PHAR 462 - Dakkuri
Finding Medical Research Articles
Gathering Background Information
If you are looking for background information on your topic from reference books such as encyclopedias, manuals, handbooks, and textbooks , check out the following resources:
- Print and Online Books and search by title, subject, or keyword.
- Stat!Ref, the Electronic Medical Library contains some of the top medical reference books, including pharmacy resources such as AHFS Drug Information, Goodman & Gilman's The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics, Handbook on Injectable Drugs, and more!!
- Online Reference Resources webpage has links under Health and Medicine to Burger's Medicinal Chemistry and Drug Discovery, Meyler's Side Effects of Drugs, and more.
- Access Pharmacy database contains some reference books for your courses, and other useful reference books as well.
Finding Articles using FLITE Databases
To find drug-related and other medical research articles, it is essential to use the appropriate databases that provide access to many citations and full-text articles. If you are doing research from off-campus, you will need to log-on to use databases licensed by FSU. Click here for information on off-campus database access.
PubMed
This is the largest biomedical database, with over 17 million citations. Search for drug information by using the brand name, generic name, or substance name. Select the Mesh Database to perform more subject-specific searches and send terms to the PubMed search box. There are excellent MeSH tutorials available to help you use this search strategy.
Click here for a PubMed Database Guide.
General Onefile OR Academic Onefile
These huge database contains many articles in full-text. They have some overlapping content, but also unique content, so consider searching them both!! If the Subject search box doesn't yield any results, try the Search box at the top of the page. Also consider switching to the Advanced Search.
CINAHL
The Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health (CINAHL) currently gathers information from more than 1800 journals. Use the CINAHL Headings subtab to get more subject-specific information on various drugs. You can narrow and expand your search using the options available in this database.
International Pharmaceutical Abstracts (IPA)
IPA provides article summaries taken from over 750 journals selected by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. Browse the Index for drug names (generic or brand names), or for substance names. Combine searches for different drugs by using the Search History tab and combining searches using and.
IDIS (Iowa Drug Information Service)
This database requires you to log-on individually. Please call 231-591-3602 for user name and password. IDIS contains citations and full-text from over 200 journals pertinent to pharmacy, with a focus on retrieving specific drug information and drug treatments for diseases. For each type of search selected there is a valuable description about the purpose of the search, providing an indicator of the type of search terms that should be used.
Click here for an IDIS Database Guide.
Health & Wellness Resource Center
Find information from medical encyclopedias, journal articles, pamphlets, videos, and more using this database that is filled with information oriented towards health care consumers. This is a nice place to get a general overview of different diseases and conditions, as well as medications.
Obtaining the Full-Text of Articles
In some databases you will see an option for a Text version of the document or a PDF version. In general, the PDF version is preferable as it is most often a scanned version of the original and will therefore contain the graphics. When e-mailing, printing, or saving a group of articles, be sure to select the full-text or PDF option if available.
Some databases contain little full-text, but allow you to link out to Ferris' holdings or the interlibrary loan request form. You will notice the Find it! links following individual citations that will indicate the availability of the article online, in the library, or the need to interlibrary loan the article. Click on the Go button and you will be taken to the online version, library holdings record, or interlibrary loan form to obtain the article you desire. See the example below:
Sample Article Link-Out:
Evaluating your Articles
Before requesting articles from interlibrary loan, please review the abstract and make sure that the article is on-topic. Also, please insure that the article is in a language that you speak, as some databases, such as PubMed index many non-English articles that have abstracts written in English. After you have evaluated the topical coverage and language of the article, please do not hesitate to request it through interlibrary loan if it is not available on campus.
Other Useful Library Links
Find Articles:
Look for articles using FLITE's databases.
Find Books and More:
Look for books, journals, videos, and other library holdings.
Find Journals:
This direct link into the journals tab of the online catalog allows you to search by journal title, keyword, or by subject.
Refbase:
This tool can help you to format citations in styles such as APA and Chicago.
Refborks Tutorials:
Need help using RefWborks? Check out these tutorials that can assist you with using Refbase.
APA Citation Style Guide:
Learn basics about APA style, a prevalent citation format in the medical field.
Any more questions? Contact: Alison (Ali) Konieczny / Email / Phone: 231-591-3696 / Office: FLITE 315
Don't forget, you are welcome to come to the Oval Information Desk and ask for help any time. You can also call us 231-591-3602 or chat with us.
Last update: Sept. 2, 2009