Searching journal databases
- 1. Searching Journal Databases: EBSCO Databases and PubMed Sports and Exercise Science
- 2. Journal databases are used to search for information - mainly journals articles, but also conference papers, reports, book chapters, Standards, Systematic Reviews etc. – within the literature of a specific subject area. This guide covers how to access and search journal databases that are useful for sports and exercise science students, in particular those provided by EBSCO which include: • APA PsycInfo/PsycArticles: Contains citations and summaries of journal articles, book chapters, books and dissertations for psychology. Many of the items are available full text in PsycArticles. • Medline: Finds articles from the whole range of medical literature, covering more than 4,800 journals. Links to full text. • SPORTDiscus: The most comprehensive journal database for your subject area covering all aspects of sports, fitness, exercise and medicine including journal and magazine articles, books, book chapters, conference papers (proceedings) and dissertations. Contains full text. All EBSCO databases have the same search interface and you can search them all at the same time. Advice in using the following journal databases is also included at the end of this guide: • PubMed: Covers the same content as Medline, plus some additional life science journals and journal articles which have not yet been included in Medline. Journal databases
- 3. Access journal databases Access via myUniHub > MyStudy > MyLibrary > Databases Choose the journal database that you want from the alphabetical list e.g. SPORTDiscus or choose ‘Sports and Exercise Sciences’ from the drop-down menu for a list of relevant subject specific resources.
- 4. EBSCO Databases Access via myUniHub > MyStudy > MyLibrary > Databases • APA PsycInfo • Medline • SPORTDiscus
- 5. Searching using your keywords Search for keywords one at a time so that you can see which words/terms are good and which ones are not so good or return unexpected/irrelevant results. This is also useful when first scoping out keywords for a Systematic Review. See later slides. Your individual keywords are displayed and you can see the number of results for each keyword. Your ‘good’ keywords can now be combined either in one search or in smaller searches for the sub-parts of your topic. This enables you to take control of your search. TIP: The words you use are important – identify keywords (search terms) from things you read, as well as thinking about similar words (synonyms) e.g. exercise, physical activity or physical fitness. Also consider different spellings, international variations, and professional/common terminology etc.
- 6. Combing keywords with OR Select the keywords you wish to combine. Use OR to combine similar terms (synonyms). The example here is football OR soccer. Combining them together using OR increases the number of results because a broader range of keywords is searched. TIP: Use * to truncate your keywords i.e. find variations of the same word. E.g. Football* will search for football, footballer, footballers, footballing etc. See Slide 13 for other search tips. A new set of search results is created in this case S4 which is a combination of ‘soccer’ (S1) and ‘football’ (S2).
- 7. Combing keywords with AND Use AND to combine keywords. This will make your search results more specific by narrowing down your search. In this example the search results for ‘plyometrics’ (S3) are combined with S4 (‘soccer’ OR ‘football’) using AND which makes the search more focussed.
- 8. This example search can be replicated in a different journal database from another supplier such as PubMed. See later slides on how to search PubMed. Systematic Reviews When carrying out a Systematic Review, it is important to replicate, as far as possible, the same search in each database that you use. Enter your search like this: Search for similar/alternative terms on one line of the search box using OR. Then combine with another string of words on a different line using AND. This is how Systematic Review search strategies are usually reported when published. The different concepts within the search can be easily identified and replicated, or repeated if updating your search.
- 9. Systematic Reviews continued… Search results are the same whether the search is performed as described earlier in this guide (i.e. search for each word individually and then combine) or as described on the previous slide for Systematic Reviews. However the latter method enables you to replicate your search more easily in other journal databases.
- 10. If you have too many search results, you can refine your search by restricting your search to words found in the Abstract only rather than in All Text. An abstract is a brief summary of the content of the journal article. Use the refining tools to limit your search in a variety of other ways incl. by Publication Date, Subject or by Peer Reviewed articles only. Peer reviewed means that the information published (e.g. a journal article) has been reviewed by other academic experts for the quality of the research and adherence to the editorial standards of the journal it has been published in. Limiting by peer reviewed will ensure you find only the best quality information. Apply Limits Limiting your search by Linked Full Text is not recommended as the journal may be available via other MDX subscriptions. Just click on ‘Check for full text at MDX’ to see if we have it.
- 11. Simultaneous searching SPORTDiscus, Medline and APA PsycINFO are all published by the same company (EBSCO) and it is possible to search the 3 databases simultaneously. There may be a loss of some functionality doing this, but you can save time by searching more than one database at a time. To do this: Click on ‘Choose Databases’, select the journal databases you want to search and click ‘OK’.
- 12. Read through your results carefully Read the abstract to get a summary of the article and to decide if it is what you require. Use the links to access the full text, and if not available check Library Search for the journal as we may hold it in print. Items not available through Middlesex University can be ordered by Inter Library Loan from the British Library: https://unihub.mdx.ac.uk/study/library/study-and-research- resources/inter-library-loans
- 13. Improving your search For variations on the same word: Anthropometr* instead of Anthropometry OR Anthropometric Weightlift* instead of Weightlifter OR Weightlifting Powerlift* instead of Powerlifter OR Powerlifting To search for keywords as a phrase (word x followed by word y): “Body composition” instead of Body Composition “Anthropometric Dimensions” instead of Anthropometric Dimensions Think about hyphenation/spacing: Weight-lift* OR Power-lift* OR “Weight lift*” OR “Power lift*” as well as Weightlift* OR Powerlift* The following search tips could be used to enhance the example searches used in this guide: More search tip are available: https://libguides.mdx.ac.uk/SES/SearchTips
- 14. PubMed Access via myUniHub > MyStudy > MyLibrary > Databases
- 15. Searching PubMed Go to PubMed and select ‘Advanced’…. …add similar/alternative search terms in to the search box using OR and click on ‘Add’. Your Search Query will now appear in the Query Box where it can be edited. You can then add additional search terms in to the search box and add to the query box using ‘AND’. Click on ‘Search’ when you have added all of your search terms.
- 16. Searching PubMed continued… Refine your initial search by limiting it to specific fields such as Title/Abstract rather than the default All Fields. Control how you combine your search terms from the drop-down menu. Once you have carried out a search, you can further limit it in various ways including by Publication Date, Article Type etc. Click on ‘Additional Filters’ for further options such as Subject and Language etc.
- 17. Need further help? Your Librarian is: Vanessa Hill v.hill@mdx.ac.uk April 2021 https://libguides.mdx.ac.uk/SES
Editor's Notes
- #18: More help available at the link.