Smart searching and keeping track of what you find

1. Boosting Research Productivity:
Smart searching & keeping track of what you find
Nicole Capdarest-Arest, MA(LIS)

2. Scholarly research
Choose a topic / form your question
Conduct the literature review
Search: what, where, how
Track your searches
Work with your results
Other aspects of the project (e.g., IRB,
methodology…)

3. Start from your question
Question = clear & specific
Examples:
• Which teaching strategy helps medical
students retain information better:
lectures or a problem-based
curriculum?
• How does cardiac function among
malnourished children differ from
normally nourished children?
• In children with RSV bronchiolitis,
does inhaled albuterol compared to
no treatment reduce the frequency of
PICU admission?

4. Which databases do I search?
• I want to measure residents’ empathy during
family care conferences in the PICU >>
literature + validated instruments on empathy
• I want to design a curriculum on …. >>
literature + existing curricula
• What are the strengths of bedside teaching in
medical education? >> literature
• I want to conduct a systematic review of the
literature on …. >> literature
Systematic review?
1.5 hr class at Lane!

5. Find Stuff Faster – Smart Searching
Lane Library website: http://lane.stanford.edu
Why start at
the Lane
home page?
Full text!

6. Conduct the literature review: Where?
Choose your databases according to your question – popular choices:
• MEDLINE/PubMed – articles in biomedical sciences
• Scopus - scientific journals, books and conference proceedings from
around the world
• Web of Science – articles in sciences, social sciences and humanities
• ERIC – articles, books, theses, curricula, conference papers, standards and
guidelines in education
• HaPI (Health & Psychosocial Instruments) – questionnaires, checklists,
rating scales, tests, etc. in health & psychosocial sciences
• PsycINFO – psychology, medicine, and related disciplines
• CINAHL – nursing and allied health journal articles
• EdIT Library – articles and abstracts on education and information
technology
• MedEdPORTAL – educational tools and curricula provided by AAMC
• Google Scholar/Google – good catch-all; full-text often indexed

7. Literature
More places to look…
PubMed
ERIC
PsycINFO
Web of Science
Scopus
CINAHL
EdIT
Google Scholar
Instruments
PubMed
HaPI
ERIC
PsycINFO
Sociological
Abstracts
Stanford Patient
Education Research
Center Instruments
(http://patienteduca
tion.stanford.edu/re
search/)
Curricula
PubMed
MedEdPORTAL
Listservs
Websites
(site:.edu,
filetype:.ppt)
Other
PolicyFile
Medical eTrac
ABI/INFORM
Where else
should I look?
I’ll ask a
librarian.

8. PubMed: Efficient Searching
Quick:
• Boolean (AND, OR, NOT)
• Wildcard
(immun*=immune,
immunology, immunize,
etc.)
• Phrase (“immune system”)
• Tags
[ti] =limit to title
[tiab] =limit to title/abstract
Powerful:
• Medical Subject Headings
(MeSH)
Examples:
1. “Arthritis, juvenile”[Mesh]
2. "Health Literacy"[Mesh] AND
"Internship and
Residency"[Mesh]

9. Example
PubMed search: articles on parent beds/rooming-in in the PICU and
effects on parent stress.
"Intensive Care Units, Pediatric"[Mesh] AND ("Rooming-in Care"[Mesh] OR
"parent bed”) AND ("Stress, Psychological"[MeSH] OR stress[tiab])

10. Similar techniques work for most
databases
• Boolean (AND, OR, NOT)
• Wildcard
(immun* = immune, immunology, immunize, etc.)
• Phrase (“immune system”)

11. … and a few others for Google …
"pediatric intensive care unit" AND ("parent bed" OR "rooming
in" OR "rooming-in") AND stress AND (site:.gov OR site:.edu OR
site:.org)
Break it down:
Phrase: “pediatric intensive care unit” – quotes search as phrase
AND, OR: to combine terms
Parentheses: to group parts of the search, just like in
mathematics
Limit: “Site:.____” searches sites that end in .gov, .edu or .org
NOTE: another great limit is “doctype:.____” (e.g., doctype:.ppt)

12. Google Tips
• Phrase: “pediatric intensive care unit” – quotes search your
words in exact order
• AND, OR: to combine terms
• - (minus sign): to exclude a certain word
• * (asterisk): wildcard
• Parentheses: to group parts of the search, just like in
mathematics
• Site:_____: limits search to sites that end in .gov, .edu, .org
or specific sites (e.g., site:stanford.edu)
• Doctype:._____: limits search to files/documents of that
type (e.g., doctype:.ppt)

