Reviewing the Literature

Getting Started without Getting Overwhelmed

Nicole Capdarest-Arest, MA(LIS)

Choose a topic / form your questionConduct the literature review

Search: what, where, how Track your searchesWork with your results

Other aspects of the project (e.g., IRB, methodology…)

Scholarly research

Start from your question

Question = clear & specific

Examples:• Which teaching strategy helps

medical students retain information better: lectures or a problem-based curriculum?

• How does cardiac function among malnourished children differ from normally nourished children?

Start the literature reviewWhat to search?

• I want to measure residents’ empathy during family care conferences in the PICU >> literature + validated instruments on empathy

• I want to design a curriculum on …. >> literature + existing curricula

• What are the strengths of bedside teaching in medical education? >> literature

• I want to conduct a systematic review of the literature on …. >> literature

Systematic review? 1.5 hr class at Lane!

Conduct the literature review: Where?

Lane Library website: http://lane.stanford.edu

Why start at the Lane

home page? Full text!

Conduct the literature review: Where?Choose your databases according to your question – popular choices:• MEDLINE/PubMed – articles in biomedical sciences• Scopus - scientific journals, books and conference proceedings from

around the world• Web of Science – articles in sciences, social sciences and humanities• ERIC – articles, books, theses, curricula, conference papers, standards and

guidelines in education• HaPI (Health & Psychosocial Instruments) – questionnaires, checklists,

rating scales, tests, etc. in health & psychosocial sciences• PsycINFO – psychology, medicine, and related disciplines• CINAHL – nursing and allied health journal articles• EdIT Library – articles and abstracts on education and information

technology• MedEdPORTAL – educational tools and curricula provided by AAMC• Google Scholar/Google – good catch-all; full-text often indexed

Literature

PubMedERICPsycINFOWeb of ScienceScopusCINAHLEdITGoogle Scholar

More places to look…

Instruments

PubMed

HaPI

ERIC

PsycINFO

Sociological Abstracts

Stanford Patient Education Research Center Instruments (http://patienteducation.stanford.edu/research/)

Curricula

PubMedMedEdPORTALListservsWebsites (site:.edu, filetype:.ppt)

Other

PolicyFileMedical eTracABI/INFORM

Where else should I look?

I’ll ask a librarian.

Conduct the literature review: How?

Construct your search• Determine your search

terms/keywords. HINT: Use the database’s controlled vocabulary, if available (e.g., MeSH for PubMed)

• Use truncation to capture word variations

• Use synonyms to capture different descriptions of same concept

• Combine concepts by using AND, OR, NOT

TruncationEduc* =EducationEducatorEducateEtc.

SynonymsInstrumentScaleQuestionnaireTool

Examples of Controlled Vocab (MeSH) for PubMed

Example: try these MeSH terms when looking for med ed articles:• “Education, Medical”[Mesh] – general articles on medical education• “Education, Medical, Undergraduate”[Mesh] – In the US, this is

medical school period• “Education, Medical, Graduate”[Mesh] – medical graduates in

specialty training or academic work in clinical or basic sciences• “Internship and Residency”[Mesh] - Programs of training in medicine

and medical specialties offered by hospitals for graduates of medicine to meet the requirements established by accrediting authorities

• “Education, Medical, Continuing”[Mesh] - educational programs to inform physicians about recent advances in their field

Note that searching this way increases precision, but eliminates the most recently-published articles from your results, because new articles may have not yet been tagged with MeSH terms.

Let’s search…

• PubMed• Scopus• Web of Science• ERIC• MedEdPORTAL• Google Scholar• Google

What kind of literature can I find about leadership training in pediatric graduate medical education?

Google Scholar

Set up Google Scholar to work with library links!

Searching…• PubMed: ("Pediatrics"[Mesh]) AND ("Education, Medical, Graduate"[Mesh]

AND ("leadership"[mesh] OR "leadership training"[tiab])) • Scopus: ( TITLE-ABS-KEY ( "leadership training" OR leadership ) AND TITLE-

ABS-KEY ( pediatrics ) AND TITLE-ABS-KEY ( "graduate medical education" ) )

• Web of Science: TITLE: (leader*) AND TOPIC: (pediatrics) AND TOPIC: (graduate medical education)

• ERIC: su.Exact("leadership training" AND "graduate medical education")• MedEd PORTAL: (leader* OR "leadership training") AND (residen* OR

"graduate medical education”)• Google Scholar: (leader* OR "leadership training") AND ("graduate medical

education”) AND pediatric*• Google: (leader* OR "leadership training") AND ("graduate medical

education”) AND pediatric*– Google TIPS!

• doctype:.pdf, etc. to search for different types of documents• site:.edu, etc. to search specific websites or types of websites

Track your searches

In research where your literature search methodology is important/relevant for reproducibility, keep track of:• Databases searched• Search terms• Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT)• Any limits/filters applied• Date searched

Work with your resultsCriteria Zotero Mendeley EndNote

Cost Free Free ~$90

Client/Web-based? Both Both Both

Group/shared libraries

Yes Yes (up to 3 group members)

Yes – new!

Batch download full text

No No Yes

Use these tools to:• Collect the literature for your project• Format references for different journal styles

Lane has classes on these, too!

Let your citation manager format your references for you

For BMC Medical Education:

1. Karnieli-Miller O, Vu TR, Holtman MC, Clyman SG, Inui TS: Medical students’ professionalism narratives: A window on the informal and hidden curriculum. Academic Medicine 2010, 85(1):124-133.

2. Leo T, Eagen K: Professionalism education: The medical student response. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 2008, 51(4):508-516.

AMA Style:

1. Karnieli-Miller O, Vu TR, Holtman MC, Clyman SG, Inui TS. Medical students’ professionalism narratives: A window on the informal and hidden curriculum. Academic Medicine. 2010;85(1):124-133.

2. Leo T, Eagen K. Professionalism education: The medical student response. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine. 2008;51(4):508-516.