LITERATURE SEARCHING
Literature Searching and
Information Retrieval
Contents
1. Introduction, aims and objectives
2. Resumé of terms used in searching bibliographic
databases
3. Description of the relevant bibliographic databases and
how to gain access to them
4. Demonstration of databases
5. Planning your own search
6. Hands-on searching, retrieving and e-mailing
references
7. Questions and troubleshooting
AIMS & OBJECTIVES
By the end of this session you will be familiar with Bibliographic searches.
From the library catalogue you will be able to search for and retrieve full text
journals.
The session will explain and demonstrate selected bibliographic databases in the areas
of Biology.
You will then use previous research topics to practice the techniques of planning and
search bibliographic databases.
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MEMORY JOGGER for Database Searching
Keywords
Synonyms
Truncation
Controlled Vocabulary e.g. MeSH
Boolean Operators
Exploding
Limits
Search History
1.3 General techniques for searching
Searching techniques have the same basic rules whatever the topic and
whatever the database.
Think What are you trying to retrieve information about?
Your Search Topic
Analyse What are the key elements of the topic?
Keywords
Synonyms Can these elements be described in any other way -
alternate phrases, terms, can they be spelt differently?
Keywords
Combine How would you combine these sets together?
Boolean Operators
Limit Can you use any limits to refine your search?
Limiting Options
Strategy How would you put all of the above together to search a
database?
Search Strategy
Keywords
You will firstly need to decide how the subject you are looking for can be
described. Think about the “key” words that describe what you are
looking for and whether there are there associated terms or synonyms -
you may need a dictionary to help you with definitions.
Most bibliographic databases use a mixture of controlled vocabulary
(thesaurus) and freetext words or phrases to search them by.
Freetext Searching
Freetext searching simply looks for the occurrence of a word or phrase
usually within the text of a reference as it appears on the database. The
word or phrase needs only to have been mentioned to be picked up by
the search therefore the actual content of the article itself may not be
relevant. When searching using freetext it is important that you think of
the different ways of spelling a word and think about synonyms, other
ways of describing your key words.
Spelling and Terminology
Once you have decided on the keywords you are going to use, you will
also need to think about differences in terminology and spelling.
Databases, such as Medline and Science Citation Index are American
therefore differences in both spelling and terminology need to be taken
into consideration when planning a search.
Truncation
Databases will also allow truncation searching, this is an easy way to
quickly search for alternative spellings or plurals of words. Databases
use a symbol for truncation searching. The two most common are an
asterix or a dollar sign.
Controlled Vocabulary
Controlled vocabulary searching usually gives a more precise search
as the article has been indexed using predefined subject terms when
added to the database. The indexer looks at the subject content of that
article, and uses the thesaurus of the database to assign terms.
References on the subject searched for, will be retrieved, the word or
phrase searched will not necessarily appear in the title or abstract of the
article on the database.
An example of a controlled vocabulary is MeSH (medical subject
headings), which is used to index articles on Medline. MeSH is a
thesaurus of 16000 descriptors used in indexing arranged in
alphabetical order.
To retrieve all references on a subject you may have to do
a combination of controlled vocabulary and freetext
searching.
COMBINE - Boolean Operators
Keywords have to be combined to include or exclude terms, to narrow
down or widen a search. This is done using these operators:
AND Both words must be present
OR Either or both words must be present
NOT The first but not the second word must be present
LIMIT - Limiting Options
Databases often allow you to apply limits to the search you are
performing. This enables you to be very specific in the type of references
retrieved, and is vital when you have found thousands of references!
You would typically use the limit option to refine your search to exactly
what you wish to retrieve.
Most databases enable you to limit to language, year and publication
type. Some allow you to limit by gender, human or animal, age group,
latest month etc.
Strategy – the search
Question:
How are computers being used in General Practice and who uses them?
THINK ANALYSE SYNONYMS COMBINE LIMIT
STRATEGY
Search Strategy:
1. computer systems
2. computers
3. 1 or 2
(. Use Boolean OR to link like words)
4. family practice
5. general practice
6. general practitioner
7. 4 or 5 or 6
(The American term for General Practice is family practice, if you are
using Medline this is the controlled vocabulary term; Use the Boolean OR
to link like terms together.)
8. great britain or uk or united kingdom
(Use of different terms to describe the UK. Use the Boolean OR to link like
terms together.)
9. 3 and 7
(Combine computing with general practice terms using Boolean and to
retrieve articles with both elements)
10. 8 and 9
(Combine the combined computing and general practice set with UK. This is the
equivalent of limiting the results to UK only)
Host ISI - WEB OF ELSEVIER OVID ISI - WEB OF EBSCO National library of
KNOWLEDGE KNOWLEDGE Medicine (USA)
Database Web of Science Scopus Medline BIOSIS Previews PsycInfo PubMed
a)Science Citation
Index
b)Social Science
Citation Index
Coverage a) All aspects of All sciences and All biomedicine Biological Abstracts Psychology & Coverage of Medline
Science eg social science. With especially clinical covering Botany, behavioural topics. but also access to
Chemistry, particular strengths in medicine, nursing, Zoology, Nucleotide, Genome,
Biology, Physics, Biochemistry, primary care, human microbiology taxonomy, Genetics &
Instrumentation Medicine & diseases Structure databases
pharmacology
Dates 1970 - 1980 - 1953 - 1969 - 1880- Free access
covered
Truncation * * $ * * 1966 -
symbol
*
URL/Internet Access
Web of Science – https://webofscience.com/
Scopus - http://www.scopus.com
Medline – https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/solutions/ovid/ovid-medline-901
BIOSIS Previews – https://www.ebsco.com/products/research-databases/biosis-previews
PsycInfo – http://search.epnet.com
PubMed – http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez
Google Scholar - https://scholar.google.com/
PRACTICAL DATABASE SEARCHING
Search Examples
You are interested in finding recent publications showing the likelihood of the twin of a
Schizophrenia sufferer to also develop the condition
1)
Medline https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/solutions/ovid/ovid-medline-901
Keywords
Schizophrenia
Twins
Predisposition to disease
Medline 1. exp schizophrenia/ or schizophrenia.mp
2. exp twins/ or Diseases in twins/ or twins.mp
3. exp Genetic predisposition to disease/ or
predisposition to disease.mp
4. 1 and 2 and 3
5. limit 4 to English language
2)
Web of Science – SCIENCE CITATION INDEX
CONNECT to Web of Science at https://webofscience.com/
(It is possible to do a CrossSearch, but only select Web of Science and BIOSIS Previews)
OR
Select i ISI Web of Science
ii Science Citation Index Expanded (nb. deselect the other 2 databases)
iii Year selection from 2005 to 2006
iv General Search
GENERAL SEARCH
a) Search terms may be searched separately and linked later within the
“search history”
eg in General search – search separately for:-
1 genetic*
2 heredit*
3
(NB key terms that are more than one word long should be entered in quotation marks – e.g.
