Research falls into two broad categories. The first category is often referred to as original and primary research. This kind of research includes such things as surveys, clinical trials and experiments. The second broad category of research is secondary, or literature research, which basically looks at what has been written by professionals/academics doing primary research or other kinds of problem solving. As health professionals you are likely to be involved in both kinds. However this guide will focus on literature research.

(Note: If you would like more background on the various kinds of health studies read:

Greenhalgh, T. (1997, July 26). How to read a paper. Getting your bearings (deciding what the paper is about). BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.), 315(7102), 243-246.)

Why is learning to research correctly important?

Learning to research correctly is important because it will help you perform better academically. It is also an essential part of being a good health professional. At some point in your career you may well be involved in a research project, or you may be called upon to update policies and procedures. When the health of real patients are involved, your research needs to be of the highest professional standard. All health services should be based on the most current and accurate information.

Different kinds of health literature

Academic/professional health literature usually means material published in books and journals. Although it may also include material from websites, DVD's, software packages etc. The different formats in which literature is published is not just a question of physical presentation. The different formats hold very different kinds of information. Understanding what kind of information is published in what format is crucial for successful research.

Books on health matters appear in a large variety of forms. However it is useful to think about them in relation to four basic categories:

Text Books

Text books are books that introduce a topic: i.e. explain basic concepts, introduce jargon words, demonstrate methods, set out procedures/practices, and explain a concepts history. These books would usually be concerned with broad professional categories such as midwifery or branches of medicine such as paediatrics. The authors of these books are usually health professionals or teaching academics.

Academic/professional books

Academic books are books that take an in depth look at a particular topic. Often bringing together most of what is known on the subject. Their focus is narrower than that of a text book and would focus on one clearly defined subject such as asthma. These works usually don't give new insights as they often take years to write. Rather they investigate a topic thoroughly and in great detail, and are generally intended for informed readers (i.e. they wouldn't usually take time to explain jargon like a text book would). The authors of these books hold accepted qualifications in the field to which the book refers, and are usually considered experts in their particular field. These works will always supply a list references to literature that was consulted during the books creation. Information presented in these books would often (but by no means always) be accepted as the standard (Although this becomes less the case the older the book becomes.)

Reference books

Reference books are books which collect together basic facts and information on a particular topic. They are usually presented in the form of a list. For example Mosby's Nursing Drug Reference is a reference book on a wide variety of drugs which gives basic information for nurses. Reference books can be found in the Reference section in any library.

Mass market books

There is a large industry in publishing health books for the non professional/academic reader. The quality of these books varies in the extreme. Many are written by qualified health professionals and contain good information which has been simplified for a non-professional reader. Others are written by enthusiastic amateurs or believers in marginal alternative therapies, and contain information that does not meet the scientific and academic standards health professions are expected to uphold. It is always best to investigate the qualifications of the authors of these works, and also to check the list of references consulted for the quality of the material mentioned. If you wish to use this kind of material you should always check with your tutor to make sure it is acceptable.

Authors and editors

The author of a book is responsible for its entire content. However not all books are credited to a particular author or authors. Some books are put together by an editor or editors. An editor puts together a book by collecting works by a number of different authors on a particular topic (usually arranged as chapters). The editor may be the author of a particular chapter but typically editors don't author anything in the books they edit. Rather they are responsible for presenting a particular collection of writings. When you are searching the library catalogue, editors and authors are treated in the same way. However, when citing a reference to an edited book at the end of an assignment, remember that it is done differently to an authored work.

Scholarly journals vs works of journalism

A journal is a publication containing articles by many authors that comes out on a regular basis (i.e. periodically). Journals are sometimes called 'periodicals'. A newspaper is a journal and so is the Woman's Weekly and Time Magazine. These however are works of journalism. Journalism is occasionally useful when studying nursing/midwifery. However, in the vast majority of occasions you will need to consult scholarly/academic journals.

