FINDING RESEARCH EVIDENCE STUDENT HANDOUT 4 Search Resources There are four main types of electronic search options that can be used to access search resources: search engines, databases, retrieval systems, and Web sites. Please note there is some overlap between types of research resources and search options. For example, some Web sites function as both a database and a search engine. • Search engines such as Google are designed to quickly gather and report information from the Internet. They are searchable by word or topic and present a list of links to Web sites containing the word or topic searched. • Databases are an organized and searchable collection of records, including journals and books, which can be accessed electronically. Databases provide various services, including retrieval of abstracts, bibliographies, and full-text articles. • Retrieval systems are a collection of databases, usually grouped by subject (e.g., sociology, humanities, medicine). Searches are able to access thousands of resources, with multiple databases being searched simultaneously. Some databases and retrieval systems may be searched for no cost, while others require a subscription (usually obtained by universities). • Web sites are interconnected pages or documents that are available via the Internet and can be written by a person, group, or organization. The following is a list of search engines, databases, retrieval systems, and Web sites that social work students may find particularly useful to inform social work evidence-based practice. Those search options denoted by $ are ones that require a subscription and that students may want to check with their school library to see if they have access to. Search Engines and Databases Name Description Link World Wide Web Resources for Social Workers The World Wide Web Resources for Social Workers is specifically designed for social workers to use in their search for information on the Internet. It acts as both a database and a search engine. http://www.nyu.edu/socialwork/wwwrsw/ PubMed PubMed is a service provided by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and contains more than 14 million biomedical literature citations from 1950 to the present. Empirical research can be found in the fields of medicine, nursing, preclinical sciences, and the health care system, and can be browsed by keywords, journal titles, and authors. PubMed provides bibliographic citations and abstracts and often has links to full-text articles for which there may or may not be a charge. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed Social Work SWAB is hosted by the National http://www.naswpress.org/publications/joFINDING RESEARCH EVIDENCE STUDENT HANDOUT 4 Search Engines and Databases Name Description Link Abstracts ($) Association of Social Workers and includes abstracts from more than 400 international and domestic academic journals. This database accesses empirical research on social welfare, crime, psychology, child welfare, mental health, health care, substance abuse, and public health. SWAB covers social work and human services topics from 1977 to the present. urnals/abstracts/swabintro.html Educational Resources Information Center ERIC is a database hosted by the U.S. Department of Education and has more than 1 million education-related abstracts of documents and journal articles. It includes searchable resources from 1966 to the present. http://www.eric.ed.gov PsycINFO ($) PsycINFO is provided by the American Psychological Association and includes resources from the 1800s to the present. It contains thousands of psychological abstracts from peer-reviewed journals and books. http://www.apa.org/psycinfo/ Ingenta Ingenta provides access to more than 28,000 professional and academic journals and contains both abstracts and full-text articles. It covers a broad range of fields, including, biology, medicine, humanities, economics, psychology, and social sciences. http://www.ingenta.com/ Combined Health Information Database CHID is sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and health-related agencies of the U.S. Government. It provides abstracts for health information and health education resources and covers 12 topics, including HIV/STDs, Alzheimer’s disease, maternal and child health, and weight control. Information can be accessed from 1985 to the present. http://www.chid.nih.gov SocioFile ($) (only available through a library subscription) Sponsored by the American Sociological Association, SocioFile provides sociological abstracts and citations from more than 2,000 journals from 1974 to the present. Access through library subscription JSTOR ($) JSTOR provides access to full-text articles in more than 300 scholarly journals. It includes the fields of arts and sciences, business, ecology, math, law, and music. http://www.jstor.org Social Sciences Social Science Citation Index allows http://www.isinet.com/products/citation/ssFINDING RESEARCH EVIDENCE STUDENT HANDOUT 4 Search Engines and Databases Name Description Link Citation Index for searches of more than 1,700 social science journals. It includes bibliographic citations and abstracts. Resources are available from 1972 to the present. ci/ Health and Psychosocial Instruments ($) (only available through a library subscription) HaPI contains resources that evaluate and identify measures used in health and psychosocial research. There are citations and abstracts on personality tests, research methods, health studies, and psychological studies. Information available dates back to 1985. Access through library subscription Computer Retrieval of Information on Scientific Projects CRISP contains federally funded biomedical research being conducted at universities, hospitals, and other research organizations. It is provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in conjunction with NIH. CRISP is useful in identifying current research trends, key experts in the field, scientific concepts, and examining specific studies. http://www.crisp.cit.nih.gov Google Scholar Google Scholar searches resources across many disciplines and sources: peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts, and articles from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities, and other scholarly organizations. It attempts to rank and sort articles based on the full text of the article, the author, the publication in which the article appears, and how often the