This tutorial takes you through the process of creating an effective search strategy for the Medline database and gives you an opportunity to have a go at completing a search. It also covers some of the general search principles and techniques you can use with any database.

You may be familiar with searching other databases already, so hopefully some of the more general information will act as a refresher. However, Medline has a number of search features that you may not have come across in other databases.

You can come back to the tutorial at any time if you need a reminder about searching.

Good luck!

Tutorial aims and learning outcomes.

Aim:

To improve your understanding of the literature searching process specifically in relation to Medline.

Learning outcomes.

At the end of this tutorial you will:

• understand the importance of bibliographic databases
• be able to create an effective search strategy
• be able to use and apply a range of different search features
• be able to implement some advanced search techniques
• have completed a search and found some results

Completing the tutorial.

There are a number of quizzes throughout this tutorial. They are intended for you to check your progress and will not be assessed. The Big Medline Quiz at the end covers all of the skills you will learn during this tutorial.

The Searching Medline section allows you to complete a live Medline search. This section of the tutorial will only work if you are using the Firefox or Chrome browser. Click to download and install Firefox or Chrome.

When you have answered all of the questions in a quiz, click on the View Feedback button and scroll down to receive feedback on your responses. Then click on Exit Quiz to clear your results. Click on Next page at the top or bottom of the page to move to next section.

Click here to start the tutorial. You can skip to a specific section of the tutorial by clicking on the Show All link at the top of the page.