Scholarly/Academic Journals

Unlike works of journalism, which are usually written to help sell a commercial publication, scholarly journal articles are written with the sole purpose of advancing and sharing knowledge. They are one of the most important ways nursing and midwifery information is published. Because the publication process for journals is much faster than books, scholarly journal articles are the key way health professionals keep up to date with new ideas and discoveries. Journal articles are very focused. They look at one narrow topic (unlike a book). They often have quite a sober format and are usually quite dull looking. Some typical features of a scholarly/academic journal article are:

• An abstract (i.e. a short summary of the article)
• An introduction
• A hypothesis (a feature of primary research articles)
• A literature review (i.e. a list of other publications on the same topic with brief comments)
• The methodology used (a feature of primary research articles)
• Data collection information (a feature of primary research articles)
• Analysis
• A conclusion
• A bibliography or reference list

Peer reviewed scholarly/academic journals

You will frequently be asked to use peer reviewed journal articles when researching an assignment. This is because the peer review process is an assurance of quality. A peer reviewed journal is a scholarly/academic journal that has a panel of experts (i.e. peers) who examine every article that is published in the journal, and check that it is of a high enough standard. These peers are often called referees and for this reason peer reviewed journals are often referred to as refereed journals.

There should be information indicating that a journal is peer reviewed somewhere in its first few pages. However, today most journal articles are accessed electronically. You can check online to see if a particular journal title is peer reviewed by searching the Ulrichsweb database (remember search for the title of the journal not the title of the article). Ulrichsweb will give the note Refereed: Yes if the journal is peer reviewed.

(Note: If you have been instructed to use only peer reviewed material, a possible trap is that sometimes a peer reviewed paper may appear in a non-peer reviewed journal. This can be a problem when searching the CINAHL database, because its peer reviewed limit applies to the article rather that the journal. If you have been required to use only peer reviewed material, check with your tutor about whether a peer reviewed article that appears in a non-peer reviewed journal is acceptable. If it isn't you will have to check the status of each journal title you use in Ulrichsweb rather than rely on the CINAHL limit.)

Professional Newsletters

A journal which often has elements of a journalistic or scholarly work is the professional newsletter. Professional newsletters are most commonly published by professional associations and may contain journalistic style news relating to political developments in the profession, information on professional development opportunities, letters, advertisements, and in some cases academic articles. If you are not sure if what you are reading within a professional newsletter is a scholarly/academic article, remember it should have most of the elements listed above. If you are still not sure check with your tutor.

The free web

There is a massive amount of health information available on the free web. The term 'free web' is important as it refers to material that doesn't require a paid subscription such as online journals and books. The variation in quality of health information on the web is enormous. Some sites such as Medline Plus provide up to date high quality information. Other sites however provide highly inaccurate, out of date and even dangerous information. You need to be quite careful about any information you might read on the web. Always check the qualifications of the person or organisation that created the web site. Also check if the information is up to date and what kind of audience it was created for. For example MedlinePlus is created by the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health (in the USA), it is reviewed every six months. MedlinePlus provides information both for the health professional and the general public. MedlinePlus comes out of the USA so you would need to check if any information you use is appropriate in the Australian context. It is always best to check with your tutor before using information from the free web.

DVD's Software Packages etc

Information in these formats can be categorised in the same manner as book material i.e. as texts, academic/professional publications, reference packages, mass market material, and should be approached in the same way. In particular you should always establish the qualifications of the author, the audience for which that material has been produced, and whether or not the information is up to date.

Why use books?

Books are often the best place to start when researching a topic. Books are very useful for someone who is unfamiliar with a topic. Many books (especially text books) will take the time to explain the basics, and will place a particular issue within a larger context. For example you may be doing an assignment on the care of patients with osteoarthritis. A book will give you the background to what osteoarthritis is. Journal articles tend to (but not always) have a more specific focus, such as looking at a particular osteoarthritis treatment or a pain management regime, and will assume that the reader already knows what osteoarthritis is.

Most courses provide a reading list, and this is obviously the best place to start when looking for books to help you with your research. Many courses however will require you to go beyond the reading list.

The Library Catalogue

The University of Queensland Library catalogue is the best place to start when looking for books.

