Public Health

The techniques described in this section will enable you to quickly retrieve relevant information from a database.

Start by thinking about the following:

Formulating your topic - it is important to develop your research question in a way that is not so narrow that you will get few/no results, yet not so broad that there is too much information and it is difficult to manage the number of results. Keep in mind that as you search, your topic might evolve. 

Think in terms of search terms - how can you break your topic down into key words or concepts?

• Keep in mind: synonyms, alternate spellings, and related terms
• Your search should consist only of your search terms, do not include full sentences and leave out words like a, and, the, in, on, of, which, etc unless they are a part of one of your search terms. 

Use database filters - Any database you use will have filters you can use to hone your search. These usually include filters for date ranges, language, study or resource type, topics and subjects, journal. etc.

Field searching - consider entering your search term in a specific field. For example, search the title or the abstract if you want your search terms to appear in the title of a work and/or it's abstract. You can also search for a specific author.

Boolean operators AND, OR, and NOT can be used to connect your search terms and define the relationship between them.

Using AND to connect your search terms will lead to results that contain both terms. Think of it as searching for all the terms.

Using OR to connect your search terms will lead to results that contain either term. This is good for including synonyms in your search, such as teenagers OR youth. Think of it as searching for any of the terms.

Using NOT to connect your search terms will lead to results that exclude the following word. Think of it as eliminating a certain term from the search results.

I recommend downloading Libkey Nomad before starting your research. This browser extension checks publisher sites for City College access. It combines information about CCNY e-journal holdings, authentication and article linking to deliver one-click access to PDF and HTML articles.

Below are some tips for formulating your search. These techniques will allow you to hone your database searches to get as close to what you're looking for as possible.

These are steps you can take to find a specific article for which you have a citation.

• Search for the article in OneSearch. If the article is accessible, it may come up in the results. However, OneSearch does not pull from 100% of the databases we offer, so there is a chance it may not. Please see above for details on OneSearch.
• Search for the journal the article is published in. If we have access to the journal, the results will show the various databases through which you can search or browse that specific journal. Please see above for details on journal searching.
• Use PubMed's Single Citation Matcher feature.

Below is where you would find the journal in a typical AMA style citation:

Crosby JC, Heimann MA, Burleson SL, et al. COVID-19: A review of therapeutics under investigation [published online ahead of print, 2020 Apr 19]. J Am Coll Emerg Physicians Open. 2020;10.1002/emp2.12081. doi:10.1002/emp2.12081

Journal names are abbreviated. This is the Journal of the American College of Emergency Physicians Open. 

Don't forget that if the article is not available, you can request it via ILL.