“cell death”)
Click on search history and combine with OR
3 #1 or #2
in General search
4 twins
5 schizophreni*
in search history
6 #3 and #4 and #5
OR
b) Type in the whole search topic
(genetic* or heredit*) and twins and schizophreni*
a) Mark one reference
b) Add to marked list
c) Select the “Marked List” icon
d) E-mail the reference to yourself or export the reference into Endnote or save as a file
for RefWorks
c) In Advanced search your search history appears as you search, but each search term must be
typed in with a field tag preceeding it.
Eg TS = Topic
SO = Source (i.e. journal title)
AU = Author
For example
TS= microarray* and AU = Gant T*
d) From Advanced search it is possible to Save the search history to be opened and run again at
a later date.
EMAILING or DOWNLOADING REFERENCES
References may be “marked” as you read through the results of your search.
From the “marked list” it is possible to select which parts of the record you wish to retain.
The records may be:-
a). Downloaded into Bibliographic software (BEWARE do not try to directly download large
numbers of references)
b) E-mailed to yourself – saved as a .txt file and captured into eg Reference Manager or Endnote or
RefWorks
c). Saved to a disk. d) Printed out.
3)
PsycInfo http://search.epnet.com
Keywords
1 schizophreni*
2 twins
3 genetic*
4 heredit*
Select i select databases(s)
ii Advanced
iii genetic* or heredit* (all text)
iv twins and schizophreni* (all text)
v ADD relevant references
vi Click on “Folder”
vii print, save or email
viii select fields to be included (e.g. abstract)
4)
N.B. When using PubMed:- The Boolean operators need to be typed in upper case.
e.g. Set
1 schizophreni*
2 twins
3 predisposition or heredit*
#1 AND #2 AND #3
5)
BIOSIS Previews https://www.ebsco.com/products/research-databases/biosis-previews
Change years to be searched to 2005 to 2006
In General Search
1 genetic* or heredit*
2 twins
3 schizophreni*
In Search History combine
1 and 2 and 3
ALWAYS Remember to Log off, Log out, or exit from any database at
the end of your session.
POTENTIAL RESEARCH AT KUWAIT UNIVERSITY
BIOCHEMISTRY
Aromatic catabolism by Escherichia coli: cloning and analysis of the 3,4 Dihydroxphenylacetate
pathway genes of Escherichia coli C.
Genotoxicity of tamoxifen and structural analogues of tamoxifen : studies on the activation of
tamoxifen by cytochrome P450s and peroxidase.
BIOLOGY
Genetic dissection of phytochrome A signal transduction in Arabidopsis.
Toxicological, behavioural and morphological studies on Daphnia longispina O.F. Muller in relation
to ferric toxicity.
BOTANY
S6 ribosomal protein modification in Asparagus officinalis.
Studies of crassulacean acid metabolism in Mesembryanthemum crystallinum and Kalanchoe
daigremontiana.
GENETICS
Factors influencing heterologous gene expression in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisae.
The in vitro immunogenicity of human pancreatic islets and acinar tissue.
MEDICINE
Assessment of beta-cell function and insulin sensitivity in established non-insulin dependent diabetes
mellitus : the influence of diet and sulphonylurea therapy.
The early detection of Burkholderia cepacia infection in cystic fibrosis patients.
PHYSIOLOGY
Angiotensin II and endothelin-1 signalling in aortic vascular smooth muscle cells.
Magnetic resonance imaging in the assessment of myocardial perfusion in ischaemic heart disease.
PSYCHOLOGY
Adult attachment styles and childhood experiences of parenting of men diagnosed with personality
disorder, detailed in high security psychiatric hospital : an exploratory study.
Anxiety in high functioning children with autism.
TOXICOLOGY
Acetaldehyde : protein adducts as biomarkers of alcohol exposure.
Regulation of multidrug resistance genes in mammary tumours.
PRACTICAL DATABASE SEARCHING
Exercises
Your AIM is to retrieve references on a research topic.
1. Using the principles of searching PLAN two of the search questions in your
subject area.
Choose ONE example to search fully.
2. Search the same chosen example on two databases.
3. Select ONE reference from each database and email it to yourself.
4. Identify the author and title of the reference and the journal in which it is
published.
___________________________________________
Example 1
.
.
.
Which Databases should be searched for this topic?
Keywords
Synonyms, alternative spellings or keywords with truncation
Which terms should be combined? Using which operators?
Example 2
Which Databases should be searched for this topic?
Keywords
Synonyms, alternative spellings or keywords with truncation
Which terms should be combined? Using which operators?
