Google Scholar

Are you a Googler? Do you Google at least a few times a day? Do you use Google as a tool to locate medical information? This is not necessarily bad as long as you follow up and confirm your findings in a more trusted (e.g., edited) source such as DynaMed, eMedicine, MEDLINE, etc. In fact, using Google can often uncover “gray literature” such as conference proceedings, technical reports and white papers that are NOT found in the traditional medical databases. But, if you do use Goggle for medical purposes, it’s always best to use the version of Google known as Google Scholar. Google Scholar searches the Internet specifically for research-oriented online materials. And, if you access Google Scholar from the quick links list on the Lamar Soutter Library’s web site, you will search a version that includes links to our full text when available (as well citation-related information). But remember, Google Scholar, like regular Google, posts results based on their ranking system as opposed to most recent or subject-relative like MEDLINE and other medical databases so what you find may be good but may not be the latest or the best.

TRIP

Try using TRIP (Turning Research into Practice) to help you answer your clinical questions. TRIP is a free evidence based medicine resource committed to delivering high quality clinical information. TRIP searches for evidence as well as core journals if you select a specialty to search. Take a look at “EBM Links” and “search help”. The url is: http://www.tripdatabase.com/index.html.