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| No, LRD contains only 'top level' information for journals ie. you can only search by journal title hence you will need a citation. |
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| That's correct! You will need to search bibliographic databases which indexes journal articles. |
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| No, the free web is not the best place to start looking for journal articles. |
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Quick Quiz 1
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| QUICK QUIZ: |
| When I want journal articles on a topic (I don't have any citations), the best thing to do is: |
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search the Library Resources Database (LRD) |
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search bibliographic databases eg. Embase |
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search internet using Google |
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search MyCourse |
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| Wrong! Medline indexes over 4,600 journals - UNSW Library does not subscribe to all of them. |
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| Correct! Not all journals indexed in databases are available at UNSW Library. |
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Quick Quiz 2
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| QUICK QUIZ: |
| The full-text of every article in Medline is available in UNSW Library. |
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True |
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False |
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 Doing the search
Before you begin any database search, it is important that you plan (use the four-step search plan as mentioned earlier). Medline is a specialised database that utilises Subject Headings to help us search more accurately. The basic rules to searching this database are:
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| Database essentials |
Note |
Watch |
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| a. Subject search |
Where possible, always do a subject/thesaurus search to begin with, especially in a database like Medline (NB. Not all databases have this feature and some don't have an extensive thesaurus). |
2:04 mins |
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| b. Combining searches |
Search terms/concepts one at a time and combine them later using the Boolean operators AND, OR, & NOT. |
0:36 mins |
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| c. Viewing and evaluating your results |
Always look at the results of your searches and evaluate them to see if they are relevant for your assignment/research.
- Is the content relevant?
- Does the article really address the subject you need? |
1:11 mins |
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| d. Keyword search |
Use this when the database does not have a subject heading matching your searched term, or when the database doesn't have a subject search. Keyword searching merely searches for the occurance of the term in the record. Eg. searching for aids as a subject heading will retrieve only records about the disease aids but searching aids as keywords will retrieve any records that contains the terms, eg. foreign aids, hearing aids, etc. |
1:14 mins |
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| e. Refining your search |
If you are not satisfied with the results of your search, you will need to refine it by going back to your search plan.
- Do you need more specific concepts?
- Do you need to try another database?
Too many hits? Irrevelant
results?
Search for another concept then use the Boolean
operator AND to combine it with previous results,
You can also try to:
limit
your search
Use the Medline Limit
option to access a range of limits that can be applied
to your search eg. language, publication date, publication
type, age group, etc. |
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Too few hits? Zero results?
Search synonyms for each concept and combine them with the Boolean operator OR
OR
Remove any limits
OR
Use truncation $ to include various spellings and forms of each word |
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| f. Getting the full article |
Once you have
a citation to your article, you will need to check if the
library holds the journal that it was published in (whether
in print or electronic format). Once you have a journal citation,
you can search the Library
Resources Database (LRD) to see if the library has this
journal (see section 4
of Module 1: Finding items on a reading list).
However, some databases such as Medline provide direct links to such information. It can also provide links to the full-text. When viewing the results from a database search and SFX links are available, you can use it as a short cut to determining the UNSW Library holdings for the journal. |
1:18 mins |
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Looking for EBM in Medline?
See Module 8 on using clinical queries limits in Medline. |
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Logging off
Always log off when you've completed a database search as another user may be waiting to use it. |
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Finding the full-text
Not all journals cited in a database is available in the UNSW Library. You must check the LRD for details or, where available, click on the SFX link. |
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Medline Help
Click the Help button at any time for details about the function you are currently trying to complete. |
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