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HA 5301 Healthcare Administration Research Methods

Overview

Finding Peer- Reviewed Articles for the assignment 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
  5. Saving and Citing 
  6. Recording your Search Strategy

Details for each step are provided below.

Accessing the Databases

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 Health Administration from the drop down menu, click Search. 

Screenshot of Database page Subject drop down menu with Health Administration selected.

 

Selecting a Database

Selecting a Database

  1. On the Health Administration Databases page, the databases considered the most useful to Health Administration 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., business, medical)
    3. Dates of coverage (e.g., 1949-Present) 
  3. To select the database, click the title of the 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

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:  don't use 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 Topics and their corresponding keywords
Example Topics Keywords
Disparities in Black Maternal Mortality in America Disparity, Black, Maternal, Mortality, America
Effect of lifestyle factors on US Health lifestyle, factors, US, health

 

Add Search Commands to the Search String

Most databases recognize the following commands:

Search Command and their examples.
Search Command Result
Boolean Command AND Black AND Maternal AND Mortality brings back articles that mention all three concepts.
Boolean Command OR Black OR African American brings back articles that mention either concept.
Boolean Command NOT NOT abortion will exclude articles that mention the concept.
Phrase Searching "maternal mortality" returns articles containing the exact phrase in the order it is typed.
Truncation Medicat* returns articles containing words with the root medicat such as medicate, medicating, medication

 

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. There are a couple of places to find additional keywords in a database:

You can find additional terms in the subject terms found in an article record. If there is an article in the results list that looks useful, click on the title to bring up the article record then review the subject terms for any you might want to add to your search string.

Screenshot of article record with the Major subject terms and Minor subject terms highlighted.

You can also find additional keywords by searching for your existing search terms in the Database thesaurus.

screenshot of CINAHL Subject Headings link.

Example Search String in a Database

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

disparity or disparities AND Black AND maternal mortality

disparity or disparities AND African American AND maternal mortality

Advanced Search Sting in the database MEDLINE Complete with disparit* AND black or african american AND "maternal mortality"

Filtering Search Results

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 and publication date.

The example below shows the limiter for Peer-Reviewed in CINAHL Ultimate:

Filters options in the database CINAHL Ultimate with peer-reviewed checked.

Save and Cite Your Sources

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 generate a citation for articles.  Be sure to...

  • 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

Recording your Search Strategy

Recording your Search Strategy

If you are required to include your search strategy in your final paper, you will find the following tips helpful:

  • Record the final search strategy you used to retrieve results.
  • Don't record the search strategy until you have perfected it and are returning stellar results in the database.
  • Record the following information:
    • Specific name of Database (i.e. CINAHL, MEDLINE, not just EBSCOhost)
    • Date of Search
    • The search string you used.
      • Example:  AB disparit* AND  TI black or african american AND MH "maternal mortality"
    • The number of results you retrieved with the search.