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Diagnostic Medical Sonography (Ultrasound): Research process

This page contains various resources to help students research and locate relevant information needed to complete assignments for your program, and help you to succeed in your studies.

1. Preparation is very important. Think about the key concepts and synonyms relevant to your topic.

Find Ideas for your topic from:

  • Class discussions or readings
  • Current events and news reports
  • Articles in journals and trade publications
  • Gaps in published research
  • What interests you

Gain broad understanding of your topic 

  • Become more familiar with the topic
  • Define &/or Identify common terms and language
  • Provide context and identify differing perspectives
  • Narrow your focus on subjects within the topic
  • Identify experts &/or theories related to the topic 

Watch the video Picking Your Topic IS Research!, from the NC State University Libraries

2. Searching for background information:

  • Provides information to answer broad, general questions and enhances your understanding of it, within the larger scope of the discipline.
  • Helps identify important facts -- terminology, dates, events, history, organizations, etc.
  • Helps refine/narrow your topic based on the new information you are learning.
  • Leads to bibliographies which provide additional sources of information.

Knowing where to search is just as important as knowing how to search.  

The publication types below, with links to the search tools, contain different types of information on different academic levels. 

1.    Open Web: 
(online encyclopedias and dictionaries, professional organizations’ sites, universities’ and colleges’ sites, and government sites)

2.    Article Databases: 

Reference books include encyclopaedias, handbooks, dictionaries, bibliographies and directories. Use them to define terms, or find topic overviews. These books will help you get familiarized with your topic. Find more by searching the library catalogue.

 Encyclopedias:

 To save time, use encyclopedias in the early stages of the research process!

The condensed articles give good topic overview and context for your later research. Perusing an encyclopedia will offer keywords 

that will focus on your topic and that you can use in database searches.

 Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia

 The Gale Encyclopedia of Nursing & Allied Health

 MedlinePlus includes an Encyclopedia. 

 Mosby's dictionary of medicine, nursing & health professions.   R 121 M89 2022

 Wikipedia (use with caution). Use it for a very general overview of your topic and for its list of References or Further Readings at the end of the essay.

 Dictionaries:

 Visual Thesaurus -- allows you to try 3 "visual searches" for free; it is subscription based. It creates word maps.

 Wordnik -- online dictionary that integrates visualization tools, social media, etc. 

 Handbook at the BCIT Library: 

 Current medical diagnosis & treatment     RC 71 A14 2021

 

3. Identify research concepts and alternative terms

  1. State what you need in a sentence.
  2. Select keywords from your statement.
  3. Use these keywords as search terms.
  4. If searching a phrase, enclose the phrase in "quotation marks" -- "verbal communication". 
  5. Use truncation * , if relevant -- example: sonogra* (it will include results that refer to sonography, sonographer, sonogram); imag*. 

Ultrasound therapy for pancreatic cancer patients.

Brainstorming Keywords The words you type into the search box affect your search results. Not all authors use the same language to describe similar topics, so you will need to try a variety of searches.

  • Create a list of possible words that could appear in a book or article related to your topic of interest.
  • Come up with synonyms or related terms for those.
  • Stick to using 2-4 nouns when searching.

Concepts

  

Synonyms
 pancreatic cancer 

OR

 “pancrea* cancer” or “pancrea* tumo?r” 
 high intensity focused ultrasound   OR   HIFU or "ultrasound therapy"        

4. Search on FIRST SEARCH to see what is available on the topic and to identify other terms: Ultrasound for pancreatic cancer 

Click on image above to make it larger. First Search will open in a new tab.

                        

5. Search on a Database: CINAHL (other databases to search: MEDLINE; Cochrane)

Limiters – date and language and peer review

Click on image above to make it larger. The database will open in a new tab.

  BIAS

Are you aware of your bias (inclination or prejudice) toward the topic you choose? 

Bias will affect how you formulate the question, where you look for information, and what articles you include in your work. 

Are you selecting sources which confirm your belief and are you disregarding any contradictory evidence or dissenting opinion?

 Please, watch this video on Recognizing and Avoiding Bias