Literature Research

This page outlines strategies for conducting literature research specific to health sciences topics, provides tip sheets that might assist you in your research, and links to how-to guides on various topics.

Strategies & Tips

Strategies

Steps to Searching the Literature in Health Sciences – a comprehensive step-by-step guide from U. Toronto Health Sciences Library that helps you understand how to properly and effectively conduct comprehensive searches of the literature.

Research Rabbit – free online citation-based literature mapping tool. Use this site to find articles similar to ones you have already found. Connects to a Zotero account for ease in citing. A short video tutorial can help you understand how to set up and use it.

Tip Sheets

How To

Find a Specific Journal

Understand Types of Lit Reviews

Evaluate Articles & Research Evidence

Make Sense of health research articles and understand the basics of scientific studies.
A Simple Guide to Reading an Abstract
What’s a CAT? – Clinically Appraised Topic guide from Physiopedia including a link to a useful CAT worksheet.
Critical Appraisal Tools – links to worksheets for the critical appraisal of medical evidences; includes Systematic Reviews, Diagnostics, Prognosis, Randomised Controlled Trials; from Centre for Evidence Based Medicine (CEBM).
JAMA Evidence – guides to the systematic consideration of the validity, importance, and applicability of claims about the assessment of health problems and the outcomes of health care. Includes User’s Guides to the Medical Literature; The Rational Clinical Examination; and a variety of diagnostic calculators. (Journal of the American Medical Association).

Do a Systematic Review

Systematic Review Guide – this guide outlines steps and considerations for SR, including protocols, standards, and data extraction; from Cornell University Weil Library.
Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions – step-by-step instructions for conducting systematic reviews of different types of interventions.
Systematic Review Toolbox – a comprehensive LibGuide from the University of Hawai’i at Manoa’s John A. Burns School of Medicine guiding the steps of a systematic review and providing resources for each step.