Workshop presented to graduate students in Clinical Anatomy 9566 at the University of Western Ontario on November 26, 2010.

1. Clinical Anatomy
9566
Library Searching Skills
& RefWorks
Robin Featherstone, MLIS
rfeathe@uwo.ca
Slides available at:
Medical Illustration © 2010 Nucleus Medical Media, Inc.

2. Questions
• Who has conducted a major literature review
before?
• What information sources have you used?
• Who has used a citation manager?

3. Objectives
At the end of today’s session, you will be able
to:
1.Describe the steps involved in a literature
review
2.Access information sources on a wide variety
of subjects
3.Export references to RefWorks and use the
basic functions of the citation manager

4. Literature Reviews
What makes a good one?

5. 7 tasks in a Literature Review
1. Select a question
2. Select a source (database, search engine, etc.)
3. Choose search terms
4. Run your search
5. Apply practical screening criteria
6. Apply methodological screening criteria
7. Synthesize the results

6. General Tips
• Choose a narrow research question
• Record your search strategy
• Aim to be “explicit, systematic and
reproducible”1
• Use a citation manager
• Keep updated of new publications with email
alerts and RSS
1
Fink, A. (2005). Conducting Research Literature Reviews. London: Sage.

7. Sample Research Question
What is the impact of
educational technology on
the learning of gross anatomy
by medical students?

8. Turn your statement into a
strategy
1. Break your question into concepts
2. Identify subject headings for each concept
3. Identify keywords for each concept
• Tips:
– Use a “target article” to help identify search terms
– Use a strategy worksheet to keep track of your terms:
http://www.lib.uwo.ca/files/taylor/grad/Search_Strategy_Worksheet.pdf

9. What is the impact of educational technology on the
learning of gross anatomy by medical students?
Educational
Technology
Gross Anatomy Learning Medical Students

10. What is the impact of educational technology on the
learning of gross anatomy by medical students?
Educational
Technology
Gross Anatomy Learning Medical Students
Educational
Technology +
Anatomy + Learning + Students, Medical
Medical Subject Headings (MeSH): http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=mesh
+ = explode

11. What is the impact of educational technology on the
learning of gross anatomy by medical students?
Educational
Technology
Gross Anatomy Learning Medical Students
Educational
Technology +
Anatomy + Learning + Students, Medical
(education* or
instruction*) adj
technolog*.mp.
anatom*.mp. association.mp. medical
student*.mp.
audiovisual
aid*.mp.
emrbyology.mp. learn*.mp. MD student*.mp.
multimedia.mp. neuroanatom*.mp. memor*.mp.
video*.mp. problem solv*.mp.
Keywords selected with operators and commands for the Ovid search interface. For a
full list of operators and commands see:
http://content.library.utoronto.ca/gerstein/subjectguides/ovidmedline_shortcuts.pdf

12. Running your search(es)
• Start with your first concept
– Search for the subject headings first
– Then search keywords
– Combine these synonymous searches with OR
using your search history
• Repeat for your second, third, and subsequent
concepts
• Finally, combine large search results set with
AND

13. Running your search(es)
Search #2 =
Search #3 =
Search #4 =
Search #5 = #1 OR #2 OR #3 OR #4
Search #1 =
Concept 1
Search #6 =
Search #7 =
Search #8 =
Search #9 =
Concept 2
Search #10 = #6 OR #7 OR #8 OR #9
Search #11 = #5 AND #10
Results

14. Exercise
Using the MeSH database and your own
knowledge of the subject, complete a search
strategy to answer the research question:
Do video games enhance learning by medical
students?

15. BREAK

16. Choosing Sources
• Vary based on the subject
• Consult library program pages:
Anatomy:
www.lib.uwo.ca/programs/anatomy/
Computer Science:
www.lib.uwo.ca/programs/computerscience/
Education:
www.lib.uwo.ca/programs/educationgraduateprogram/
Engineering:
www.lib.uwo.ca/programs/electricalandcomputerengineering/

17. Consider “Grey Literature”
• Not published commercially or indexed by
major databases
Examples:
Conference proceedings & abstracts
Government documents
Research reports
Technical reports, standards, patents

18. Sources for Grey Lit
Conference Proceedings BIOSIS Previews, Engineering Village,
Inspec, SCOPUS
Government Documents Web search engines / Gov’t websites
Research Reports Institutional repositories / Web search
engines
Technical reports, Standards, Patents IEEE, Google Patents, Canadian Patent
Database, European Patent Office, United
States Patents Databases

19. Question
Which sources would you search to find
information related to your exercise question?

20. Managing your References

21. RefWorks

22. How to Add Citations to RefWorks
1. Export directly from Databases
2. Use Ref-Grab-It to create a citation based on
a website
3. Manually create a citation

23. Getting Started
www.lib.uwo.ca
Make sure to
sign in if
you’re off
campus

24. Exercise
• Login to RefWorks or sign up for an
individual account - Tip: make sure to use
your UWO email address
• Once you have an account, create a new
folder called “Library Workshop”

25. Exercise
• Run your sample video game search in Ovid
Medline
• Export the citations to RefWorks
• Move them into your new folder

26. Write-n-cite

27. Formatted Bibliography

28. Summary
• A literature search is...
• Find sources by checking...
• MeSH stands for...
• Conference proceedings are an example of...
• A tool for creating citations from websites is...
• A tool for formatting your bibliography is...
• Assistance is available from...

29. Robin Featherstone
rfeathe@uwo.ca
Taylor Library, 60E
519 661-2111 ext 86383
By IM from www.lib.uwo.ca/programs/anatomy/
Skype: robinfeatherstone