Research Resources for Research Resources for Graduate Speech-Language Graduate Speech-Language Pathology Students Doing Pathology Students Doing Evidence-Based PracticeEvidence-Based Practice

Marsha BansbergKent State University

Learning Objectives

By the end of this session, you will be able to:

Recognize useful sources of research for clinical sessions.

Utilize Boolean operators, wildcards, and proximity searches.

Conduct efficient searches within ComDisDome and MEDLINE.

Evidence-Based Practice in Communication Disorders

“Evidence-based practice refers to an approach in which current, high-quality research evidence is integrated with practitioner expertise and client preferences and values into the process of making clinical decisions.”

“It is the position of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) that audiologists and speech-language pathologists incorporate the principles of evidence-based practice in clinical decision making to provide high quality clinical care.”

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (2005). Evidence-Based Practice in Communication Disorders [Position Statement]. Available from www.asha.org/policy

Relevant Databases

These databases can be accessed via the University Library’s Web page: CINAHL Plus with Full-Text (1937 - Current) ComDisDome Education Abstracts (1983 - Current) ERIC (1966 - Current) MEDLINE (1950 - Current) PsycINFO - Current File (1967 - Current) PubMed (1966 - Current)

Articles can also be found from: ASHA journals at www.asha.org

ComDisDome

ComDisDome focuses on speech-language pathology and audiology and searches a variety of reliable materials from the field including books, journals, dissertations, and web resources, as well as, information from professional societies and conferences.

To access this database, go to the University Library home page and select: Research Databases

• Research Databases by Subject• Speech Pathology and Audiology

• ComDisDome

http://www.csa.com/factsheets/cdd-set-c.php

Advanced Searching

The advanced search option allows for field-specific searching (by author, title, keyword).

Boolean operators can be used and searches can be limited

by database, publication type, and date.

The results can be limited by latest update, journal articles only, and/or English only.

The results can be displayed in short format, full format, full format – no references, and custom formats.

Boolean Operators

AND Narrows search and retrieves records containing all of the words it separates.

OR Broadens search and retrieves records containing any of the words it separates. The | can be used instead of 'or' (e.g., ‘high functioning autism | asperger syndrome | PDD' is equivalent to ' high functioning autism or asperger syndrome or PDD').

NOT Narrows search and retrieves records that do not contain the term following it.

( ) Groups words or phrases when combining Boolean phrases and to show the order in which relationships should be considered: e.g., '(mouse or mice) and (gene or pseudogene)

Note: Search queries containing several operators search in the following order:( ), NEAR, NOT, AND, OR http://support.csa.com/article.asp?article=2155&p=101

Define the relationships between words or groups of words

Boolean OperatorsContinued

High-FunctioningAutism

AspergerSyndrome

AND

Boolean OperatorsContinued

High-FunctioningAutism

AspergerSyndrome

OR

Boolean OperatorsContinued

AspergerSyndrome

Autism

NOT

Proximity Searching

No Operator Find words as a phrase. For example: specific language impairment retrieves records containing the three words immediately adjacent to one another and in the same order.

WITHIN “X” Find words within a specified radius. For example: facilitated communication within 3 autism retrieves records that contain facilitated communication and autism in any order and within a three word radius of one other. (Note: any number may be used to determine the proximity radius.)

NEAR Find words within 10 words of each other. For example: (stutter near auditory feedback) retrieves records that contain stutter and auditory feedback in any order and within a 10 word radius of one other. (Note: near is the same as within 10.)

BEFORE Finds words in a relative order. For example: communication before disorders. (Note: adjacency is not implied.)

AFTER Finds words that contain words in the relative order specified with the after expression. For example: impairment after speech. (Note: adjacency is not implied.)

Note: Use double quotes to search for "near", "before", or "after" as a term or part of a phrase. For example: "near" death experience. http://support.csa.com/article.asp?article=2521&p=101

Limits the number of words between your search terms

Wildcards

An asterisk, *, is used for truncation. Truncation expands a search term to include all forms of a root word. For example: child* will retrieve child, children, and childhood.

An * is also used as a multi-character wildcard for finding alternative spellings. Use it to indicate an unlimited number of characters within a word. For example: behavi*r retrieves behaviour or behavior.

A question mark, ?, is used for a single-character wildcard for finding alternative spellings. The ? represents a single character. Two ?? represent two characters, three ??? represent three characters, and so on. Use it within or at the end of a word. For example: wom?n finds woman as well as women, and d?sfluency finds dysfluency and disfluency.

Can expand the scope of your search

http://support.csa.com/article.asp?article=2522&p=101

Wildcards

Only words with characters equal to the number of ?s present are retrieved. For example: cell? retrieves cells and cello but not cell.

Three characters are required before truncation, therefore, h*ophilia will not function in this database.

When looking for singular and plural forms of short words that have a common root, such as cell, the truncation symbol may retrieve too many irrelevant words, while the wildcard symbol may retrieve too few words. In such a case, do not use wildcards and instead OR together the forms of the word you want. For example: cell OR cells.

Tips

http://support.csa.com/article.asp?article=2522&p=101

Choose the Advanced Search tab and enter your search term(s) into the appropriate boxes.

Before selecting the Search button, select the Social Sciences subject area from the drop-down menu.

You can also limit your search by selecting the appropriate box(es).

Then, select the desired format for the search results.

