Physician Associate Studies

This page will help you get more out of your Library resources for your assignments, projects and dissertations in Physician Associate Studies

Independent Research - getting started

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How to identify different sources of information and links to useful books and ebooks.

For some assignments, our Discovery Service will give you enough sources to work with. Sometimes you may want to try specific databases or journals - perhaps your lecturer has recommended particular names as a good way of finding articles. This page lists key sources for your course.

• Developing advanced search strategies

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How to search systematically for literature. From the initial stages of understanding your vocabulary to using advanced features in databases.

• CINAHL 

fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

What:

  • CINAHL (the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature) contain journal article abstracts with links to the full-text where available

Why:

  • Locate articles from the nursing and allied health subjects

How:

  • Keyword and Thesaurus searching with ability to refine results by date, peer reviewed, age, gender, author, language
  • Cited reference search and links
  • Help pages available
  • This database is available to search on its own from the link above, plus you will find Cinahl results when searching Discovery

Using CINAHL/MeSH Subject Headings 

 


What:

  • The Cochrane Library is a collection of databases that contain high-quality, independent evidence to inform healthcare decision-making and is the leading source to support evidence based practice

Why:

  • Locate systematic reviews, clinical trials and find abstracts of economic evaluations of health care interventions.

How:

  • Keyword and Thesaurus searching with ability to refine results by database searched;
    • The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
    • The Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects,
    • The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials
    • The Cochrane Methodology Register
    • Health Technology Assessment Database
    • NHS Economic Evaluation Database.
  • Help pages available 

 


What

  • A variant of Google that searches for academic literature

Why

  • Provides access to articles, books, conference papers and preprints
  • Links to Full-text @ Portsmouth where available when settings are applied

How

  • Simple or advanced searching allowing refinement by date, author etc
  • A Library Guide to this resource is available

• Medline 

fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

What

  • Medline contain journal article abstracts with links to the full-text where available

Why

  • Subjects covered include veterinary medicine, pharmacy, allied health, and pre-clinical sciences. Plus life sciences, including some aspects of biology, marine biology, plant and animal science as well as biophysics and chemistry.

How

  • Keyword and Thesaurus searching with ability to refine results by date, article type, age, gender, author, language
  • Help pages available
  • This database is available to search on its own from the link above, plus you will find Medline results when searching Discovery.

fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

The NIHR (National Institute of Health Research) Journals Library provides full publication and open access to an extensive body of health research. It comprises a suite of five programme-specific journal series, published online, which are fully searchable and provide a comprehensive record of work funded by these NIHR programmes.


fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

What:

  • PDF Full text access to journal articles from the America Psychological Association
  • Articles dating from 1894-present

Why:

  • Find and access subject related articles for assignments, presentations and dissertations

How:

  • Keyword and Thesaurus searching with ability to refine results by date, document type, age, gender, author, language
  • Help pages available
  • This database is available to search on its own from the link above, plus you will find PsycArticle articles when searching Discovery.

• PsycInfo 

fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

What:

  • PsycInfo contain journal article abstracts with links to the full-text where available

Why:

  • Locate articles from the psychological, social, behavioural, and health sciences subject areas. Useful for those looking for materials related to psychiatry, management, business, education, social science, neuroscience, law, medicine, and social work

How:

  • Keyword and Thesaurus searching with ability to refine results by date, peer reviewed, age, gender, author, language
  • Cited reference search and links
  • Help pages available
  • This database is available to search on its own from the link above, plus you will find PsycArticle articles when searching Discovery

• PubMed 

PubMed comprises millions of citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher websites


• Scopus 

What:

  • Scopus is the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature: scientific journals, books and conference proceedings. 

Why:

  • This database can be searched by keywords to find relevant articles. It is also possible to perform a cited reference search allowing you to snowball through the literature to find articles using citations. 

How:

 


• SocINDEX 

fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

A key source for tracking down articles across the social sciences. This database is available on the EBSCO platform allowing you to search this database alongside others within Discovery.


fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

The TRIP Database is a clinical search engine designed to allow clinicians to quickly find answers to their clinical questions using the best available evidence. The TRIP Database started in 1997 as a result of the work of the founders in answering clinical questions. They recognised that searching multiple websites separately for relevant information was time-consuming. The creation of the TRIP Database allowed the simultaneous searching of multiple sites, hence speeding up the question answering process


fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

What:

  • Web of Science - part of the Web of Knowledge collection of databases - consists of a number of databases containing information gathered from thousands of scholarly journals, books, book series, reports and conferences.

Why:

  • This database can be searched by keywords to find relevant articles.  It is also possible to perform a cited reference search allowing you to snowball through the literature to find articles using citations.

How:

Additional access instructions:

For off campus access use this link

 

• Statistics

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Links to databases and online sources of statistics

Referencing

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Guidance and support for referencing in APA7 and links to information on reference management software

Your Subject Team

 Hannah Britcher

Faculty Librarian

email hannah.britcher@port.ac.uk

 Marie Smith

Assistant Faculty Librarian

email Marie.smith@port.ac.uk