrow your search
AND
Narrows search and includes both terms; e.g. sleep AND health
OR
Broadens search, and includes either item: sleep OR health
NOT
Excludes term from a search
NEAR/n
Looks for two search items within a specified number of words apart from each other
PRE/n
Looks for one search term that appears within a specified number of words before a search term
Wildcard ?
Replaces a single letter in the word
Truncation
Retrieves variations of the search
PubMed
- larger and more diverse than PsychINFO
- does not list the psychological tests employed by studies
Describe a narrative/critical review
Aims to critically evaluate data on a topic by comparing and contrasting and coming up with a hypothesis or model.
Strengths of a narrative/critical review
Enables argument formation, and deriving new insights from published findings
Weaknesses of a narrative/critical review
Can be a reliance on weak evidence and exclusion of stronger counter evidence and literature can be covered unevenly
Describe a systematic review
Adheres to strict searching guidelines, following rules to comprehensively and exhaustively review the literature, typically the effectiveness of a clinical intervention.
Strengths of a systematic review
Ensures a thorough and balanced appraisal of the literature and can come to confident conclusions
Weaknesses of a systematic review
Rigorous exclusion criteria eliminates relevant and good studies from consideration, and means conclusions may be based on unrepresentative studies
Describe a meta-analysis
Looks at studies that have used the same methodology, and weighs these studies by sample size and analyses them using Bayesian stats to derive over all effect size
Strengths of a meta analysis
- enables small, inconclusive studies to contribute to a common conclusion
- enables cost effectiveness of different treatments to be compared
Weaknesses of a meta analysis
The need for common methodologies between studies can exclude studies with complex designs or ones that did not define all selection parameters
At first pass of an article, look at:
- research question
- hypotheses
- key findings
- finding interpretation
- main conclusions
At second pass of an article, look at:
- precise methods and theories tested
- holes in the methods
- holes in results
- acknowledged limitations
