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Health Sciences

A research guide to find resources for the health sciences and nursing programs from the EFSC Libraries.

Research Process

Before you can start your research you need to select a topic. Your topic should:

  • fit the requirements of your assignment

  • not be too general (broad) or too specific (narrow)

  • interest you!

To help you focus your topic, it's best to put your topic into the form of a question.

For a refresher on Topic Development, check out Module 2 Topic Development of BILT: Basic Information Literacy Tutorial.

Next, break your topic into 2 or 3 main concepts.

Then brainstorm keywords for each concept. Think of synonyms or related terms. A thesaurus, dictionary, or your textbook can be useful when thinking of related terms. Sometimes broader or narrower terms can be helpful too.

Why brainstorm? When searching, it's hard to know what words authors will use when they're writing about your topic. It's a good strategy to have a list of possible keywords ready so you can swap out terms as you search and hopefully get more and/or better results.

Think about:

  • clinical terms versus lay terms

    • myocardial infarction vs. heart attack
    • neoplasm vs. cancer

  • acronyms versus the term(s) spelled out

    • HIV vs. human immunodeficiency virus

    • HIPAA vs. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act

  • variations of a term

    • ultrasonography, ultrasound, sonography

The way you combine your keywords in a search can make a big difference in the quality of results found.

Review Module 4 Search Strategies of BILT: Basic Information Literacy Tutorial for more details on the following strategies.

Boolean Logic: these operators are used to combine keywords:

AND:

  • use to combine concepts
  • each term MUST be present in the search results
  • narrows your results
  • finds fewer results
  • example: visitation AND intensive care units

OR:

  • use when searching for synonyms or related terms
  • broadens your results
  • finds more results
  • example: ICU OR intensive care units

Truncation:takes a root word and finds all endings of that word. The truncation symbol is the asterisk, *.

  • expands your search
  • finds more results
  • helpful when searching for both singular and plural forms of a word
  • example: infect* will find infect, infects, infected, infection, infecting, etc.

Phrase Searching:is useful when you are searching for keywords that are more than one word. Use quotes, " ", around terms.

  • focuses your search
  • use when you want your terms to appear together, exactly as entered
  • more precise than combining terms with AND
  • example: "intensive care unit" will find better, more focused results than intensive AND care AND unit

Example Research Topic

Once you have selected a topic and before you start searching for resources, it is helpful to perform these steps:

Topic: Should victims of sexual violence receive drug therapy for HIV infection?  

Step 1: Break the topic into main concepts:
sexual violence
drug therapy
HIV

Step 2: Brainstorm keywords for each concept:
Try thinking of synonyms and related terms. A thesaurus may be helpful. 

sexual violence

drug therapy

HIV

sexual violence

sexual assault

sexual abuse

sexual offense

rape

drugs

drug therapy

medications

prophylaxis

antiviral agents

HIV

human immunodeficiency virus

sexually transmitted diseases

Step 3: Combine your terms in a search

Step 4: Search an appropriate resource

Step 5: Review results for alternative keywords or subjects and redo search (as needed)