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