The UQ Library has a number of search options (e.g. Summon, Catalogue, Course Resources etc). A useful search for Nursing/Midwifery is the Catalogue => Keyword=> Advanced Search. From the Core Nursing and Midwifery Search page (http://www.library.uq.edu.au/nursing/) take the UQ Library link on the left hand side and follow the links mentioned above.

• When searching the library catalogue most students use words that are too specific. When you keyword search a library catalogue you are basically searching words in the book's references (i.e. author, title, publisher) plus words used to describe the book's topic known as subject headings. This is quite a small number of words. It is also worth remembering that books have a much broarder focus than journal articles. A book simply entitled arthritis will probably look at both rheumatoid and osteoarthritis. So at least for your first search you should use the broad term arthritis. If you get too many results then try something more specific.
• Always think carefully about what you are looking for. For example your assignment might be related to stroke, but when you examine it more closely, it may be focused on the nursing of stroke patients, rather than the condition itself. In this case you could try searching for words such as nursing and stroke.
• Sometimes good keywords can be found by exploring alternative terms that have the same or a similar meaning. So a word such as apoplexy (another word for stroke) might also find useful material (a medical dictionary or encyclopaedia will help you find alternative words). Other terms you could search include: 'Cerebrovascular disease'; CVA; 'Cerebral infarction'; 'Cerebral hemorrhage'. It is also quite productive to think laterally. A stroke is caused by the rupture or obstruction of a blood vessel in the brain. So you could also try phrases such as 'brain injury' (note phrases are always surrounded with ' '). You could also try care or management in addition to nursing.
• The illustration below is an example of a good keyword search in the Library Catalogue via the Catalogue => Keyword=> Advanced Search links.

AND and OR

Note the use of AND and OR. The words grouped with ORs have a similar or related meaning and (in the library catalogue at least) are always surrounded by brackets. Think of everything within each set of brackets as representing a single concept, i.e. the rupture or obstruction of a blood vessel of the brain and the process of looking after a patient with this condition. The Library Catalogue is being asked to find a match to at least one word that represents each concept.

Look at how the drop down box on the right hand side of the keywords is set to AND. This tells the catalogue to look for any word from the set of keywords words representing the first concept AND to look for any word from the set of keywords words representing the second concept.

For example it will look for stroke and nursing ; apoplexy and nursing; stroke and care; cerebral infarction and management and so on. What it won't do is find catalogue records that only contain the keywords for just one concept e.g. it won't find books on nursing that don't also have stroke OR apoplexy OR cerebral infarction in their catalogue records.

The Asterisk *

The asterisk is a very useful search tool. It is used to truncate words e.g . Manag* will find manage, manager, managers, managing and management. In the Library Catalogue using a single asterisk will truncate from 0-5 characters. Use a double asterisk ( ** ) for open-ended truncation.

Limits

The keyword search option also makes available a range of search limits. In the example above the search has been limited to UQ libraries that are most likely to hold health related books i.e. Ipswich, Herston Medical, PA Hospital, Mater Hospital and the Biological Sciences libraries. If the topic was relevant to the social sciences (such as psychology and sociology) it would also be worth adding the SSAH Library.

Note in the example above other limits used include a restriction to items published after 2003 and a restriction to the book format. Always think carefully about the limits you select. In this case if a DVD published in 2002 would be useful, the limits selected would prevent you from finding that kind of material.

Looking at the results of your search

When you find a catalogue record for a book that looks useful the obvious next step is to find the book in the library. In the example below a copy of the book is held in three UQ Libraries. If you wanted to pick up this book in a University of Queensland library branch that doesn't hold its own copy, you can use the Request option and have it brought to the UQ Library of your choice. You can also use the Request option to be the next in line to get a book which is on loan. Note: you can't request a High Use, 7 Day or 3 Day Loan book.

You use the Call Number to find a book on the shelf. It can take a while to get the hang of using call numbers. Don't be afraid to ask a library staff member for help.

The Library Catalogue is a database that allows you to search for material made available to you by the Library. This includes material such as books, DVD's, software and journals. It is important to note that the library catalogue rarely gives details of the articles that appear within journals. Information is generally restricted to a journal's publication details and the number of issues that the library holds (Note: on a limited number of occasions the library will make the text of a journal article available via the library catalogue but this is not the case for the vast majority of articles).

