Transcript There’s More To The Web Than Googling…

“Effective
Information retrieval
in Health sciences using
Internet”
Your Presenter
S.N.Ragu Kumar., M.Sc., M.Phil., M.Tech., MBA.,
Systems Analyst, Computer Facility, &
Adjunct Faculty, CMET, AIIMS.
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Information Retrieval
• Information retrieval from personal
computer storage
– File, folders, disk drives, USB storage etc.,
– Google/MSN desktop search
– Picasa image managers
• Information retrieval from Internet
Information Retrieval
Problem of Plenty on Net.
Without a proper strategy, you would lost in
the sea of Information.
• Choose the most appropriate place to
look
• Develop an effective search strategy
• Carry out the search
• Critically evaluate the results obtained
Appropriate Place?
Will depend on what you are looking for !!!
• General Information
– Web Search Engines / General Web Resources
• Journal References
– Databases like PubMed / IndMED etc) / Scholar
Google
• Full Text Articles
– Free Open Access.
– Fee Based – From Libraries.
• Best Practices / Evidence Based Medicine
– Cochrane Library , Map of Medicine
Information Sources & Tools
Research topic: A study on biostatistics and survival analysis
Know what you want … and use the right tools to search
for materials. Identify which is primary sources? Which is
secondary sources?
Books/ Book chapters
Journals
Theses- PhD, research
Conference papers
Multimedia items
CD-ROM
Journal articles
Foreign theses
Newspapers articles
Conference papers
E-library
E-Resources
databases
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Search & Reference Tools
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Search Tools on the Web
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Search engines
Search directories
Meta search engines
Image search engines
Meta image search engines
Dictionaries
Meta dictionaries
Thesauri
Encyclopaedias
Close familiarity
with each of
these facilities
will greatly
assist you when
searching for
resources on
the Web
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Web Search Facts
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An estimated 73% of the Web is in English
Many search engines are also directories
Some directories are also meta search engines
The Open Directory has 64,000 editors and
about 590,000 search categories!
However, directories typically have much
smaller databases than search engines
No search tool is able to search the entire
Web, though some meta search engines go to
the Deep Net, Dark Web or Invisible Web!
Google is the most popular search engine
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Google
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Google is the undisputed leader in search
engines, with the largest database and highly
relevant results
Uses an algorithm based on site popularity
The more inbound links pointing to a particular
site from another site Google thinks is
worthwhile, then that site will receive a higher
page rank in the results
Wary of minimising advertising - no frills design,
nice clean look and no pop-up ads
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Did you know?
Most search engines...
• are actually user-friendly and all you need is a
little bit of time...
• have a ‘preferences’ tab that customises current
and future visits
• have an ‘advanced’ tab that helps narrow your
search query
• have help pages if you’re a newbie!
• Allow you to use quotation marks and ‘+’ or ‘-’
signs in your search query for better results
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Subject Guides
• Web pages of collections of hypertext links on a
subject.
• Compiled by "expert" subject specialists, agencies,
associations, and hobbyists.
iBoogie
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AltaVista Language Translation
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What is a search strategy?
Your search strategy is your
plan of action
• It helps you find the information you need to
complete your assignments.
• It makes you think about your project.
• It helps you work out what information you need,
and how you're going to find it.
What do I do first?
• Look at your project title and make sure you
understand it.
• If you are unsure of any of the words, use a
dictionary
If you are not in the Library you can use an online
reference service:
www.NMLermed.in
Now identify your keywords
• As an example, look at your project
title:
• Select the important word(s) to look at
• Think of as many words as you can
related to these terms
What type of information do you
need?
• an overview on the topic so you can
identify key issues?
• statistical data to back up your
arguments?
• a definition so you understand your
main concept?
• a review of recent debates?
• the latest research?
What literature should you
review? 1.
Journal articles: these are good, especially
for up-to-date information. They are
frequently used in literature reviews
because they offer a relatively concise, upto-date format for research.
• Depending on the publication, these
materials may be refereed or non-refereed
materials.
What literature should you
review? 2.
Books: remember that books tend to be
less up-to-date, as it takes longer for a
book to be published than for a journal
article.
• They are still likely to be useful for
including in your literature review as they
offer a good starting point from which to
find more detailed and up-to-date sources
of information.
