BU Library: ICS 1-3 EIP Tutorial: IV. Databases & Search Engines

Database Searching for Background Questions

PubMed and other major research databases can be excellent tools for answering background questions relating to medicine and science. In addition to original (primary) clinical studies, research databases also offer access to review articles.

Literature reviews evaluate, summarize, and/or synthesize information on specific topics; they can help you gain general knowledge about a health condition, syndrome, issue or disease (i.e. answer background questions!).

Systematic reviews are another type of review for diagnostic and therapy questions and will be covered more in depth in ICS 4-6.

Check out the videos below to learn more about databases and combining search terms.

Databases & Search Engines

Why can't I just Google? Being an efficient searcher means knowing when to use what tool. Most published research articles are protected by copyright and/or aren't available in full text via the Web.

Watch this video to learn about how the differences between databases and search engines can dramatically affect your results.

(Source: Yavapai College Library, 2011)

Connecting Search Terms

Watch this video to learn more about using connecting terms in your database searches:

(Source: Carnegie-Vincent Library at Lincoln Memorial University, 2012)

Check out the website below for a more advanced look at how to harness Boolean operators to get good results:

Short Advanced Boolean Tips Tutorial
This link takes you to a quick overview of how to create more complex searches - when you are combining search terms using AND OR NOT, you may need to nest your terms to make sure the search is combining them in the way you want... not sure what "nesting" means? Then check out this link to find out!