Literature Searches
One of the most important parts of the research process is the literature search. Not only do you need to keep up on the current literature regarding a topic, but you also need to be able to make appropriate citations in papers.
The way I do this is to have a system for finding, collecting, storing and organizing research articles. Over the last few years, there has been so much advancement in online document delivery, that most of this is now on the computer, rather than in the library.
This document will walk you through the process I use. Pretty much anything I say is applicable to almost any research university, but the specifics will apply to the University of Pennsylvania.
Before you start, you will need Acrobat and EndNote software.
Find articles.
While there are many ways to find articles you need, I will talk about two that should do the trick.
1. Look in the reference section of articles that are related, and see who they cite. This is particularly helpful in the case of review articles.
2. Do an online literature search.
Online Literature Search.
Pubmed: Almost any relevant article can be found by searching through a relatively new search tool called PubMed. PubMed is free to the public, because it is funded by tax dollars by the National Library of Medicine. If you are at a specific institution, PubMed will allow you to access the article if it is available online and your institution has a subscription. If not, you can still access any other information, including the abstract.
Public link: http://www.pubmed.com
Penn link: http://www-ncbi-nlm-nih-gov.ezproxy2.library.arizona.edu/pubmed?otool=azuatuclib
With the UA link, you can access PubMed from anywhere -- just type in your username and password.
To use PubMed, just use the search box. No need to use "AND" or anything else other than your search terms. There are ways to do an advanced search, but these are often unneccessary. You can enter author names, year of publication, keywords, journal title, and article title information to find what you need.
If you are looking for something general, just type those words in. But be careful, you might get too many results. Then you might want to narrow things down.
To find a specific article, usually all you need is an author last name and year and you should get few enough results for them to be useful. Otherwise, add in some parts of the title, or another author's name to narrow it down.
PsycInfo: While PubMed is great for almost anything that you may need, sometimes I am looking for an article that may not be listed in PubMed and is more geared to a Psychology audience than a medical one. In that case, I would turn to PsycInfo, which is a database of psychology articles.
Get articles in electronic format.
In PubMed and PsycInfo, when you bring up the listing for an article, you may see a logo for the publisher's website. Usually, when you click on this logo, if the University has a subscription, you will be taken to a page where you can download a PDF of the article.
Sometimes the publisher cann't tell that you are affiliated with the University. In that case, you should go back to the listing and click on the "Arizona" logo. This will bring up a window with 3 main pieces of information. First, it will tell you if the University has an electronic subscription and give you links (that usually work). It will also give you a link to search Franklin (useful if there is no electronic subscription). Third, you can click a link to the Interlibrary Loan form, already filled out for you. Go here if it doesn't exist in Franklin. Otherwise, your request will just be denied.
If you can get the article in electronic format, save it to a temporary directory to be filed later. I like to call the files by the author's name and year (e.g., "grandner 2007.pdf"). If there are multiple files from the same year, then I add a, b, or c -- just like APA style.
If you have to go to the library, you will need to photocopy the article and then bring it back to your couputer so you can scan it into Acrobat and save it that way.
Add references to your database.
For this, you will need a reference management software program. The most widely-used program is EndNote, and I recommend it.
It can be purchased at a huge discount as academic software.
EndNote has many uses and functions. Many people have their own way of using EndNote that works for them. This is my way.
I like to make sure that nearly all of my references are (1) articles I know and (2) articles with electronic copies. Some people like to fill up endnote with every possible citation they can find, even if they have never seen the article and if there is no electronic copy to go by. I don't do it that way.
When I want to add a reference in EndNote, I usually know ahead of time what it is. And I usually have already downloaded or scanned in a copy saved to my temporary folder.
First, I search. I click Online Search, and select PubMed. EndNote will search PubMed for me to find my article. I usually just type in the author and year (e.g., AUTHOR = "Grandner;" YEAR = "2007"). Then I can easily find what I'm looking for. Sometimes I need to get creative and enter keywords or words from the title.
Second, I eliminate the junk. Everything that EndNote found will be automatically added. So you have to delete the ones you don't want, so you're left wit hthe article you were looking for.
Third, I attach the file. Select the reference, right click and select Add File and select your file from your temporary directory. Now it's attached and added. You can delete the file in your temporary directory now.
Maintain the database.
It is important to add every reference you use into EndNote. Even if it is a book or pamphle or anything. Keep your database up to date, and it will be a very valuable resource.
