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