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CDIS 4317: Service Delivery in Communication Disorders.

Identify the main concepts of your research question

Identify the main concepts of your research/PICO question:

Example PICO/Research Question PICO Components Search Terms to use in Database
  • A 6 year old with childhood apraxia of speech is motor programming approach or melodic intonation therapy more appropriate?

Patient/Problem: 6 year old, childhood apraxia of speech

 Intervention: motor programming approach

 Comparison:   melodic intonation therapy

 Outcome: improvement

 childhood apraxia, motor programming

*Recommendations:

  • Separate searches for the problem and intervention, and the problem and comparison.
  • Only search for 2 to 3 concepts at a time.

Use Search Commands to improve search results

Add Search Commands to the Search String to get better search results.

Most databases recognize the following commands:

Search Command Result
Boolean Command AND apraxia AND childhood AND motor programming brings back articles that mention all three concepts.
Boolean Command OR childhood OR adolescents brings back articles that mention either concept.
Boolean Command NOT Not adults  will exclude articles that mention the concept.
Phrase Searching "motor programming" brings back articles that mention the phrase.
Truncation

Placing an asterisk at the root of a word returns articles including the root with any ending.

For example:  child* returns child, children, childhood

 

Example Search in a Database

Put the search terms and search commands together to form a search string:  

Example search string in the database CINAHL Ultimate:

Advanced search in the database CINAHL Ultimate for apraxia AND child or adolescent or pediatric and "motor programming"

The search string apraxia AND child or adolescent or pediatric AND "motor programming" will return articles that mention the following terms:

apraxia, child, and motor programming  

apraxia, adolescent, and motor programming

apraxia, pediatric, and motor programming 

 

Additional Ways to find articles

Change your search terms

  • Figure out the terms that the database uses for your concepts by seeing the subject headings or MeSH terms found in the article records of relevant results.
  • If a database has a thesaurus (Subject Headings, MeSH terms), you can browse it for subject headings, see the scope note or definition of a subject heading, and see related terms that you might use. 

 

Bibliographies

When you identify an article that is useful, check the bibliography of the article to find additional resources. You can search for the title of the article in Start Your Research by placing quotations around the title.  You can also search for the journal in the Journals/Periodicals list then search the specific volume/issue for the article. 

Citation Chasing

Citation Chasing involves finding articles that have cited an article of interest.  There are a two ways to do this on the library website:

1.  Google Scholar

2. Web of Science

Citation Chasing using Google Scholar

1. Access Google Scholar on the Databases page.

2.  Search for the title of the original article (or do a keyword search).

3.  On the results page, click the "Cited by" link underneath the description of the article(s).

4. It's possible that one or some of the articles on the "Cited by" results list may be useful to your research.

Screenshot of Google Scholar article search with the "Cited by" link highlighted.

Citation Chasing using Web of Science

1.  Access the database Web of Science on the Databases page.

2.  Do a title search for the article title (you can also do a topic search if you don't have a specific article identified).

Screenshot of an article title search in the database Web of Science

 

3.  On the results page, click the Citations link to retrieve a list of articles that have cited the original article.

Systematic Reviews

Search for a systematic review on a treatment/intervention/comparison to find research studies. 

  • Systematic Reviews are articles that review multiple research studies on a specific treatment.
  • Databases that allow you to limit your search results to systematic reviews include: