Scholarly, Scientific & Popular Literature
- Search Tips to Find Human, Animal, Cell Studies
- Library Catalog
- Academic Search Premier
- PubMed
- Biological Abstracts
- Science Direct
- LexisNexis Academic
Search Tips to Find Human, Animal, Cell Studies
Type keywords (calcium, obesity) instead of phrases (the effect of calcium on obesity)
Combine keywords using Boolean search connectors AND, OR, NOT
- AND narrows results to records that contain both search terms: calcium AND obesity
- OR increases results to any record that contains either search term: human study OR intervention study
- NOT eliminates an unwanted term: glucose NOT diabetes
If you want to use AND and OR in the same search, place parentheses around the OR’d terms:
- calcium AND obesity AND (human study OR intervention study)
Truncation=search for all words with the same root.
- obes* would search for obese, obesity, etc.
- Common truncation/wildcard symbols: * $ #
“Forcing a phrase search” is necessary in some resources
- “vitamin c”
Keywords: In most databases, trying your own keywords is the best way to find cell, animal, and human studies. Useful keywords include descriptions of the study, of experimental subjects, or any other key terms an author would include in the abstract.
- Human study:
- epidemiol*
- clinical trial, intervention
- Animal research: animal study, in vivo, rat, mice, rabbit
- Cell study: cell culture, cell line, in vitro
Library Catalog
Catalog - Useful for finding book chapters and other good sources of background information
- Allows Boolean search connectors AND, OR, NOT
- Force a phrase search with brackets: [vitamin c]
- Truncation symbol $
- Search limits only available for keyword searches
Type a topic, search keyword anywhere: [infant nutrition]
Want to cut out old or irrelevant formats? Use Keyword Search Limits.
- Hit title link for table of contents and hyperlinked subject headings
Academic Search Premier
Academic Search Premier: Guide to scholarly science and social science journals AND to popular literature 1984-present.
Pros: Wide range of sources, easy sort for academic journals or magazines or newspapers, subject headings in sidebar allow fast search refinement.
Cons: Indexing not suited for finding human studies vs. cell studies, animal studies (you’ll need to use different keywords to get at the content).
Exploring the topic
- Type: infant nutrition
- Limit search to publication years 2003-2008
Results:
- Hit hyperlinks to see certain types of publications (Academic = peer reviewed, Magazines = popular magazines and trade journals, Newspapers = newspapers). Note the number of results in each category.
- Sidebar hyperlinks narrow search to particular subjects.
Getting the entire article
- Mark and send citations: Add to folder (icon right of citation)
- Check for full text... link launches a Journal Finder search
- PDF full text link opens the pdf version of a file
Finding research studies
- Type: infant nutrition and in vitro
- Many fewer results with such a specific search! Note that it can be hard to find popular publications that mention a specific type of research or research study.
Keeping track of your searches: Create a personal account on the EBSCO platform
- Sign into MyEBSCOhost (top left)
- I'm a new user
- Create account
- Goto search history tab, hit Save Searches/Alerts and choose your parameters
- To run a search later, sign in and goto Search History tab, hit Retrieve Alerts link
Suggested search: Search for human studies on your topic in Academic Search Premier.
PubMed
PubMed (1950s-present) Free online guide to biomedical literature indexed by the National Library of Medicine.
Pros: Core search tool for nutrition topics, excellent indexing, "under the hood" search features (auto-explode and term mapping) mean that you don't always have to use the guide to subject headings to for best results, animal and human study limits can help in omitting some irrelevant results.
Cons: Human and animal study search limits can be problematic (not exact, articles that haven't been indexed will be omitted) try clinical trial instead for research with humans, no Journal Finder links, using the truncation symbol * can turn off "under the hood" search features.
- Type topic: infant nutrition
- Limits tab: set published in the last to 5 years
- Set type of article to Clinical Trial
In results, hit article title to see more information about that result.
- Titles of related articles
- SOMETIMES free full text links
- Abstract so that you can evaluate a result before opening Journal Finder
- Changing Display to Citation will show you hyperlinked subject headings (MeSH Terms) and other controlled vocabulary. Commands:
- PubMed will immediately take you from this result into a search for all articles with the term you've chosen.
- MeSH will take you into the MeSH database, a guide to subject headings.
- Add to Search will start building a new searc
Getting articles
To find out if we own an article, copy the abbreviated journal title into Journal Finder on the library home page. IF you are told we don't have the title you need:
- In PubMed, mouse over the abbreviated journal title to see the full journal title
- In Journal Finder, search for the full journal title
Keeping track of your results: Mark check box to send a result to
- text = format for printing
- file = save
- clipboard = compile list of results to be emailed/printed at the same time
- list remains on your computer for 8 hours
- sent to: clip remove to clear your list before then
- clipboard = compile list of results to be emailed/printed at the same time
Using the MeSH Database:
- Hit the MeSH database link in the sidebar. Here you will search through descriptions of subject headings, not through article citations.
