Searching MEDLINE through Ovid

http://www.library.uthscsa.edu Getting Started On campus, click the Ovid link in the Database menu. Off-campus, then click on the Log in from off-campus button on the Library home page. To Begin Your Search First, click on Continue on the Ovid News screen, and then click on the database name and access dates you wish to search. (TIP: Ovid MEDLINE allows a limited number of simultaneous users. If you receive a message that all licenses are in use, wait a few minutes and then try again.)

Searching Searching by Subject Heading Advanced Search is the best way to search Ovid. With Advanced, you can easily match your search term to a subject heading. Enter a word or phrase in the box and click Search. The box labeled Map Term to Subject Heading should be checked by default. This causes Ovid to match the term that you entered with a term in the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) OR to suggest possible terms if it cannot find an exact match. If a suitable term appears on the next screen, click on the underlined term to see the tree. Your term will be highlighted, and the tree screen will show you how your term is related in a hierarchy to terms which are broader or narrower than the term you entered. To see the Scope Note (or definition) for an explanation of the heading, click on the blue i symbol. Explode should be used to include the narrower concepts in your search. If you wish to retrieve only articles where the term (or terms) is one of the main points being discussed, also click in the Focus box to the right of the term. [Note: Explode and focusing are separate decisions. You can choose to do either, neither, or both.] Searching by Keyword or Textword (exact word or phrase appears in the title or abstract)

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If no suitable term appears in the list of term choices on the subject heading screen, click in the box to the left of the last option on that screen to perform a Keyword search, or Click on the Search Fields tab above the search box and select the title and abstract fields, or You may truncate your keyword search to find alternate word endings by using a $ (for any number of characters) or a ? (to find one or no additional characters).

Combining Result Sets Once at least two result sets have been created, you can combine the groups to find narrower results. Click in the box to the left of the sets you want to combine and choose AND or OR buttons. o Choose AND to require that all search terms be present in every item (this will decrease the amount of information retrieved), or o Choose OR to require at least one of the search terms in every result (this will increase the amount of information retrieved).

Limiting a Set Limits are found under the Search box. To see additional limits or add limits to the main screen, click Edit Limits or use Additional Limits to see all choices. Many frequently used limits, including those used to limit to humans, age group, English language articles, review articles, or only citations with abstracts, are available. After selecting one or more limit, click Search to limit the current set of results.

Full Text Articles Although the full text of articles is not available in MEDLINE, links to even more full text may be available based on Library journal subscriptions. Links are shown next to each citation. Ovid Full Text (when available) links take you to the PDF as provided by Ovid. HSC Link will check the Library e-journal collection and show you online access details.

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Managing Results As you find relevant article results in Ovid, check the box next to each article. With one or more boxes checked the Tools section allows you to manage the article results.

Print and Email create a list of references, either for printing or in your email. An option to format the article references is available in several citation styles. Export takes the selected references and exports to a selected format or bibliographic management tool such as EndNote or RefWorks.

Saving Searches and Results In order to save your work in Ovid, a Personal Account is required. At any time during a search, you can click My Account at the top of the page to sign in or create a personal Ovid account.

First time users of My Account will need to create a new account. If you previously had an Ovid Account, you can use your details to sign in or to get a password reminder. Once you sign into your account, you can save your search to your account by clicking the Save Search History button under the Search History section. A search strategy can be saved as temporary, permanent or with AutoAlert.

Temporary searches are saved for 168 hours and permanent searches are saved until you choose to remove the search from your account.

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AutoAlert AutoAlert creates an automatic search that sends you new results at a frequency you select. This is handy tool for ongoing research

Frequency of alert

How you want to get the results and what to include in the email.

Be sure to click Save when you have set your requirements.

My Workspace Once you have created a personal account in Ovid, you have the opportunity to use the My Workspace area. This area allows you to save results into project folders, find your AutoAlerts, set-up table of content emails, and a Toolbar that allows you to collect citations to journal articles, books, and websites from any online site. My Projects: create folders for your research projects and transfer individual references to the folder from search results My Searches & Alerts: space where you can permanently save search strategies and alerts My eTocs: Ovids table of contents email service where you can select a one or more journals and request notification of the new issues as they become available Install Toolbar: find the file for Firefox and Internet Explorer that allows you to save references from websites to your Ovid account

If you need more help, contact the Library Information Desk at askalibrarian@uthscsa.edu or call (210) 567-2450.

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