Health Sciences

Boolean operators are the words "AND," "OR," and "NOT." When using a library's catalog search function, apply these words in between your keywords to make your searches more precise. See the following examples:

• "Coronavirus" OR "Covid-19"
• "teenagers" NOT "children"
• bird flu" AND "avian flu"
• "Cardiology" AND "exercise" NOT "diet"
• "Pediatrics" AND "Canada" AND "Life expectancy"

Wildcard searches involve the use of symbols, specifically question marks and asterisks, into our library catalog and database searches. Wildcards replace specific letters or a sequence of letters within a word.

Examples:

Question mark (?)

For terms with different spellings, use a ? in your search to include these terms in your search result:

• e.g. Searching an?esthesia into a catalog/database = anesthesia and anaesthesia (search result will include these terms)

Asterisk (*)

Use an * in your search to get both the singular, plural, and variation forms of a word:

• e.g. Searching nurs* into a catalog/database = nurse, nurses, nursing (search result will include these terms)

In general, wildcard searches will allow you to broaden your search, allowing you access to resources that might have otherwise gone unnoticed due to different spellings, or variations of a focused subject term. Some disclaimers: Using a root word/asterisk search might not always yield the most accurate results, and not all databases recognize wildcard searches.

Using a single keyword in a library catalog or online database will yield a huge search result that may, or may not be helpful to your research topic of choice. In order to come up with a search result that not only narrows down its sources, but ultimately provides you with exactly what you need, you will need to strategize. The following tips are for searching within these online environments:

• Break up your research topic into keywords by focusing on independent concepts. Use a thesaurus if necessary.
  • e.g. Topic: Mental health effects of social media use by teenagers
    • Keywords to use: mental health, social media, teenagers
• Search using a combination of keywords with Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT)
  • e.g. ("mental health" OR "wellbeing") AND "social media" AND ("teenagers" NOT "children")
    • Keep words/phrases together with quotation marks
      • e.g. "swine flu" 
    • Create search phrases with parentheses and Boolean operators
      • e.g. ("swine flu" OR "H1N1") AND ("symptoms" OR "signs" OR "traits")
    • Use asterisk mark to broaden a search by finding keywords that start with the same letters
      • e.g. dino* will search for key terms dinos, dinosaur, dinosauria
• Take advantage of search filters to limit your results and best serve your research topic:
  • e.g. Limit results to peer-reviewed materials, specific resource type, range of publication dates, subjects, etc

Qualitative Research

Qualitative research answers the "why" and "how" of a particular topic, or focus of study. It provides subjective insights on experiences using non-numerical data via interviews and observations.

Quantitative Research

Quantitative research is about the "what" and "how many." This research involves objective measurement and analysis using numerical data via experiments and surveys.

Primary Sources

Provides original research data and information:

e.g. case studies, clinical trials, research reports, dissertations, lab notebooks, patient interviews, surveys, government reports, conference proceedings, online articles that provide firsthand accounts (i.e. eyewitness accounts), autobiographies, memoirs, personal diaries, original documents (e.g. court documents, government reports)

Secondary Sources

Interprets and synthesizes information from primary sources, providing a comprehensive understanding of a topic:

e.g. scholarly text, journal articles that analyzes and critiques existing research, systematic reviews, professional news sources in medicine and healthcare

Tertiary Sources

Offers summaries, overviews, and introductions to topics based on primary and secondary sources. They present existing information without providing any new interpretations or conclusions:

e.g. encyclopedia and dictionary references, Almanacs, Wikipedia entries, guides, manuals, indexes and databases, bibliographies