Health

Databases

• PubMed
  • The key search engine for health and biomedical research. How-to guide.
• CINAHL
  • Indexes journal articles in nursing, allied health, biomedicine, alternative/complementary medicine, and consumer health. How-to guide.
• PsychINFO
  • Covers all areas of psychology and the behavioural sciences. How-to guide.
• Sociological Abstracts
  • Includes sociology, social planning and policy. How-to guide.
• Library Search
  • Omni is the library search engine, filters available for peer-reviewed journal articles. How-to guide.
• Google Scholar
  • A broad search for academic sources, which can include free sources not available in other databases. How-to guide.
• Web of Science
  • A large multidisciplinary database useful for finding scientific literature and analyzing citations. How-to guide.
• Scopus
  • A large multidisciplinary database useful for finding scientific literature and analyzing citations. How-to guide.
• Databases by Subject
  • A list of databases by different subject areas.

Publishers

This is not a complete list

• SpringerLink
• ScienceDirect (Elsevier)
• Nature Publishing Group
• Annual Reviews
• Oxford University Press
• Cambridge University Press
• Wiley
• Taylor and Francis
• Sage

Other Platforms/Search Tools

• Directory of Open Access Journals
• JSTOR
• PubMed Central
• Ebscohost
• Proquest
• Scholars Portal
• CURVE (Carleton theses)
• Dissertations and Theses Global

If the Carleton library doesn't have it...

• Interlibrary loan
• uOttawa

Library Search

• Omni is the library search engine.
• It searches journal articles, books, ebooks, journal titles, games, music, videos, government information, and maps in the library.
• You can limit your search results to books by selecting Books/eBooks from the left hand menu.

eBooks

• Several eBook Collections are available in the library. The following list covers life sciences.
  • Springer
  • Taylor and Francis
  • Scholars Portal
  • Oxford University Press
  • National Academies Press
  • Knovel
  • Google Books
  • ebrary
  • Ebscohost
  • Colloquium Digital Libary of Life Sciences

Choosing search terms

• Choose nouns as search terms rather than verbs.
• Avoid using a whole sentence, instead select the main ideas from your research question
  • For the research question What is the impact of hydroelectricity on rivers?
  • Search for hydroelectricity and river

Synonyms

• Use synonyms to search for an item/phenomenon.
  • For example: climate change can be synonymus with global warming

Controlled vocabulary

• Some databases have a list of terms used to index articles in a consistent manner. These terms can be used to search for relevant material.
• This list may be referred to as:
  • Thesaurus
  • Subject Headings
  • Taxonomy

Search techniques

• Quotation marks ("") - use to search for a phrase.
  • For example: "climate change"
• Asterix (*) - use to find words with the same root.
  • For example: fish* will find fish, fishes, fishing, etc.
• AND and OR
  • use AND to combine search terms, both of which you want to find in an article.
  • use OR to combine synonyms, either of which you want to find in an article. Use brackets to group the synonyms.
    • For example: ("climate change" OR "global warming")

Filters

• Use database filters to narrow down and focus the results you find.
  • For example:
    • Category or Topic
    • Document Type
    • Date
    • Search within

Discover new search terms

• As you read through a list of search results, take note of any new terms that are relevant to your topic. Search using these new terms.

Author Search

• In the life sciences the last author is usually the senior researcher. They will often have an other publications on similar topics.

Tracking citations

• Web of Science and Scopus can be used to track citations
  • References - look at the references a relevant article used (looking backward)
  • Citing - look at the articles that cite relevant articles (looking forward)

Review articles

• Use a recent review article to get an overview of a topic and use the bibliography to find relevant research.

Citation Styles

• APA
• CSE
• Vancouver

Citation Management Tools

• See the Citation Management page

Writing in the Life Sciences

• The science of scientific writing (article)

Critically Reading an Article

• How to read a scientific paper (video)
• Reading Scientific Journals (video)

• How to Read a Scholarly Journal Article (video - three pass system)

Grey literature is defined as "information produced on all levels of government, academics, business and industry in electronic and print formats not controlled by commercial publishing" ie. where publishing is not the primary activity of the producing body." — ICGL Luxembourg definition, 1997. Expanded in New York, 2004

Types of Grey Literature

• Government Information
• Dissertations and Theses
• Conference Proceedings (select Conference Proceedings Citation Index- Science, you may also want to select the Social Science and Humanities option)
• Newspapers and Magazines
• Clinical Trials
• Clinical Practice Guidelines (also check Canadian Health Professional Association websites: CMA, RNAO, CPA, etc)
• Think Tanks

Search Engines and Databases

• Canadian Government Information (a customized search engine for online Canadian government information)
• Canadian Research Index (Provides detailed citations to monographs and serial publications in the Microlog microfiche collection)
• eLibrary: Conference Board of Canada - Conference Board of Canada
• Grey Matters (a checklist for health technology assessment from the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH))
• Grey Literature Report (searchable bimonthly publication of The New York Academy of Medicine (NYAM))
• Canadian Research Institutes and Foundations/Eastern Ontario Health Research Institutes (two different search engines

Data and Statistics

• Data and Statistics