What literature should you
review? 3.
Conference proceedings: these can be
useful in providing the latest research, or
research that has not been published.
• They are also helpful in providing
information about people in different
research areas, and so can be helpful in
tracking down other work by the same
researchers.
What literature should you
review? 4.
Government/corporate reports: many
government departments and corporations
commission or carry out research. Their
published findings can provide a useful
source of information, depending on your
field of study.
What literature should you
review? 5.
Newspapers: since newspapers are
generally intended for a general (not
specialised) audience, the information they
provide will be of very limited use for your
literature review.
• Newspapers are more helpful as providers
of information about recent trends,
discoveries or changes, e.g. announcing
changes in government policy.
• Newspapers do not give unbiased
opinions.
What literature should you
review? 6.
Theses and dissertations: these can be
useful sources of information. However
there are disadvantages:
• they can be difficult to obtain since they
are not published, but are generally only
available from the library or interlibrary
loan
• the student who carried out the research
may not be an experienced researcher
and therefore you might have to treat their
findings with more caution than published
research.
What literature should you
review? 7.
Internet: the fastest-growing source of
information is on the Internet.
• bear in mind that anyone can post
information on the Internet so the quality
may not be reliable
• the information you find may be intended
for a general audience and so not be
suitable for inclusion in your literature
review (information for a general audience
is usually less detailed)
Search options
Always check HELP option in each
database for
• Boolean operators
• proximity operators
• wildcard & truncation
• limit searching
Overview
of Boolean
Searching
Research Tips
NMLermed.in
Get materials from
other Libraries
START
N
Form search
statement:
List concepts
in topic:
Draft a brief
title for your
research
Know what you
want: e.g.
Use
synonyms to
expand search
terms,
Article> journal>ejournal>database
Use Boolean
operators to
refine your
search
statement
Conference
papers> database
Consult
- Supervisor/tutor
- Librarian
Book chapter>
book>e-book
Use the
Y
right tools
to search
for
materials:
Library or
Eresources?
Retrieve
materials
in:
print
Use citations
found
to get more
readings
electronic
Enough
information?
N
Primary
sources?
Secondary
sources?
Currency of the
information?
Y
Cite references,
writing assignment
END
Evaluating the search results
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Evaluating Your Web Search Results
Each page should be examined and the
following questions answered:
1. Who? Who is the authoring agency or
individual?
2. What? What is the author's credentials?
3. Where? Where is the author's affiliation?
4. When? When was the page last updated
5. Why? Why is the page in existence? What is
the author's purpose?
6. How? How does the page appear?
Scholarly Information
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Bibliographic Databases
• Cover Peer Reviewed Literature. Journals are
selected after quality checks.
• References along with abstracts are available
sometimes links to free full text of articles.
• Require familiarization on searching.
• Knowledge of Boolean Operators; Medical Subject
Headings (MeSH) and Qualifiers are required for
advanced searching.
http://pubmed.gov
Includes MEDLINE® (Medical Literature Analysis and
Retrieval System Online) is the U.S. National Library of
Medicine's® (NLM) premier bibliographic database that
contains over 16 million references to journal articles in life
sciences with a concentration on biomedicine. A distinctive
feature of MEDLINE is that the records are indexed with
NLM's Medical Subject Headings (MeSH®).
Google Scholar
"Google Scholar uses Google search technology
to search for scholarly materials such as: peerreviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and
articles and more. Results come from academic
publishers, professional societies, preprint
repositories, universities and other scholarly
organizations. Some of the literature will be
freely found on the Web, while some links will
offer the full-text of articles for payment."
http://scholar.google.com
So, for Scholarly Information
• We start with Bibliographic Databases
having references to journals and other
scholarly literature
• Different from Search Engines in respect to
relying on Boolean Operators and Controlled
Vocabularies.
• PubMed, Scirus – International
• IndMED – Indian
• Scholar Google special in some aspects but
scope not clearly defined.
OA Archives or Repositories
• OA archives or repositories are free
to access and allows uploading of
articles and other scholarly materials
by authors.
• Archives may belong to institutions,
such as universities and laboratories,
or disciplines, such as physics and
economics.
http://archives.eprints.org/