13. Example Searches in Various Databases
• PubMed: ("Pediatrics"[Mesh]) AND ("Education, Medical, Graduate"[Mesh] AND
("leadership"[mesh] OR "leadership training"[tiab]))
• Scopus: ( TITLE-ABS-KEY ( "leadership training" OR leadership ) AND TITLE-ABS-KEY
( pediatrics ) AND TITLE-ABS-KEY ( "graduate medical education" ) )
• Web of Science: TITLE: (leader*) AND TOPIC: (pediatrics) AND TOPIC: (graduate
medical education)
• ERIC: su.Exact("leadership training" AND "graduate medical education")
• MedEd PORTAL: (leader* OR "leadership training") AND (residen* OR "graduate
medical education”)
• Google Scholar: (leader* OR "leadership training") AND ("graduate medical
education”) AND pediatric*
• Google: (leader* OR "leadership training") AND ("graduate medical education”)
AND pediatric*
– Google TIPS!
• doctype:.pdf, etc. to search for different types of documents
• site:.edu, etc. to search specific websites or types of websites

14. Work with your results
Criteria Zotero Mendeley EndNote
Cost Free Free ~$90
Client/Web-based? Both Both Both
Group/shared
Yes Yes (up to 3 group
libraries
members)
Yes – new (but
some limitations)!
Download full
text/PDFs
Some Sometimes Yes
Links to Stanford’s
holdings
Yes No Yes
Generate
bibliographies
Yes Yes Yes
Use these tools to:
• Collect the literature for your project
• Format references for different journal styles
Lane has classes
on these, too!

15. Get articles into your reference manager
From PubMed, select results >>
Send to File >>
Format = MEDLINE
Then import to
your reference
manager

16. Configure Google Scholar to show library &
reference management links

17. Let your reference manager format your
bibliography for you
For BMC Pediatrics:
1. Lasky RE, Williams AL: Noise and
light exposures for extremely low
birth weight newborns during
their stay in the neonatal
intensive care unit. Pediatrics
2009, 123(2):540-546.
2. Laubach V, Wilhelm P, Carter K:
Shhh... I'm growing: noise in the
NICU. The Nursing clinics of North
America 2014, 49(3):329-344.
Vancouver Style:
1. Lasky RE, Williams AL. Noise and
light exposures for extremely low
birth weight newborns during their
stay in the neonatal intensive care
unit. Pediatrics. 2009;123(2):540-6.
2. Laubach V, Wilhelm P, Carter K.
Shhh... I'm growing: noise in the
NICU. The Nursing clinics of North
America. 2014;49(3):329-44.

18. Bonus

19. UpToDate Anywhere/Mobile
Get set up: http://lane.stanford.edu/help/uptodate-mobile.html

20. DynaMed

21. …or DynaMed Mobile via Skyscape
Obtain serial number from Lane Library:
http://lane.stanford.edu/search.html?so
urce=all-all&q=dynamed

22. mobileMicromedex apps
Access Micromedex apps on mobile devices:
• Lane Library home page >> Micromedex >>
select mobileMicromedex from top left of
screen and follow download instructions
– Micromedex Drug Reference
– Micromedex Drug Interactions
– Micromedex IV Compatibility

23. CDC Vaccine Schedules App
Visually mimics the CDC vaccine schedules for
children, adolescents and adults
• http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/schedules/hcp/
schedule-app.html
• Schedules, recommendations, catch-ups,
precautions, resources

24. Pediatric Care Online
• From AAP
• Go to AAP website from on campus so
AAP recognizes you are with Stanford.
Create an individual login with AAP
(many of you might already have this).
• Download the app and use your
personal login to access app content
• Includes antimicrobial therapy guide,
preventative screening, schedules,
news, care updates, condition quick-reference

25. PediSTAT
• By QxMD
• iOS or Android
• Rapid reference when caring
for pediatric patients in the
emergency or critical care
environment (e.g., airway
interventions, age/weight
specs for peds equipment,
dosages, vitals, etc.)
• $2.99

26. Stuck? Ask Us

27. And you can always contact a librarian
for help…
• Connect you with information you need for research or
clinical questions
• Teach you how to navigate and search resources to find
literature, images, instruments, curricula, etc.
• Help with EBM questions and instruction
• Help with lit reviews, systematic reviews, projects
• Teach you how to manage resources (e.g. EndNote, Zotero,
Mendeley)
• Show you ways to keep current with the literature
• Show you how to obtain an article that Lane doesn’t license
• And more... just ask!