This page contains some concepts and approaches to broadening and enhancing your research skills. While basic searching can often meet the needs of first-year students, more advanced students can benefit from more sophisticated techniques. As always, librarians are available for 1:1 consultations to help you refine your research as well.
This link opens in a new windowIn searching health science literature, it can be helpful to understand Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). The MeSH thesaurus is a controlled and hierarchically-organized vocabulary produced by the National Library of Medicine. It is used for indexing and searching of biomedical and health-related information. MeSH includes the subject headings appearing in MEDLINE/PubMed, the NLM Catalog, and other NLM databases.
Citation trails are a great way to find additional resources related to a relevant article you already have. By examining works cited in your article, you can follow a "backward citation trail" to older research. These works would be listed in the bibliography, works cited, references, or similar section of an article or book chapter. To move into more recent research, you can follow a "forward citation trail" by finding newer articles citing the one you have in hand. Google Scholar, Web of Science, and PubMed all have "cited by" links which provide this forward citation trail. The video below provides a good explanation (through end of minute 2).
Review articles, literature reviews, or literature surveys are articles that bring together past research on a subject. They analyze, evaluate, and summarize research without presenting new experimental data. They may draw conclusions based on the body of research as a whole, including gaps in the body of research. These types of articles are great for understanding the current state of research on a topic, and can provide strong leads for citation trails.