Using the scientific literature:
Introduction for 2^nd year medical undergraduates

A guided exercise on retrieving articles from the scientific biomedical literature

Simon Hunt and William James, Dunn School of Pathology

We thank Gill Cooper and Yvonne Hibbott (Radcliffe Science Library staff

Please remember to bring a PC-formatted floppy disc with you to the workshop

Click ahead from http://www.psb.ox.ac.uk/Schools/ to find the material presented in this mini-course

Objectives

This session and the associated workshop should enable you to

· Know about literature-indexing systems, including an introduction to citation indexing

· Find index records of scientific articles you need for your studies (essays; seminars; dissertations, follow-up on lectures etc)

· Appreciate how to select worthwhile articles to read

· Locate the articles physically or electronically

Indexing and database services

Medline: available from

Ø University network (Free) - WinSpirs (using special software mounted on library and college machines. Copies available for downloading free onto your own PC). We shall use this in the workshop session.

Ø University network (Free) - WebSpirs. Web version of the above, a little less user friendly but with other advantages. Simple to access if you have your own networked computer.

Ø "PubMed" at U.S. National Library of Medicine - internet access. (Free, at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/). Excellent hyperlinking to other databases (e.g. genes, proteins, some online e-journals; see http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Database/index.html). Transatlantic, therefore rather slower when the USA is awake.

Ø "Evaluated Medline" internet access via BioMedNet. (Commercial site at http://biomednet.com which is free but registration required, then offers you an e-armchair to ease your browsing). Customises your searches, so that you can repeat them and refine them at a later session.

Embase, Biological Abstracts, and several other databases available at

Ø Oxford's Web interface at http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/oxlip/

Ø Radcliffe Science Library's web pages at http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/rsl/

Science Citation Index holds citations of articles, so you can follow forward from an article to see which articles have subsequently cited it. Available from

Ø Web of Science, again via http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/oxlip/, click on Title List button and select Web of Science (free for you as an Oxford student, but you must register your username and password through a system called ATHENS which acts as gatekeeper)

Finding relevant literature

· Start from what others suggest to you to read - e.g. reading lists from tutors, lecturers

· Search for other material yourself. Begin from

a) suggested reading from textbook chapters

b) references from current mini-reviews

c) use the techniques demonstrated in the workshop for searching by keywords, authors or for citation searching

Practical Workshop on computerised searching[1]

1. Exercise

· A typical search will be demonstrated showing some of the techniques that can be used to tailor a search to your particular needs.

· You will then be given detailed instructions to try out first a simple search and then more complex searches. You will try searching by Author, Keyword, Date, Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) and so on.

· You will learn about refining searches using 'wildcards', thesaurus terms and techniques for limiting.

· Web of Science will be demonstrated and you will have an opportunity to search citations. You will be given detailed instructions for conducting first a simple, then a more sophisticated search.

· You will be able to discuss any particular access problems you may have, and can collect leaflets giving hints and advice on using these services.

2. For your next tutorial assignment, or Practical labclass

· Try to use the techniques you learned in the exercise to conduct a real search for material you need for next week's work

· Obtain electronic file (or hard-copy) of search results to take to your next tutorial/labclass

Accessing the articles

· If you aren't yet familiar with it, use of the OLIS online catalogue of Oxford University's libraries holdings can be demonstrated and practised.

· We may discuss the situation regarding access to electronic full-text articles.

Deciding what's worth reading

A few minutes with suggestions from the academic tutor guiding the workshop

Further Reading and browsing

Greenhalgh, T. ‘How to read a paper’ BMJ, 1997 (RSL - U.Ref. Q45). Oriented strongly towards clinical trials and evidence-based medicine, but chapter 3 is especially helpful on how to read a paper critically

Bullimore, D.W. 'Study skills and Tomorrow's Doctors', Saunders 1998 (U. Ref. Q 45a). Wide-ranging; not just on information retrieval.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Literature/pubmed_search.html provides an online tutorial to the PubMed system.

Acronyms

Embase	Excerpta Medica bibliographic database	European euqivalent of Medline, with different journal coverage
MedlinePlus	Selected parts of Medline	Online consumer-oriented Medical Encyclopaedia. Post-millenial patients will be very likely to have researched their condition in a database like this.
MeSH	Medline Subject Headings	Extra keywords for articles.
OLIS	Oxford Libraries Information System	Optional Web or straight terminal interface[2].
OxLIP	Oxford Libraries Information Platform
PubMed	Public Medline	Web access to over 11 million citations in MEDLINE, PreMEDLINE, and other related databases
RSL	Radcliffe Science Library
URef	Shelfmark of books in Reference section of Upper Reading Room in RSL	Maintained under supervision of a librarian
WinSpirs	Silver Platter[3] Information Retrieval System for Windows	Is modified for Web access as WebSpirs.

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[1] Not long ago, all this used to be done by hand by leafing through the tiny print of huge catalogues.

[2] Possible to Telnet in

[3] "Silver Platter" derives from the days when people marvelled at the shiny new-fangled Compact Discs on which the data were ate first distributed.