VRSP: Foundations in Veterinary Research and Discovery

AVMA Standard 5, Information Resources. "Timely access to information resources and information professionals must be available to students and faculty at core training sites. The college shall have access to the human, digital, and physical resources for retrieval of relevant veterinary and supporting literature and development of instructional materials, and provide appropriate training for students and faculty. The program must be able to demonstrate, using its outcomes assessment data, that students are competent in retrieving, evaluating, and efficiently applying information through the use of electronic and other appropriate information technologies."

AVMA Standard 11, Outcomes Assessment #9: "critical analysis of new information and research findings relevant to veterinary medicine"

MU CVM expectations for CLO 9:
The graduate will perform a critical analysis of new information and research finding relevant to veterinary medicine.

The student can:

• prepare a question to address a knowledge gap and utilize appropriate resources to answer the question and knowledge gap,
• identify and compare available references,
• explain the differenences and clinical relevancy of references and findings,
• identify credible sources of knowledge and recognize potential conflict(s) of interest or author bias,
• integrate new knowledge into their practice of veterinary medicine.

ACRL (Association of College & Research Libraries) Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education

• Authority is constructed and contextual
• Information creation as a process
• Information has value
• Scholarship as conversation
• Searching as strategic exploration

Choose the right tool for the job

• What kind of information do you need? Background information or primary research?
  

Know Thy Resource

• What's included? What's not? How does it search?

Think before you search

• Break topics into concepts
• Think about your keywords, synonyms, alternate spellings

Searching is an iterative process

• There is no one perfect database (or one way to get to the information)
  
• That's why they call it re-search...

Keep Track of What You're Doing

• Take notes! Email yourself search results!
• Have a MyNCBI account to save your PubMed searches
• Consider using a citation manager like EndNote or Mendeley (coordinate with your mentor if you're writing manuscripts together!)
  • NOTE: DoIT has discontinued the EndNote license for students. Effective February 25, 2020, students can either register for the free web-based version of EndNote or purchase a personal copy from EndNote directly. Register for EndNote Basic or Purchase EndNote
  • More on citation managers

PubMed

• Access PubMed from the library’s home page to see the FindIt@MU information (i.e., don’t go straight to https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/)
• PubMed results default to Best Match. You can change to Most Recent or Publication Date in the Display Options.
• Most powerful searching: MeSH headings; Automatic Term Mapping (check the Details in Advanced Search); Related Articles
• Most current (updated daily)
• My NCBI account to set filters; save searches; create email alerts
• Find journal abbreviations via Journals in NCBI Databases
• TRY THIS: Look at the full PubMed record for the Diabetes article you read for the 4/16 session. How does the record compare to what you know about the article?

Scopus

• Includes times cited information
• Quickly see an article’s bibliography—can follow the FindIt@MU links from the bibliography
• Target potential journals for manuscript submission
• Scopus includes some journals that PubMed does not: Equine Veterinary Education; JVECC back to 1991 (PubMed starts in 2009); JAAHA back to 1973 (PubMed starts in 1995)
• TRY THIS: do an Author search of your mentor to see their work! In Scopus, click on the "Authors" radio button to switch to an author search--then search by name to see the Author's ScopusID page.  Examples: Craig Franklin | Chris Baines

Google Scholar

• Because Google Scholar often searches the full text of an article, it can be incredibly useful for finding particular methods and equipment (e.g., something that might not come up in keywords and abstracts -- parts of the bibliographic record that databases like PubMed and Scopus are searching)
• Google Scholar search tips
• DO THIS: Set your Google Scholar preferences to show the FindIt@MU button: go to the Scholar Settings; choose Library links; and search for University of Missouri Columbia – Findit@MU.

How to access our online resources:

• Use the links on the Zalk Library home page or from any Libraries page. These links have all been “proxied.” When you hit a subscribed resource, you’ll be asked to log-in with your SSO.
• Use the Journal Finder to get to specific journal titles. The Journal Finder will let you know which years are available electronically.
• Searching PubMed? Bookmark the “MU” PubMed link to be connected to FindIt@MU, the standard menu telling you if we have it in print, electronically, or via InterLibrary Loan.
• Set your Google Scholar settings to show the FindIt@MU link. In your GS results, you’ll see the FindIt@MU link along the right side or in the >> More info.
• Use VPN. VPN can be on the slow side, so it’s sometimes quicker to use the links on our home page and proxy in to the library resources.
• More information on Off-campus Access to Library Resources
• Note: If a journal is in our print collection or we don’t subscribe to it, “request a copy” on the FindIt@MU menu and we’ll get it for you.
• Don’t hesitate to email me if you just can’t track something down.
• Also remember that we have a a ton of ebooks you can get to from home.

Just for Fun