1. Guide to
Internet sources of information
Paula Funnell
p.a.funnell@qmul.ac.uk
Faculty Liaison Librarian
(Medicine and Dentistry)
www.library.

2. Categories of information resource
• Web search engines
• Electronic databases
• Clinical summaries

3. Web search engines
• Specifically ones which search across
a range of good quality internet
resources
• Several medicine specific search
engines
• Provide huge variety of results
• Beware quality of information.
– Is it evidence based?
– Has it been critically appraised?

4. Databases
• Vast collections of references of
published research
• Filters can be applied to narrow results
down
• Searches can be combined and saved
for future use
• References can be imported to EndNote

5. Clinical Summaries
• NOT source of primary research
• Evidence has been read and
summarised
• Information presented in a short
paragraph, or as little as a bullet point
• Up-to-date and accurate sources of
clinical knowledge

6. Categories of information resource
You have each been allocated a resource
from one of the different categories. Use
the worksheet to guide you in familiarising
yourself with the resource and be ready
to report back to the group about it.

7. Categories of information resource
Web search engines
Clinical Summaries
•
•
•
•
• Clinical Evidence
• Clinical Knowledge
Summaries
• Evidence Based Medicine
Google Scholar
Medline Plus
Evidence Search
Trip
Online Databases
• Medline (PubMed)
• Web of Science
• The Cochrane Library

8. Web search engines
• Specifically ones which search across
a range of good quality internet
resources
• Several medicine specific search
engines
• Provide huge variety of results
• Beware quality of information.
– Is it evidence based?
– Has it been critically appraised?

9. TRIP database
• One simple search box
• Results colour coded by format of
information found giving an at a glance
indication of quality of information
• Results vary widely - including primary
research, reviews, textbooks and news
www.tripdatabase.com

10. Google scholar
• Will generate more academic results
than Google
• Can be limited by date
• No indication of quality of information
http://scholar.google.co.uk

11. Medline Plus
• US National Institutes of Health's web
site for patients and their families and
friends
• Designed to provide up-to-date
healthcare information in
understandable language
• Also provides links to the latest
medical research www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/

12. Evidence Search
• Searches across all electronic
resources provided by NHS
• Results can be filtered
– Type of information
– Areas of interest
– Sources
www.evidence.nhs.uk

13. Databases
• Vast collections of references of
published research
• Filters can be applied to narrow results
down
• Searches can be combined and saved
for future use
• References can be imported to EndNote

14. The Cochrane Library
• High quality systematic reviews
• Full text of Cochrane review
• Abstracts of other systematic reviews
and clinical trials
www.thecochranelibrary.com

15. Medline (Pubmed)
• Pubmed is a search interface for Medline
• Database of references and abstracts of
journal articles
• Covers the broad field of biomedicine
• Special QM PubMed address for easier
full-text access
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?otool=igbqmullib

16. Web of science
• Part of ISI Web of Knowledge
• Contains:
– Science Citation Index
– Social Sciences Citation Index
– Arts and Humanities Citation Index
• Need to log in off campus
http://wok.mimas.ac.uk/

17. Clinical Summaries
• NOT source of primary research
• Evidence has been read and
summarised
• Information presented in a short
paragraph, or as little as a bullet point
• Up-to-date and accurate sources of
clinical knowledge

18. Clinical Knowledge Summaries
• Provides short bullet point lists of
information
• Accompanied with links to primary
research
• Covers common conditions managed in
primary care
http://cks.nice.org.uk/e

19. Clinical Evidence
• Current evidence-based reviews of
treatments (currently 260)
• Clinical information displayed in a
question and answer format
• Links to current evidence and
guidelines
• Additional links provided to patient
information and BNF www.clinicalevidence.com

20. Evidence-Based Medicine
• Experts critically appraise clinically
relevant articles
• Produce summaries of content
• Comment on clinical applicability
• Publishes articles relevant to study and
practice of EBM
ebm.bmj.com

21. Summary
• Use specialist search engines to
search across a wide range of good
quality web resources
• Use databases to find academic
research articles, both primary
research as well as review articles
• Use clinical summaries for a quick
overview of the best available evidence