DHYG 121
Dental Hygiene Research
Avoid plagiarism by properly citing your sources. Please go to the Citations webpage to learn how.
Utilization of the Internet for Clinical Decision-Making: Interesting article from the magazine Access, published by the American Dental Hygienists' Association that gives you pointers for finding reliable information using sources that we've discussed in this class.Starting your Research
To effectively research health sciences topics, it is essential to use the appropriate resources. Subject-specific encyclopedias are a good starting point for finding background information on your topic and they may be found in the Online Catalog by doing a keyword search for medical and encyclopedia. If you specifically want online encyclopedias, you may wish to search your topic in the Electronic Medical Library Stat!Ref that searches the contents of many medical reference books. There are also many online encyclopedias available through our Electronic Reference Resources collection. Ebrary is a collection of many online books that may prove to be helpful as well.
After gathering background information on your topic, you will want to focus your search in general and research databases to find articles on your topic. If you are doing research from off-campus, you will need to log-on to use databases and other online resources licensed by FSU. All you will need to log-on from off-campus is your MyFSU username and password. Click here for more information on off-campus database access.
FLITE Databases
Stat!Ref
As stated above, Stat!Ref is an excellent starting point for researching medical topics. Enter your search term into the search box and you will obtain a rank-ordered list of results taken from various medical encyclopedias, dictionaries, handbooks, and other medical reference books. A very helpful feature of this database is the Related Concepts box to the left of the results that will provide you with synonyms for your topic. These related concepts or synonyms can be used to enhance your searches in this database, as well as the other databases.
Click here for a Stat!Ref 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.
PubMed
This is the largest biomedical database, with over 20 million citations. Search using keywords and then limit your search if necessary using the limits link, related citations link, or selecting the Review link to see only review articles. Another highly useful resource from the National Library of Medicine is MedlinePlus Consumer Health Information, a great place to find information for your patients.
To get the full text of the articles, you must click into the PubMed record, then click on the Find It link. For more information on getting the full text of articles, see the Obtaining the Full-Text of Articles section below.
Click here for PubMed tutorials.
CINAHL
The Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health (CINAHL) currently gathers information from more than 3000 journals. Scroll down when your initial results screen pops up, and use the Subject: Major Heading selection from the left-hand side to narrow your results to the major subject selected.
Click here for a CINAHL tutorial.
General OneFile
This is a general database that will be useful for searching about any topic you can come up with! Try using the main search box that says Find Subjects, and if that fails, switch to the top search box that lets you search by keywords, or try the Advanced Search.
Cochrane Library
The Cochrane Library is a valuable resource for evidence-based medicine. This library is growing, so be sure to check back at a later time if you are not currently finding information on your topic. You can search using keywords such as dental hygiene, or browse Cochrane Reviews by topic.
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 image 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 Links
Bibby Dental Library of Images
Find Articles:
Look for articles using FLITE's databases.
Find Books:
Look for books, videos, journals, and other library holdings in the library's catalog. To search for journals by title, keyword, or subject, be sure to click on the Journals tab.
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: March 22, 2011