Synopses & Reviews
This pocket sized toolkit Series book is packed with the useful tips and guidance that will make searching for evidence easy. Real-life clinical scenarios, flow charts and clear laout makes this not only incredibly user-friendly, but a great time saving way to learn how to find the evidence you need.
- Support evidence-based practice by showing you have used the best methods for finding top quality research
- Discover how to access relevant databases and become adept at using them to their full potential
- Justify research projects with expertly located papers and devise a clearly focused research question
Searching Skills Toolkit helps you overcome the common practical difficulties in searching for evidence with the help and foresight of expert authors Caroline De Brun and Nicola Pearce-Smith, who lend their experience to show you how to direct your time and effort effectively. A perfect companion to doctors, nurses allied health professionals, managers, researchers and students.
Review
“A userfriendly, HandsOn guide to literature searching, which is an essential skill for all involved in health care research and development, researchers, and students from all disciplines.” (Companies and products – Data,
9 February 2013)"Very useful. The authors are clearly experts in searching and they fill a gap in the market: there is no comparable book on 'the searching of the evidence.' ... [I] recommend this book to doctors who want to learn basic searching skills. As a medical information specialist I keep it in my pocket too." (Laika's MedLibLog, March 2010)
Review
“A userfriendly, HandsOn guide to literature searching, which is an essential skill for all involved in health care research and development, researchers, and students from all disciplines.” (Companies and products – Data,
9 February 2013)"Very useful. The authors are clearly experts in searching and they fill a gap in the market: there is no comparable book on 'the searching of the evidence.' ... [I] recommend this book to doctors who want to learn basic searching skills. As a medical information specialist I keep it in my pocket too." (Laika's MedLibLog, March 2010)
Synopsis
The distinguishing feature of this pocket-sized searching skills book, like all the Toolkit series titles, is its user-friendliness. The guiding principle is that readers do not want to become librarians, but they are faced with practical difficulties when searching for evidence, such as lack of skills, lack of time and information overload. They need to learn simple search skills, and be directed towards the right resources to find the best evidence to support their decision-making.
A user-friendly, Hands-On guide to literature searching, which is an essential skill for all involved in health care research and development, researchers, and students from all disciplines.
About the Author
Caroline De Brún, Librarian, National Knowledge Service, Oxford, UK
Nicola Pearce-Smith, Information Scientist, National Library for Health, Department of Knowledge and Information Science, Oxford, UK
Table of Contents
1 Introduction.
2 Where to start? Summary tables and charts.
3 Sources of clinical information: an overview.
4 Using search engines on the World Wide Web.
5 Formulating clinical questions.
6 Building a search strategy.
7 Free text versus thesaurus.
8 Refining search results.
9 Searching specific healthcare databases.
10 Citation pearl searching.
11 Saving/recording citations for future use.
12 Critical appraisal.
13 Further reading by topic or PubMed ID.
14 Glossary of terms.
Appendix 1: Ten tips for effective searching.
Appendix 2: Teaching tips