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Gerstein Science Information Centre

Searching the Literature: A Guide to Comprehensive Searching in the Health Sciences

Students and researchers in the health sciences are often required to conduct comprehensive searches of the literature. Follow the steps in this guide to learn how this process works.

Medline Video Tutorials

This series of quick, simple screencasts is designed to guide you through searching comprehensively in Medline.

INSTRUCTIONS: 
- These screencasts are best watched in Maximized view in higher quality (low quality will be fuzzy)
- After you press play, click on the [ ] symbol in the bottom-right-hand corner of the player.
- Hit ESC on your keyboard to minimize the player when you are finished viewing the screencast. 

NOTE: Because screencasts capture the full monitor view, you will be able to see the narrator's clock, taskbars, and Chrome browser buttons (including the red X used to close Chrome). This may be confusing, especially for PC users. 


1. Introduction to Medline

2. Searching with Subject Headings (AKA MeSH)

3. Searching with Textwords

4. Improving Textword Searching

5. Combining Search Lines

6. Using the NOT Operator

7. Using Search Filters

8. Saving Searches

 

This work is openly licensed via CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. For information on this guide contact Erica Nekolaichuk, Faculty Liaison & Instruction Librarian at the Gerstein Science Information Centre.