- Type your topic in the box labeled “Search MeSH”: infant nutrition physiology
- Mark the checkbox in front of a subject term
- Set “Send to” drop down menu to read “Send to search box with AND”
- If you want to add more subject terms, type another topic and repeat: epidemiological studies
- When you are ready to look for articles that have the subject terms you’ve chosen, hit the “Search PubMed” button
History tab in PubMed: allows you to rerun searches performed on your computer over the past 8 hours.
Keeping track of your searches: Create a URL for any useful search (you keep the URL, it will re-run your search for you later). OR you can create a personal account with Entrez/PubMed (this will save multiple searches online and let you set up email alerts).
Creating a URL for a search
- Once you're performed a search you'd like to save, click the Details tab
- Click URL below the Query Translation box.
- Copy the URL from the Web browser’s URL address box (on your own computer, feel free to bookmark the URL).
Setting up a personal account
- My NCBI/PubMed (top right)
- I'm a new user
- Create account
- Respond to emailed confirmation request
- To save search: Save Search (link next to search box)
- Set search/alert parameters
- To retrieve/rerun search later, goto My NCBI (top right) and sign in
Practice search: Search for cell study articles on your topic published in the past 5 years. Keywording in vitro will get you many results (many of which may not be ABOUT cell studies, but simply mention them in the abstract) while using the MeSH browser to build a search for in vitro studies will probably lead to fewer (and more accurate) results.
Biological Abstracts
Biological Abstracts
Guide to life science research 1969-present. High quality interdisciplinary science content, includes CAS registry numbers for chemical substances. Accepts Boolean connectors, truncation *, "force a phrased search with quotes"
- Hit General Search button
- Set dates to 2003 to 2008
- Type infant nutrition in topic
- Click use major concept list to get into guide to subject headings
- Type epidemiology, hit Find
- Click S to read about this heading, H to see this heading in the hierarchy (you'll have to scroll down after hitting H)
- Epidemiology falls under Population Studies. Hit Add next to Population Studies, then OK
- Hit Search button
Results:
- Sometimes have Full text button leading directly to text of article
- Check box and hit Add to Marked List (button will appear at top of window)
- Hitting article title hyperlink leads to full record
- Refine your results: quick limit of your results (choose to view or to exclude a certain category of article)
- Analyze results ranks your results according to major concept, publication year, source title, or other parameter
Summary of useful searches
Human population studies:
- Type population studies in Major Concept field
- your topicAND (epidemiol* OR population stud* OR observation* OR survey)
Human experimental studies:
- your topic AND clinical trial*
Animal studies:
- your topic AND nonhuman mammals
Cell studies:
- Type cytology in the concept code field
- your topic AND (cell culture* OR cell line OR in vitro OR cell stud*)
Keeping track of your searches: Create an account with Web of Knowledge
- From the Welcome page choose Open Saved Search OR from the Search History page choose Save History
- Register (your email address is your login name, you choose your own password)
- To retrieve searches later, goto the Welcome page choose Open Saved Search OR from the Search History page choose Save History
Practice: search for your cell studies for your topic
Science Direct
Science Direct (1995-present, some earlier). Uses AND, OR, NOT, truncation symbol !
Pros: Includes full text of important scientific journals.
Cons: No subject headings, no search history (unless you Register, log in, and "Turn On" Search history), full text can't be emailed; Science Direct is most useful as a collection of journals rather than a search system.
To search:
- Hit the Search button (top left)
- Type topic: infant nutrition
- Limit 2003 to present
Results:
- To read or print, hit the Full Text or PDF hyperlink
- "Order document" - the library buys you a copy of the article. BEFORE following this link, please check Journal Finder to see if we own the article through another source. Science Direct account is required to use the PPV "Order document."
- To email a citation, mark the checkbox and hit the "email article" button The email will include a citation with a link to full text (Link to full text only works while on campus. To get the article from off campus, you would have to search Science Direct again or use Journal Finder).
Keeping track of your searches: Create an account with Science Direct
- Hit Search button (top)
- Login/Register (top right)
- Create an account
- You will be given a username, you will have chosen a password
- Hit the Log in Now button to log in
- To save searches: Turn On search history (below search area), run a search, hit Save Search or Save Alert link above search results
- To retrieve searches later: log in (top right), hit Recall Search button (below search area)
LexisNexis Academic
LexisNexis Academic
Guide to news, court cases, and federal regulations (we'll be looking at news, or popular literature). Automatic phrase search, truncation symbol !
Pros: wide variety of national and international news sources, including transcripts of television broadcasts, wire services, and more, full text (no need to use Journal Finder)
Cons: no guide to subject headings
To search:
- Type a topic such as infant nutrition
- Set date to previous two years
Results:
Sidebar allows you to see subsets of your results, such as Newspapers, Magazines (includes trade journals), etc.
Click a result title to view. Use links in top right corner to print or email.
More search tips:
This database supports adjacency searching with the command w/#
- On the guided search page, change infant nutrition to infant w/10 nutrition to search for articles with your terms within 10 words of each other (average length of a sentence).
