Information Literacy for Students of the Health Sciences

There are numerous types of information sources - from books and peer review articles to podcasts and social media posts. Choose the best source to meet your information need. 

The library provides access to thousands of ebooks, ejournals, and databases. Most of these CANNOT be accessed with Google or ChatGPT. To ensure that you are accessing high quality journals and ebooks it is BEST PRACTICE to go straight to the library's subscription databases.

Popular Health Sciences Databases include:

If you are trying to answer a clinical question, it can be helpful to use the Evidence Pyramid. Use your question type to identify the recommended study type. If this study type is unavailable move up or down the pyramid as necessary.

Clinical Question Types:

• Diagnosis --> controlled trial
• Therapy --> double blind RCT, Systematic review, meta-analysis
• Prognosis --> cohort studies, case control, case series
• Harm/Etiology --> cohort studies, case control, case series
• Prevention --> randomized controlled trial, cohort studies
• Quality Improvement --> randomized controlled trials

When gathering information in databases, here are a few search strategies to remember.

• Use targeted keyterms. Rather than searching with a full sentence, focus on your main concepts.
  • Example: Instead of searching for Will continuous glucose monitoring improve blood sugar levels? Try searching: "continuous glucose monitoring" AND "glycemic control"
  • Avoid using relationship or judgement words like impact, affect, better, worst. Using these types of words as search terms can bias your search or exclude relevant results.
• Use Boolean operators - AND, OR, NOT to combine concepts:
  • AND narrows your search
    • "type 1 diabetes" AND "continuous glucose monitoring"
  • OR broadens your search
    • teenager OR adolescent OR "young adult"
  • NOT excludes terms
    • "continuous glucose monitoring" AND "glycemic control" NOT "type 2"
• Use quotes to treat a key phrase as one keyword. This will search those words in that specific order:
  • "mental health"
• Use truncation to search multiple terms with the same root word. Truncation replaces a word ending with a symbol, usually an asterisk (*).
  • Example: searching teen* will retrieve teen, teens, teenager, and teenagers.
• Use limiters in databases to narrow results. Popular limiters include focus on specific date limits (e.g., published in the past 5 years) or publication types (e.g., clinical trial, randomized controlled trial, systematic review). Often databases have other limiters, like article language, age groups, subject headings, and more. 
  • Note - limiting results based on "Text Availability" is not recommended - this can eliminate relevant results. If you do not have access to an article, you can request it through interlibrary loan. 

All information is not equal nor of the same quality. Therefore it is necessary to evaluate it. Evaluating information can range from basic to in depth. The higher the quality of evidence that is needed the more in-depth of an analysis should be used. For example:

There are a variety of tools to evaluate or appraise information. Select the from the options below the tool that best fits your information type:

• TRAAP Method: assess the time frame, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose. 
• Ask yourself:
  • Is the information current? Or if the source is older - will this still work?
  • Is the information relevant to your research question? Is it on topic?
  • Do the authors have the knowledge, experience, or authority to comment on this topic?
  • Is the information true and accurate? 
  • What is the purpose of the information? to sell you something? to inform? to entertain?

• SIFT Method: helpful tool to assess internet/Google search results.
• Take these steps:
  • Stop
  • Investigate the source
  • Find better coverage
  • Trace claims to the original source or context

• Think. Check. Submit. Checklist: these checklists provide guidance on determining if a specific journal title is potentially predatory.
• The steps include:
  • Think: Is this the right journal for your work? 
  • Check: Do you or your colleagues know this journal? Can you easily identify the publisher? Is the journal clear about the type of peer review it uses? Are the articles indexed and/or archived in dedicated services? 
  • Submit: If you have answered yes to most of the questions in the checklist you can move forward with submission.

Once you have gathered and evaluated the information - it is time to determine how best to apply or to utilize the information.

This includes:

• Interact with the information --> Allow the information to inform your decision.
  • Do not form an opinion or write the review prior to seeking out quality information.
• Synthesize the information --> Utilize multiple sources to create a well-rounded opinion.
  • Using multiple information sources will allow you to gain a more complete picture of your topic.
• Organize and track the information --> Use a citation manager to ensure sources are remembered and acknowledged (see Respect for more info).
  • The library supports Zotero and EndNote!

Using a synthesis table can help to gather and organize the pertinent information from each source.

*Enter notes in the cells that indicate how each source provides insight on each identified theme.

When using information that you did not create, you need to give credit to the creators. Not giving credit is commonly known as plagiarism.

UC's Student Code of Conduct defines plagiarism as:

• "Submitting another’s published or unpublished work in whole, in part, or in paraphrase, as one’s own without fully and properly crediting the author with footnotes, quotation marks, citations, or bibliographic references.
• Submitting as one’s own original work, material obtained from an individual, agency, or the internet without reference to the person, agency, or webpage as the source of the material. 
• Submitting as one’s own original work material that has been produced through unacknowledged collaboration with others without release in writing from collaborators.
• Submitting one’s own previously written, oral, or creative work without modification and instructor permission."

Citation managers help you to organize your information sources, correctly cite these within your research or document, easily create bibliographies, and hopefully reduce the chances of plagiarism. 

• Learn more about the citation managers the library supports.
• Learn more about preventing plagiarism.

Style Guides: these resources help you to accurately and correctly cite your sources.