MW5106: A Survey of Research Methods

One of the major course objectives for this class is to search the medical literature efficiently by identifying relevant and appropriate studies.

This tutorial provides the skills necessary to find studies for the Research Project assignment for this class, and transferable skills you can use in other classes and in future practice.  The content builds on the library session from your Intro. to Epidemiology course, by introducing new databases, a tool to help develop clinical questions, and discussing how to find different study designs.

It should take you about two and 1/2 hours to complete.  Please make sure you finish the entire tutorial (all text, videos, and assignment) by April 23th.  I will review your work and feedback, and use it to structure our quick in-class session on April 28nd

Navigate through the tutorial by clicking on the  and  buttons at the bottom of each page.

Feel free to contact the library, if you have any questions.  Happy searching!

1. Create an effective search query from a clinical question using PICO.
2. Design advanced searches in PubMed.
3. Learn about other databases available through Bastyr, including those useful for botanical searching.
4. Revise searches by changing search terms and/or using filters/limits to retrieve a more relevant set of results..
5. Distinguish between methods used to find study types.
6. Understand the importance of an information management system.