UGS 303: Savvy Healthcare Consumer - Rush

Single articles on a topic are found in our library databases.  The UT Libraries pay to have access to these databases and the articles they contain.

You can search in databases that are multidisciplinary or subject-specific.

• Multidisciplinary databases contain articles on many topics/from many areas of study. A good place to start for a multidisciplinary search is the main search bar on the library homepage which searches lots of databases or Academic Search Complete.
• Subject Specific databases contain articles from specific disciplines like Medicine, English, or Psychology. See your list of suggested databases below.  

Searching databases is different than searching Google. Distil what you're looking for into a few key terms or phrases. Think of different ways to say those key terms, because different writers will refer to the same concept using different terms.

Use the words in your clinical trial to find more information on that topic. MeSH terms are particularly useful. (ctrl + f MeSH on your clinical trial to see if they are there).  

1. Write down your topic and underline the main concepts (ex. eCigarettes and Safety ) 
2. For each main concept, brainstorm a few synonyms and related terms (broader or narrower) that get at that concept:

   • Key Concepts	eCigarettes	Safety	Population of interest? (ex. teens)
     Related Terms	eCig Vape* electronic cigarettes juul   ​	disease risk FDA	You might not have a third term, but see some ideas above.

3. Combine key terms using AND and OR:​​
   • ​AND narrows your search by looking for articles with all of the words (your two or three key concepts should be connected with AND, because you need all of them represented in useful articles). 
   • OR broadens your search by looking for articles with any of the words (synonyms and related terms should be separated by OR - they get at the same key concepts, so any of them are useful).
4. Try different combinations of your keywords to get better results as you search.