Pharmacy

Literature searching may sound daunting, but there are so many tools at your disposal to make life easier. 

• To get started, we recommend you check out the e-book How to read a paper by Trisha Greenhalgh. This excellent resource will help you to understand why systematic searching and gathering good quality evidence is so important, and how you can build your own searches and protocols to do it really well.
• Second, work through the 'Searching biomedical databases' below. This will introduce you to boolean search logic and the specific interfaces of several key biomedical databases.
• Next, check out the 'Biomedical database guides' box on this page. Here you will find lots more detail on how to use the most important biomedical databases: Embase, IPA, MEDLINE, PubMed & Web of Science.
• After that, think about your own research project.  Break down your topic area into key research components. The more specific you can be, the better. Also think about synonyms and abbreviations.
• Finally, try searching. Once you have selected your databases and finalised your protocol, navigate to the Pharmacy A-Z databases page and have a go. Searching is about experimentation, so don't worry if it takes you a few gos to get the hang of it. Remember, you can always contact us if you need more help.

Struggling to get it right or can’t find a solution? Contact us.

We can resolve simple queries over email and arrange virtual individual or group tutorials to troubleshoot problems or run through the finer details of specific databases.

For help and to make an appointment, email the SoP Library team - please include as much detail about your needs as possible.

Follow this link to see a full list of Pharmacy research methods books.