To locate journal articles you will need to consult a number of specialised journal article databases.

The key databases for nursing and midwifery

• CINAHL
• Medline
• PubMed
• Health Source Nursing/Academic Edition
• Maternity and Infant Care
• Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI)
• APAIS Health
• Cochrane Library
• Scopus
• Web of Science

You can access these databases via the Databases section of the Core Nursing and Midwifery Information Resources page. Not all the databases above are directly linked. If you take the List all Health and Medical databases option , you will see a long list of databases which will include the titles above.

As a new nursing /midwifery student the databases CINAHL and Medline will probably be the most useful. Below is a basic guide to using them. Once midwifery students begin to study courses specific to midwifery, a very important database is Maternity and Infant Care, which appears on the OVID platform. A basic guide to using OVID databases is available at http://www.ovid.com/site/help/documentation/ovidsp/basic.htm.

If you should need to use one of the others you can ask for help from a librarian via any of the library information desks. There are also a number of online guides to databases via the 'How To' link at the bottom of the Core Nursing and Midwifery Information Resources page.

CINAHL (Cumulative index to nursing and allied health)

CINAHL is usually the first database to consult when looking for nursing and midwifery articles. Doing a keyword search in CINAHL (and most journal databases) is very similar to the library catalogue. Using AND's and OR's to combine terms, truncating with an asterisk*, and applying limits are all features of a CINAHL search. There are a few differences. You don't need to use ( ) brackets around the keywords linked by OR's. You also don't need a double ** asterisk to represent more than 5 characters when truncating ( a single * represents any number). Plus there are many more limits. When you search CINAHL you may get an impossibly large number of results. Using the limits can bring your search down to a more usable size. Like the library catalogue a very important limit is the Publication Year. You may be asked only to use articles that are less than 5 years old. In this case the publication year limit will save you a lot of time sorting through results. Another important CINAHL limit (not available in the catalogue) is the limit to Peer Reviewed. Again you may be asked to only use peer reviewed journal articles. Using this limit will save you a lot of time sorting through results and checking them against the Ulrichsweb database mentioned above.
(PLEASE SEE IMPORTANT NOTE ON PAGE 5)

Once you have completed your search the next step is to select articles that may be useful. Accessing the text of an article is generally quite straight forward. If there is a link to PDF-Full Text or HTML Full Text, then you can simply follow the link. If the link below the reference is Get it at the UQ Library, you can follow this link and it will try to connect you to the text of the article via a number of electronic services that the UQ Library has a subscription to. This link may not always lead you to the text of the article. This may be because the UQ Library simply doesn't have an electronic subscription to the journal in which the article appears. If you are very keen to read the article, it is useful to double check whether or not the library has access to the journal, by doing a Journal Title search in the Library Catalogue (i.e. for the title of the journal not the title of the article). If the library has a record for the journal title then you still might be able to access the article. Look to see if there is an electronic link to the journal. If not the journal may only exist in paper copies. Make sure that you note what years are covered by the library holdings of that particular title. Sometimes the Library's holdings of a journal title are not complete. If the article you are interested in is in a journal issue not held, you won't have direct access to the article.

CINAHL Search Results

Medline (EBSCO Version)

Journal article databases are produced by a number of different organisations, and each of these organisations provide their own search interface. CINAHL is an EBSCO database. EBSCO is also amongst a number of database providers that produces a version of Medline. This means that if you use the EBSCO version of Medline, it will have the same look and feel as CINAHL.

How does Medline differ from CINAHL? Medline is a very broad medical database, unlike CINAHL which is centred on mostly on nursing/midwifery and allied health. It contains a lot of journal articles that are NOT peer reviewed, and there is no peer reviewed limit (so you will have to check in Ulrichsweb to see if a journal is peer reviewed). Medline also has veterinary information. So but sure to limit your search to Human.

Why should you use Medline? Medline is one of the largest sources of health information available. It is invaluable when searching for a broad range of medical topics relating to research, clinical practice, administration, policy issues, and health care services.