Finally, select the search button.

This search retrieved 47 results.

You can choose to view only results from peer-reviewed journals or dissertations.

Edit the search to narrow the results.

Then, select the search button.

You can further refine your search by adding more specific search terms. Instead of including all types of problem-based learning, you can search for problem-based learning related to audiology and speech.

This time, only 5 results were retrieved.

MEDLINE

Produced by the National Library of Medicine, MEDLINE strives to be the most inclusive source of materials in the life sciences and biomedical fields. It searches information from almost 4,000 journals, books, and research and is updated weekly.

To access this database, go to the University Library home page and select:

Research Databases• Research Databases by Subject

• Speech Pathology and Audiology• MEDLINE

http://www.cos.com/pdf/medline.pdf

(1950 - Current)

Boolean Operators & Wildcards

automatic adjacency (phrase searching)

specific language impairment

AND for both, whether adjacent or not

AAC AND autism

OR for either speech-language pathology OR audiology

$ for truncation stutter$

http://etextb.ohiolink.edu/help/quick.html

Advanced Search Tips

ALL FIELDS searches for terms in title, abstract, author, subject, anywhere

problem-based learning in All Fields

SUBJECT searches for terms within official vocabulary used for concepts in this database

biogeochemical cycles in Subject

Use MORE SEARCH BOXES to combine words or phrases from different fields

fombonne in Author NameAnd autism in Article Title

Use LIMIT OPTIONS to restrict results to a particular year, language, etc.

american journal of speech-language pathology in Journal TitleYear Equals 2008

Use THESAURUS to determine official terminology for a particular topic and find all articles on that topic

Search words in thesaurus: select the check box by ESL

Use BROWSE to view an alphabetic list of authors, journals, or subjects

Browse Author Names starting with: bloom

http://etextb.ohiolink.edu/help/quick.html

The search form allows you to add more search boxes to refine your search.

You can also choose where you want the search terms to be searched by selecting a field from the drop down menu.

Enter your search term(s) into the search box.

Refine your search by adding additional terms.

Select Show limit options to view additional search criteria.

Limit Options allow you to limit your search to specific types of documents (abstracts or review articles for example), language, and date range.

You can sort the results by year, author, journal title, article title, or relevance.

You can choose to display results in groups of 15, 30, 60, 100, or more.

Once you’ve chosen all your search criteria, select the submit search button.

You can select Show abstracts to view a summary of the listed articles.

To further refine your results, select All Limit Options to modify or add search limits.

Thesaurus

The thesaurus contains the official subject vocabulary of the database. Use Search Words in Thesaurus to find out if your search term is used in the database.

Select Browse to view an index, or alphabetical list, of authors, subjects, and journal titles in the database.

Focus will display results where the search term is a principal subject of the article.

http://etextb.ohiolink.edu/help/thesaurus.html

Thesaurus

Select Expand to broaden your search by retrieving articles with the search term or any term that is narrower in the thesaurus hierarchy. Example: expand articulation disorders to locate articles

about articulation disorders and articles that relate to specific types of articulation disorders, such as dysarthria.

Expand/Focus combines the two functions. Articles with the search term and any of the narrower subjects will be retrieved, but only those with the search term as the principal subject will be included in the results.

Continued

http://etextb.ohiolink.edu/help/thesaurus.html

With “search words in thesaurus” selected, enter dysphasia in the search box.

Then, select the submit search button.

By selecting view thesaurus, you can see the definition and broader, narrower, and related terms.

This database uses the term aphasia.

This is the thesaurus entry for aphasia.

Questions?

Activity

Search for your topic in ComDisDome and MEDLINE. Print out the first page of results from each database. We will take a few minutes before the end of the session to discuss your findings and compare the databases.

Remember to: • use the Boolean operators and wildcards relevant to the database

you are searching.• search the thesaurus to see what terms the database uses.

Keep in mind that some databases will use older or newer terms from your field.

Activity

1. techniques to help people with fluency disorder

2. strategies for speech sound production for people with articulation disorders

3. strategies to increase receptive language skills for people with language disorders

4. visual support strategies for working with people with autism

5. techniques to improve expressive language skills for people with aphasia

Topics

Discussion

What were your findings?

What worked?

What did not work?

How easy were the databases to navigate?

Which database did you find easy to navigate and why?

Compare and contrast the databases.

References

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (2005). Evidence-Based Practice in Communication Disorders [Position Statement]. Retrieved October 25, 2008 from the World Wide Web: www.asha.org/policy

Community of Science. (2002, June). MEDLINE Through COS. Retrieved October 25, 2008 from the World Wide Web: http://www.cos.com/pdf/medline.pdf

Nail-Chiwetalu, B., & Ratner, N. (2006, July). Information Literacy for Speech-Language Pathologists: A Key to Evidence-Based Practice. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 37, 157-167.

References

OSearch Search Tips. (2005, July). Retrieved October 24, 2008 from the World Wide Web: http://etextb.ohiolink.edu/help/quick.html

OSearch Thesaurus and Browse Options. (2005, July). Retrieved October 24, 2008 from the World Wide Web: http://etextb.ohiolink.edu/help/thesaurus.html

ProQuest. (2008). CSA Illumina Support Center. Retrieved October 24, 2008 from the World Wide Web : http://www.csa.com/factsheets/cdd-set-c.php

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