Making PubMed searching simple: learning to retrieve medical literature through interactive problem solving.
Searching the literature has a direct, beneficial influence on patient care. The amount of medical scientific information has increased to a great extent, while the development of networking technologies has broadened access to online databases. Successful searches depend upon understanding technical librarianship concepts and the skills for mastering searching interfaces. From a problem-oriented approach, concepts like MEDLINE coverage, PubMed resources, Boolean logic, search strategies, and Web sources for full-text articles are introduced along seven online situations: locating a specific publication, answering a complex clinical question, finding information on a general subject, finding publications by a particular author, finding publications in a particular language, finding a specific publication type, and locating the full-text document. Oncologists should face the challenge of performing their own searches. Specific knowledge is mandatory to avoid frustrating, time-consuming work. The objective of this work is to present concepts, strategies, and skills required for medical literature retrieval, easing the incorporation of new and welcomed practices.
Clinical Research Department, Instituto Nacional do Câncer, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, CEP 20.231-050. vincent@inca.gov.br
Beatriz
B
Vincent
Maurice
M
Vincent
Carlos Gil
CG
Ferreira
D006801:Humans; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000379:methods*; D046650:Medical Subject Headings; D010506:Periodicals as Topic; D011340:Problem Solving; D039781:PubMed