MDSC508: Journal Club

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MDSC508 Journal Club

• Research Workshop
• Session Presenter Marcus Vaska
• September 18, 2009

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The Value of InformationThe Purpose of Research
Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking
and prying with a purpose. (Zora Neale Hurston)

• Not having the information you need when you
  need it leaves you wanting. Not knowing where to
  look for that information leaves you powerless.
  In a society where information is king, none of
  us can afford that.
• (Lois Horrowitz)

If we knew what it was we were doing, it would
not be called research, would it? (Albert
Einstein)
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Workshop Goals

• Reintroduce the Research Process
• Fundamental steps and search strategy tips
• Searching Beyond the Obvious
• Multiple databases for multidisciplinary topics
• Internet Archive
• Uncovering the hidden literature Shades of
  grey (GL10, 2008)
• KNOWLEDGE IS OF NO VALUE UNLESS YOU PUT IT INTO
  PRACTICE
• (Anton Chekhov)

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The Research Process Fundamental Steps

• I. Select and refine a topic
• Choose a topic that interests you, one that you
  are familiar with
• Remember that the theme of your thesis should
  focus on a specific goal/outcome you want to
  discover?dont make your topic too general

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Sample Topic

• The relationship between nutrition and physical
  fitness in low-income adults

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The Research Process Fundamental Steps

• II. Develop an effective search strategy
• Brainstorm! Break up your topic into a list of
  manageable keywords
• Remember that many terms have synonyms (i.e.
  cancerneoplasm dogcanine), and you need to
  include these variations in your search strategy
• Boolean Operators (AND, OR, NOT) nesting
  wildcard truncation? (phrase searching)

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Search Strategy Tips

• Boolean Operators
• AND (narrows search)
• e.g. fruits AND vegetables
• OR (broadens search)
• e.g. apples OR oranges
• NOT (excludes terms from a search, retrieving
  records that DO NOT contain the term following
  it)
• e.g. apples NOT Granny Smith

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Search Strategy Tips

• Wildcard (returns records on all suffixes
  possible from the root word)
• e.g. system system, systems, systematic,
  systematical
• Truncation ? (replaces a character within a term)
• E.g. wom?n returns records on both woman and
  women (singular and plural forms)

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Search Strategy Tips

• Nesting ( ) keep related terms together
• e.g. (physical fitness OR physical activity)
• Phrase Searching enclose exact phrase in
  quotation marks
• e.g. physical fitness physical activity

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Searching Beyond the ObviousMultiple Databases,
Multidisciplinary Topics

• MultiSearch
• Federated search engine for searching across the
  U of Cs electronic resources from one interface
• Academic Search Complete
• Comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary
  database, offering a total of more than 10,000
  publications including 9,500 journals (5,500 in
  full-text, of which 4,600 are peer-reviewed),
  monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc.
  

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The Internet Archivehttp//www.archive.org/index
.php

• Non-profit digital library of Internet sites and
  other cultural artifacts in digital form
• Free access for researchers. Historians,
  scholars, and the general public
• Universal access to human knowledge.

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MultiSearch Search Tips

• Use the Advanced Search option
• Default method of searching is by keyword,
  however searching by title, author, full text,
  subject, abstract, ISSN, and ISBN are also
  possible, by selecting the desired choice from
  the drop-down menu
• Default Boolean Operator AND (but searching by
  OR, NOT also possible)
• Phrase Searching () accepted
• Select the subject area/discipline to search in

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Academic Search Complete Search Tips

• Click on the More link next to the Academic
  Search Complete listing, and then on the Select
  other EbscoHost databases to search in link
• Select desired databases to search in
• Keyword searching default (Select a Field
  optional)
• Results can be limited
• Results can be refined according to a specific
  subject area

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The Internet ArchiveSearch Tips

• All searching is done from the search box in the
  upper left corner of the home page
• Remember to make use of search strategy tips
  (Boolean operators, nesting, phrase searching,
  etc.)
• Results returned can include web sites,
  audio/video files, even software

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Grey Literature Uncovering Elusive Material

• the information and resources that do not
  categorically fall into what is available via
  standard traditional or commercial publishing
  channels.
• (International Journal on Grey Literature)
• virtually everything we read outside of journals
  and books can be considered grey literature.
• (Coonin, B. Grey Literature an Annotated
  Bibliography. 2003 Available at
  http//personal.ecu.edu/cooninb/Greyliterature.htm
  )

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Types of Grey Literature

• Theses and dissertations
• Conference proceedings
• Newsletters
• Reports
• Government documents
• Informational communication (telephone calls,
  meetings, e-mail, blogs, interviews, social
  networking sites, i.e. Facebook, Twitter)

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Why Grey Literature?

• Necessary for certain types of research, such as
  systematic reviews
• Although not considered to be a scholarly form
  of publication, grey literature is produced by
  experts in the field and services scholars and
  lay readers alike with research summaries, facts,
  statistics, and other data that offer a more
  comprehensive view of the topic of interest.
• (Outten, C. Gray Literature, 2008. Available at
  http//www.csulb.edu/library/subj/gray_literature)
  

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Searching for the Grey Literature

• Grey Literature Web Page (Health Sciences
  Library) http//library.ucalgary.ca/branches/hsl/
  greylit
• Grey Literature Resource Guide (handout)
• Health Sciences Online (www.hso.info)
• 50,000 courses, reference, guidelines, and other
  expert-reviewed high-quality, current, cost-free,
  ad-free health sciences resources.

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Health Sciences Online (HSO) Search Tips

• Single terms or short phrases yield the best
  results
• Click on the ALL tab to conduct a comprehensive
  search
• Boolean Operators, nesting, phrase searching are
  all possible!

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Evaluating the Grey Literature

• Accuracy
• Authority
• Bias/Objectivity
• Currency/Timeliness
• Coverage

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E-JournalsBiomedical Sciences Stream

• Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology
• Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
• Bioinformatics and Biomedicine
• Biomed Central
• BMC Cell Biology
• BMC Health Services Research
• BMC Immunology
• BMC Infectious Diseases
• BMC Medical Research Methodology
• BMC Microbiology
• Biomedical Chromatography
• Biomedical Therapy
• Biomedicine and Pharmacotherapy
• Journal of Biomedical Science

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E-JournalsBioinformatics Stream Stream

• BMC Bioinformatics
• Briefings in Bioinformatics
• Bioinformatics
• Bioinformatics and Biomedicine
• Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
• Journal of Biotechnology

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E-JournalsHealth Society Stream

• Environmental Health
• Global Change and Human Health
• Global Public Health
• Frontiers in Health Policy Research
• Health Education Research
• Health Research Policy and Systems
• Health and Social Care in the Community
• Journal of Behavioral Health Services and
  Research
• Progress in Community Health Partnerships
• Rural and Remote Health
• Value in Health

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Assistance

• Please contact me if you would like to make an
  appointment to discuss your thesis topic in
  greater detail.
• Marcus Vaska
• E-mail mmvaska_at_ucalgary.ca
• Phone [phone]