The quickest way to find articles on a specific topic is by searching a relevant database.
The University Library subscribes to hundreds of databases, but we recommend the ones listed below as a starting point for students and researchers.
Some provide only citations for articles, so look for Article Link to connect you to the fulltext, or try one of the methods described in the column on the right to access a copy.
If you need to bulk export records from a database, check these steps first.
Critical Appraisal Checklists
Critical appraisal skills enable you to systematically assess the trustworthiness, relevance, quality and consistency of results in published papers. Select the critical appraisal checklist matching the research paper's study design, from these sites:
Evaluating and thinking critically about sources of information are important skills to develop and apply while undertaking research.
Not all information is reliable and appropriate for academic work, and not all information is relevant to your particular topic.
You should challenge and reflect on information that you find; don’t just accept everything you read.
Work through this tutorial to develop your skills in evaluating information that you find online:
Or apply these terms to assess if the information you have found answers your research question.
Currency
Reliability
Authority
Purpose/Point of view
Work through this tutorial to develop your skills in evaluating information that you find online:
SIFT - Evaluating Information Tutorial
Even though the library databases are good sources of information, we still need to evaluate that information before we decide to use it. You can do this by asking the following questions:
For more information and resources, check out the ‘Evaluating information: additional resources’ box at the bottom of this page.
OVID offers a range of training videos at https://tools.ovid.com/ovidtools/videos.html e.g.
MEDLINE (18:11 min)
Ovid TermFinder (3:55 min)
Advanced Search: Keyword Searching (3:58 min)
Advanced Search: Mapping (4:32 min)
Managing Search Results (8:47 min)
Refining Search Strategy with Limits (2:59 min)
Embase (24:39 min)
Try these steps:
Try these options:
Set up alerts to authors, search topics, journal articles, books, chapters, journal table of contents, and combinations of these.
Use the database functions once registered for an account or profile. More tips in our Keeping up-to-date with research guide.
These tutorials are designed to provide a basic introduction to searching the databases.