GoogleTM or PubMed

1
GoogleTM or PubMed

• Which is Better for Medical Searching?

2
Agenda

• Introduction
• Overview of Search Tools
• Strengths
• Coverage, Functionality, and Special Features
• Limitations
• Search Examples
• Recommendations
• QA

3
The Author

• Former Technology Programs Manager for the
  National Network of Libraries of Medicine
  (NN/LM), Middle Atlantic Region
• Certified Instructor for web searching courses
  such as Super Searcher
• Librarian, experienced in web searching using a
  myriad of tools including PubMed, Google, Google
  Scholar, ClinicalTrials.Gov and much more
• I use Google often, when appropriate

4
Objectives

• Participants will be able to
• Communicate the differences between the Google,
  Google Scholar and PubMed and justify the choice
  of search engine for a given information need
• Evaluate medical research tools
• Demonstrate familiarity with resources covered in
  the course

5
Introduction

• Compare these search tools and list what you
  think are the TWO most important search features
  in each
• GoogleTM
• Google ScholarTM
• PubMed

6
Search Tools Overview

• Its important to know
• How the different search tools work and how they
  are best utilized
• The strengths and limitations of different search
  tools
• Coverage and Currency
• How big is the database being used?
• What does it contain?
• How often is it updated or refreshed?

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PubMed vs. Google vs. Google Scholar

• Google searches over 8 billion web pages for
  general information
• Google Scholar searches the web for scholarly
  materials from broad areas of research
• PubMed a searchable collection of over 15
  million bio-medical journal citations

8
GoogleTM Strengths

• Simplicity, speed and coverage
• Searches web pages, images, PDFs, Word documents
  and much more
• Easy-to-use search interface

9
Google ScholarTM Beta Strengths

• Easy means to access health literature and
  interdisciplinary topics
• Useful for citation verification
• Allows users to search inside the text of an
  article
• Provides linking to free materials on the Web
• Include reports and conferences proceedings from
  professional societies and associations
• Access to Grey Literature
• Backup for when local subscription links are not
  working

10
PubMed Strengths

• Updated daily
• Sophisticated search tools
• Related Articles / Abstract Plus
• Good documentation
• Links to local holdings
• Ad free

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Google Special Features

• It uses a Boolean (and/or) search engine to find
  words in web-pages
• It ranks pages according to the links on the page
  and the popularity of the pages that link to
  other pages
• Automatic spellchecker

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Google Scholar Special Features

• Links to local holdings and to OCLC WorldCat with
  one click service
• Locates chapters within multi-authored books and
  conference proceedings
• Cited-by feature

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PubMed Special Features

• Uses MeSH headings to match synonyms
• Manual indexing by subject experts can include
  words not contained in the abstract
• Clipboard, RSS Feeds, e-mailed search results
• You can customize your results page
• Growing free content (PubMed Central)
• Search history
• Easily link to a vast array of other biomedical
  databases through global search

14
Google Limitations

• Page ranking based on popular opinion
• Timeliness
• Does not suggest alternative search terms or
  synonyms
• Limited field searching (cant search based on
  age or gender, or search for a research method or
  publication type)
• Limited Boolean logic, no truncation
• No resorting by most current

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Google Scholar Limitations

• Software is in Beta
• Coverage no definition of scholarly
• Search results may not be as comprehensive or as
  current as you need
• Bias towards older literature (due to ranking
  based on number of citations)
• Fee-for-service document delivery
• Sorting features (or lack there-of)
• Does not always suggest alternative spellings

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PubMed Limitations

• Complex interface requires training to use
  effectively
• Need to understand the structure functionality
  of the database
• Some features require the use of cookies
• Some features require a login and password
  (MyNCBI)

17
Search Examples

• Demo

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To Googleor Not to Google?

• Google
• Simple searches, quick reference tool
• Not designed for comprehensive research or
  clinical questions
• Google Scholar
• Known item searching, to learn background info on
  a topic
• Not designed for comprehensive research or
  clinical questions
• PubMed
• Complex searches
• Current information
• Literature reviews (i.e., for grants, clinical
  trials or evidence based medicine), PICO
• Ability to save searches, view search history,
  schedule e-alerts
• Dont use to search for general information on
  the Web

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A Selected List of Other Medical Search Tools

• Scirus a search engine for scientific,
  technical and medical data (http//www.scirus.com)
  . Competitor to Google Scholar.
• Relamed searches PubMed and assigns relevance
  to results (http//www.relemed.com)
• Hubmed an alternative interface to PubMed
  (http//www.hubmed.org/)
• Science Research Portal a free, publicly
  available Internet web portal allowing access to
  numerous scientific journals and public science
  databases (http//www.scienceresearch.com/search/)
  
• XplorMed a word relationship search engine for
  PubMed (http//www.ogic.ca/projects/xplormed//).
  It searches for articles based on word semantics
  and relationships.
• Plus bibliographic databases and full-text
  ejournals subscribed to by your library

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The Future

• Google Co-op
• Customized Search Engines
• http//www.healthfind.com/
• Subscribed Links
• http//google.com/coop/subscribedlinks/directory/H
  ealth
• Topics
• http//www.google.com/coop/topics/Health
• PubMed RSS feeds
• New/Noteworthy
• NLM Tech Bulletin

21
QA
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Reading Further Resources

• Giustini, D., Barsky, E. (2005). A look at
  Google Scholar, PubMed...a comparison.
  JCHLA/JABSC, 26.
• Giustini, D., Barsky, E. (2005). Using Google
  Scholar in Health Research A Comparison with
  PubMed. Paper presented at the CHLA/ABSC. from
  http//chla-absc.ca/2005/Presentations/0601/Giusti
  niBarsky_CHLA2005.pdf.
• Henderson, J. (2005). Google Scholar a source
  for clinicians? CMAJ, 172(12).
• New Search Engine for Finding Articles in PubMed.
  (2007). from http//www.researchbuzz.org/wp/2007/0
  3/05/new-search-engine-for-finding-articles-in-pub
  med
• UCLA. (2007). Google Scholar, Search Engines,
  Databases, and the Research Process. from
  http//www2.library.ucla.edu/googlescholar/index.c
  fm
• Vine, R. (2006). Google Scholar A Source for
  Technicians. J Med Library Assoc., 94(1), 97-99.

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Contact Info

• Denise OShea
• Systems Librarian
• Fairleigh Dickinson University
• Teaneck and Madison, NJ
• oshea_at_fdu.edu