Searching the Medical Literature

SEARCHING THE MEDICAL LITERATURE

ASSESSMENT Q1. When is a factual search used?

Q2. Which of the following hypothetical results is most likely to be retrieved after entering the following search statement? postoperative AND (pneumonia AND development)

TERMS RESULTS postoperative 3,544 pneumonia 964 development 16,957

a) less than 1000 b) between 1001 and 5000 c) more than 5001

Q3. Write a Boolean search statement that will retrieve articles containing all of the following terms: chronic pain, local anaesthetics, toxicity

Q4. Searching PubMed, for the period 1 March 2003 to 30 September 2003, how many items are found on gene therapy?

Q5. What layer of knowledge must a searcher have to enter queries as specific search statements?

Q6. Searching PubMed, how many items are found for the author C. Hu in 2004?

Q7. Write a Boolean search statement that will retrieve articles containing any of the following terms: anaesthesia, pain management, adults

Q8. The MeSH subheading, levobupivacaine, was introduced in the PubMed database in 1999. a) True b) False

Q9. How many language options are available using PubMed’s Limits?

Q11. When would you use the citation pearl growing search strategy?

Q12. What PubMed field tag is used when searching for a substance?

Q13. Search PubMed for articles that contain the term ambulatory anaesthesia in the title. How many results are there for the year 1998?

Q14. Write down an example of a nested search statement containing three terms.

Q15. On what page does the article assigned PubMed’s 16361440 [PMID] begin?

Q16. What search strategy can be used to increase a small set of results?

Q17. Which of the following hypothetical results is most likely to be retrieved after entering the following search statement? (pain management OR (therapy OR treatment))

TERMS RESULTS pain management 422 therapy 6,489 treatment 7,524

a) less than 600 b) between 601 and 7,500 c) more than 7,501

Q18. What option on PubMed’s Features Bar can be used to display previous searches?

Q19. What is the second step to complete when implementing an effective search methodology?

Q20. What is PubMed’s Details used for?