Haig Alex, Dozier Marshall
NHS Education for Scotland, Edinburgh, UK.
Med Teach. 2003 Jul;25(4):352-63. doi: 10.1080/0142159031000136815.
Searching for evidence to inform best practice in medical education is a complex undertaking. With very few information sources dedicated to medical education itself, one is forced to consult a wide range of often enormous sources--and these are dedicated to either medicine or education, making a medical education search all the more challenging. This guide provides a comprehensive overview of relevant information sources and methods (including bibliographic databases, grey literature, hand searching and the Internet) and describes when they should be consulted. The process of constructing a search is explained: identifying and combining core concepts, using Boolean algebra and search syntax, limiting results sets, and making best use of databases' controlled vocabularies. This process is illustrated with images from search screens and is followed by numerous examples designed to reinforce skills and concepts covered. The guide has been developed from the ongoing experience gained from the systematic searches conducted for the Best Evidence Medical Education Collaboration, and concludes by looking ahead to initiatives that will shape future searching for medical education evidence.
寻找医学教育最佳实践的证据是一项复杂的工作。由于专门针对医学教育本身的信息来源极少，人们不得不查阅大量通常规模庞大的资料来源——而这些资料来源要么专注于医学，要么专注于教育，这使得医学教育搜索更具挑战性。本指南全面概述了相关信息来源和方法（包括书目数据库、灰色文献、手工检索和互联网），并说明了何时应查阅这些来源。文中解释了构建搜索的过程：识别和组合核心概念、使用布尔代数和搜索语法、限制结果集以及充分利用数据库的控制词汇。文中通过搜索屏幕的图像对这一过程进行了说明，并随后给出了大量示例，旨在强化所涵盖的技能和概念。本指南是根据为最佳证据医学教育合作组织进行的系统搜索所积累的持续经验编写而成，并通过展望将塑造未来医学教育证据搜索的举措来结束全文。
