Nursing & Midwifery  Tags: evidence_based_nursing nursing midwifery evidence_based_practice health_statistics ebm clinical_resources  

Define your topic - It may help to state your topic as a question.

Break your topic down into concepts - identify keywords, synonyms and related terms within each component.

Determine which databases you will need to search - you may want to search databases such as PsychInfo and Sociological Abstracts as well as the main nursing and biomedical databases such as Cinahl and Medline.  If you are after Australian material in particular, you may want to search Meditext.

Consider parameters or limits for your search:
Is there a time span for your topic e.g. material published in the past 5 years?
Are there geographic limits e.g. are you only interested in Australian content?
Are there age-group limitations such as adolescence, the aged?

See also the Search smarter, search faster learning video.

How do you find the most recent information on a topic?

The most efficient way to  find good quality, up-to-date journal articles on your topic is to use a library database which covers the research literature in your subject area.

What is a library database?

A library database (or research database) helps you find journal articles.

Journal articles from scholarly research journals are the most common items found on a library database, however databases also include references to conference papers, magazine articles, newspaper articles, book chapters or statistics.

Library databases often cover one subject or discipline area, for example, nursing and midwifery.

Why not just use Google?

A library database search will often return you more relevant, better quality results (because you are already searching within a smaller set of specially selected articles about your subject area). Library databases can also lead you to free full text online because the library has already paid for the content on your behalf.

Where do I find full text?

Either:
Directly from the library database (look for a link to fulltext)
OR
By searching like the catalogue for the online journal e.g., Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing http://opac.library.usyd.edu.au/record=b2772571 

Where do I find library databases?

The University of Sydney library homepage has a link to library databases by subject.

OR click on the Find Articles tab in this guide.

For more information about how to search library databases you can:

• join a class with a librarian at a library near you
• learn online - CINAHL ; other Medicine and Health databases
• contact the Nursing Library nursing@library.usyd.edu.au
  ph: 02 9351 0541

What is an Annotated Bibliography?

An organized list of sources (books, journal articles, and other documents) including information about each listed source (i.e. the author, title, publisher, date) as well as annotations i.e. a summary and/or evaluation of each listed source.

What is the difference between annotations and abstracts?

Annotations summarise the scope and content of an item and may include critical evaluative comments, whereas abstracts give an overview but usually do not involve any critical evaluation.

Writing the annotations

Each annotation should be concisely written - approximately 150 words long. It may answer some or all of the following questions:

• What is the main focus or purpose of the work?
• Who is the audience it was written for?
• What is its usefulness or appropriateness to your topic?
• Are there any special features that were unique or helpful?
• What is the author’ background and credibility?
• What conclusions does the author draw?
• What observations or conclusions have you made?

Source: Queensland University of Technology

For more information on how to write an annotated bibliography, check Charles Sturt University's page.