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Medicine subject guide: Effective searching and referencing

Subject Guide - help and guidance on finding resources in your subject area

Quick PICO search using Ovid databases

This widget allows you to quickly search using the PICO structure for clinical questions. To find out more about PICO visit our guide.

Select Ovid Database:
P: Patient, Population, Problem or disease
    who are the patients, what is the problem
I: Intervention or Issue
    what we do to them, what are they exposed to
C: Comparison intervention or issue
    what do we compare the intervention with
O: Outcome
    what happens, what is the outcome


Effective searching and referencing

Formulating an answerable search question is essential to finding the best evidence for your topic. You can use the PICO framework to help you structure your search question and enable you to find the information you need. PICO is a method of searching for evidence, commonly used within health and medicine. It helps to break down a clinical scenario and turn it into a clinical question.

Visit the 'Formulating a search question' guide for more information.

  • It is  easy to be overwhelmed by the sheer breadth of information available to you.  
  • Invest time in planning an effective online search strategy so that you can quickly and easily discover relevant and high quality information. 

 

As you search you need to keep track of all the material you will be using in your academic work so that you can cite and reference it appropriately.

Top Tip

Always check your module handbook for specific departmental guidance on the style required for your assessed works and dissertations.  Check with your personal tutor or dissertation supervisor if you need clarification.

For more guidance take a look at:

 

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