Evidence-based dental practice: searching the literature and writing a report

Each database provides 'save search' or 'RSS' features in order to document your search, and so that you do not have to repeat it each time you access the database. Using a citation management software will also help keeping track of: 

• Databases searched

• Dates

• Subject headings or Keywords

• Search history (how terms combined)

• Search results

Commonly used citation management software at UofT are: Refworks and EndNote Web 

For more online tutorials for RefWorks, please check RefWorks YouTube Channel.

For more on-line tutorials for EndNote Web, please check EndNote Web YouTube Channel.

A citation tells you all information you need to find an article.

At UofT there are several ways to get articles once you have done a literature review:

1) Directly from the article database. Sometimes clicking on the title of the articles will bring you to the full records, which has 'full-text' link: it can be Get It! button or PDF button or full-text button from publisher. Different databases may have different full-text buttons.

2) From a search engine like Google. Some students prefer to copy and paste the article title in Google to get to the UofT Libraries full-text. However, in order to easily access full online text articles, you may want to configue the Google Scholar Preferencesto make the "Get it! UTL" function to work with Google scholar.

3) Through the library catalogue by searching for the article title or Journal Name, then clicking on the correct link.

In LibrarySearch, search for the article title in quotes, or search for the journal title to see if our library owns it or not. If you only have the abbreviation of the journal title, you can check Journals Database (PubMed) to get the full journal title.

Here is the shortcut to check whether or not our library owns the journal.

If you can NOT find the journal you want in Library Catalogue, use Interlibrary Loan/Document Delivery service provided by the Library.