keeping current with scholarly literature
DESCRIPTION
Presentation given as part of the "Graduate Student Workshop" series at the University of Western Ontario on June 17, 2010TRANSCRIPT
Keeping Current with Scholarly Literature
Robin FeatherstoneClinical Medicine LibrarianTaylor Library, University of Western [email protected]
Slides available: www.slideshare.net/featherr
In 1980, reading 1 RCT per day would keep you up to date…
http://trusttheevidence.net/carl-heneghan/how-many-randomized-trials-are-published-each-year
... In 2008, you would have to read 71 per day
Prediction: 500,000 RCTs per year published by 2018-9
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wp3m1vg06Q
How can we keep up?
• Email Alerts– Table of Contents (ToC)– Topic Search– Author (or institution)– Cited Reference
• RSS (Really Simple Syndication)
How do alerts work?
• Search a database (CINAHL, Scopus, etc...)
• Have the search run regularly and new results sent to you via email
Which databases offer alerts?
Biological Sciences
Engineering
Health Sciences
Medicine
Physical & Mathemati
cal Sciences
•BIOSIS•EMBASE•Medline•PubMed•Scopus•Web of Science
•Compendex•Inspec•ProQuest ABI/INFORM•Scopus•Web of Science
•AMED•CINAHL•EMBASE•Physical Education Index•PubMed•PsycINFO•Scopus
•BIOSIS•EMBASE•Medline•PubMed•Web of Science
•arxiv.org•Inspec•Scopus•Web of Science
What kind of alerts can I set up?
1. TOPIC: Receive recent articles on a topic of interest
2. ToC: Receive Table of Contents for a key journal in your field*
3. AUTHOR: Monitor an important author’s work4. REFERENCE: Keep track of citations to a
particular paper
* Check the journal’s website too
Demo - Scopus
Set up an alert to tell you when the following paper is cited:
Williams, M. (2008). Infection control and prevention in perioperative practice. Journal of Perioperative Practice, 18(7), 274-278.
Exercise
Set up an alert to tell you when the following paper is cited:
Couch, R. B. (2008). Seasonal inactivated influenza virus vaccines. Vaccine, 26(SUPPL. 4), D5-D9.
RSS = Really Simple Syndication
http://geekandpoke.typepad.com/geekandpoke/2007/02/keeping_up.html
http://commoncraft.com/rss_plain_english
How does RSS work?
• Subscribe to a “feeder” (Google Reader, Bloglines, etc…)
• Locate a “feed”
• Add the feed’s URL to your feeder
Demo - PubMed
Create a topic RSS feed in PubMed on prevention of MRSA through hand washing.
Exercise
Subscribe to an RSS feeder (if you haven’t already) – Google Reader and Bloglines are two free ones
Run a topic search (your choice) in PubMed or CINAHL
Subscribe to the feed from your search results
Recap
• Impossible to keep up with the rising number of scholarly publications
• Use alerts to send regular email updates• Use RSS to add summaries of new publications
to your feeder
QUESTIONS
Robin [email protected]://www.slideshare.net/featherr