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Radiation Therapy: Professor Dillard's Assignment: FINDING PEER REVIEWED ARTICLES

This guide will help students find resources for the poster project in Professor Dillard's course.

Finding Articles

Finding Journal Articles involves the following steps:

  1. Accessing the Databases
  2. Selecting a Database
  3. Developing a Search Strategy
  4. Filtering Search Results to Peer-Reviewed articles

Some additional steps:

  1. Saving and Citing 
  2. Checking if an article is Peer-Reviewed

Details for each step are provided below.

 

Accessing the Databases

  1. Starting from the library homepage https://www.library.txst.edu/rrc.html, click Databases.
  2. On the Databases page click in the Subjects field and select Radiation Therapy from the drop down menu, click Search. 

Research Databases page with Radiation Therapy Subject selected.

 

 

Selecting a Database

  1. On the Databases page, the databases considered the most useful to Radiation Therapy are listed under Best Bets!  However, there may be other useful databases listed so be sure to go through the entire list.
  2. As you go through the list of databases, note the following about each database:
    1. Types of research (e.g., articles, systematic reviews, clinical trials, videos)
    2. Content (e.g., health journals, clinical trials, clinical practice guidelines)
    3. Dates of coverage (e.g., 1949-Present) 
  3. To select the database, click the title of the database, on the following page click Access Database.
  4. If you are accessing the database off-campus, you will be prompted to enter your NetID and password.

*Google Scholar:

  1. Access Google Scholar on the Databases page so you will see the option FindIt@TxState with your search results. This options allows you to see if the full text of an article is available through the library. 

Screenshot of Databases page with Google Scholar link shown.

 

Developing a Search Strategy

Once you have selected a database(s) you will need to come up with a search strategy to search for articles in the database.  The following steps will help you create a search strategy.

  1. Identify keywords
  2. Search Database for Subject Terms/MeSH terms for concepts
  3. Add commands to the search string
  4. Find additional keywords

Identify Keywords

  1. Keywords are the main concepts from your topic/research question.
  2. Eliminate unimportant words (e.g. for, in, of, on)
  3. Tip: use caution before entering U.S. or America as keywords unless the results include a lot of articles on other countries. Doing so could exclude articles that don't specifically mention the terms U.S. or America.

 

Example Topic Keywords

Issues with data exchange and interoperability cause patient safety concerns

 data exchange, data interoperability, patient safety

Cybersecurity attacks on medical imaging

 cybersecurity, medical imaging

 

 

Search Database for Subject Terms/MeSH terms for concepts

MEDLINE Database with MeSH link highlighted.

Search for one concept at a time in the thesaurus/Subject Terms.  Add any terms to your search string.

Example search for quality of care in MEDLINE MeSH headings:

MEDLINE MeSH thesaurus with the following text highlighted Quality of Care use Quality of Health Care.

 

 

Add Search Commands to the Search String

Most databases recognize the following commands:

Search Command Result
Boolean Command AND data exchange AND data interoperability AND patient safety brings back articles that mention all three concepts.
Boolean Command OR patient safety OR quality of health care brings back articles that mention either concept.
Boolean Command NOT NOT mental health will exclude articles that mention the concept.
Phrase Searching "data interoperability" returns articles containing the exact phrase in the order it is typed.
Truncation imag* returns articles containing words with the root imag such as image, images, imaging

 

 

Put it all together

The search string below will bring back articles that mention the following terms:

data exchange AND data interoperability AND patient safety

data exchange AND data interoperability AND quality of health care

MEDLINE Advanced Search for data exchange AND data interoperability AND patient safety or quality of health care

 

Find Additional Keywords

It is unlikely that you will find all of the articles you need with your first search string.  You will have to try different search combinations using different keywords. 

You can find additional terms in the subject terms found in an article record. 

When you find an article that is relevant to your research, click on the title of the article and look for the subject terms listed in the article record. Add the relevant terms to your search string with the appropriate commands.

Article record in database MEDLINE with MeSH terms highlighted.

Add the relevant terms to your search string with the appropriate commands.

Advanced search in database MEDLINE with text or "health information exchange" added to search string.

 

Filtering Search Results 

Once you have perfected your search string and returned viable looking results, you may need to filter the results list, especially if you have more than 20 results.  At the very least you will want to limit the results to Peer-Reviewed articles.

Many databases have filter/limiter tools that allow you to filter the results.  Look for these tools on the search interface.  

The example below shows the limiters for Peer-Reviewed and publication date in CINAHL Ultimate:

Screenshot of limiters under Refine Results in database Cinahl Ultimate. The publication date and Show More link are highlighted.

 

Full Text Finder

If there is no HTML Full Text or PDF Full Text link under the article this means that the database does not provide full text access to the article.  

The Full Text Finder link will check and see if another database provides full text access.  

 

Screenshot of an article in MEDLINE Complete with the Full Text Finder link highlighted.

 

After clicking the Full Text Finder link, the article may open in another window or you might see a link to the article in another screen.  

If you get a window that says No full text found..., you can request the article through Interlibrary Loan.

Full Text Finder results that state No full text found with a link to request the item through On Demand or Interlibrary Loan

 

 

Save and Cite your Sources

Many databases have tools that allow you to save articles or export them to a Citation Manager, and most databases have a citation generator.  Be sure to...

  • use the Permalink tool to link to the article (don't use the url because it won't work)
  • use the Cite tool to get a citation for any article you use
  • export articles to a citation manager (if you use one)
  • check your citation to make sure it is correct

The tools below are from the database CINAHL Ultimate, but most databases have tools so be sure to look for them!

Screenshot of Tools in MEDLINE Complete

 

Checking if an article is Peer-Reviewed

If you are unsure if an article is Peer-Reviewed you can use the database Ulrichsweb to find out.

  1. Note the name of the journal the article is published in or the ISSN number of the journal.
    1. The ISSN is better because it will bring up the exact journal.  If you use the name of the journal you will probably get multiple journals with the same title.

    2. You might have to do a Google search for to find out the ISSN of the journal:

      1. Example Google search:  "Journal of Rehabilitation Research & Development" ISSN

  2. Access the database Ulrichsweb from the Database page.
  3. In the search box on Ulrichsweb enter either the name of the journal or the ISSN.
  4. If the journal is Peer-Reviewed, you will see a referees jersey.

Search for an ISSN in database Ulrichsweb with the search results showing the journal is refereed. The referees jersey symbol is highlighted.