Academic Research: Planning Search

Graph by Dr. Tmanova 

Formulate study research question into searchable question for exploration of published scholarly literature

Research Question Types

• What are the conditions and characteristics of studied phenomena? 
• What is the effect of variables at studied conditions for studied phenomena?
• Do variables at studied conditions affect other variables at studied conditions for studied phenomena? 

Study Design Research Questions

• Qualitative research questions
• Quantitative research questions
• Mixed research questions  

Finding the best evidence information

Think in an evidence-based way - ASSESS, ASK, AQUIRE, APPRAISE, APPLY

• Identify clinical problem
• Address important searchable questions
• Identify appropriate resources
• Design search strategy
• Conduct search
• Analyze literature and assess the evidence
• Apply 

Design searchable question using an evidence-based approach

PICO(T)

P - Patient Information (e.g., patient, population)
I - Intervention (e.g., medical, surgical, other)
C- Comparison (e.g., alternative, other)
O - Outcome (e.g., clinical outcome)
T - Time (e.g., follow-up time)

Inquiries for searchable question formulation 

Therapy -  the validity of the preventative or therapeutic effect, validity results (e.g., RCT), applicability for patient care. Also, to determine the effect of medical, surgical, or preventative interventions on patient-important outcomes (e.g., symptoms, function) (LHH, RRR, ARR, NNT, OR)
Study types: RCT

Diagnosis - the validity of the diagnostic study, the applicability of diagnostic test for patient care (sensitivity, specificity, precision, likelihood ration) (LR, OR)
Study types: prospective, blind controlled trial comparison to a gold standard 

Prognosis - the validity of the study results, the importance of the results, the applicability of results for patient care (determining the prognostic course)
Study types: cohort study, case-control, case series, or case report

Etiology/Harm - the validity of harm study, the importance of the results, treatment course (NNH, PEER)
Study types: RCT, case-control, cohort studies 

Natural Language Method

• Keywords, keyterms, concept, phrase
• Acronyms 
• Synonyms 
• Term version (singular, plural)
• Spelling (native and international)
• Related terms from other subject disciplines
• Boolean Operators
• AND, OR, NOT
• Truncation
• Nesting

 MeSH Method

• Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) - NLM thesaurus and hierarchal vocabulary used for indexing, cataloging, and searching biomedical or health information
• MeSH on Demand - identifies MeSH terms in the text, identify the similar articles associated with the submitted text
• MeSH Browser - search using word and substring search methods
• MeSH Ontology - NLM controlled vocabulary thesaurus used for indexing articles for PubMed.
• PubMed Advanced Search Builder - search builder with advanced features

 Note: Training content is at Self-Guide Learning. Schedule Consultation on finding associated resources and literature search. 

Searching Authors & Journals 

Use filter to search all authors in manuscript indexed in PubMed

• PubMed - apply filter author manuscript[filter]
• PMC - apply filter author manuscript[filter]
• PubMedReMiner - search for authors, journals 
  

 Note: Training content is at Self-Guide Learning. Schedule Consultation on finding associated resources and literature search.