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Medical Education Research

The purpose of this guide is to help people who are new to medical education research find information that will help them get started on a project, learn about various research methodologies, and conduct an effective search of the education literature.

Your Library Liaison

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Nancy Adams
Contact:
E-mail me at nadams@pennstatehealth.psu.edu or call me directly at 717-531-8989.

Selecting a Journal for Your Publication

One-Pager on Searching the Literature

Look on Page 17 of Conducting Research in Health Professions Education for an excellent one-page primer on how to conduct a good literature search using library databases. 

Nancy Adams in Harrell Health Sciences Library: Research and Learning Commons can help you plan a more effective literature search. 

Search These Databases to Find Health Sciences Education Articles

If you are planning to do a systematic review, you may need to search other databases in addition to the ones listed below.  The library now offers a systematic review service--ask us how we can help!

You should begin your literature searching in PubMed (or OVID Medline, which is essentially the same information presented on a different platform). 

Search Terms to Use in PubMed

Increase your precision in searching PubMed for medical education literature by using these search links.  Add your own search terms to the search box on PubMed (using appropriate connectors such as AND and OR) to refine the search. You can also use them by copying and pasting the search terms, including quotation marks, into the PubMed search box.

Note that searching this way increases precision, but eliminates the most recently-published articles from your results, because new articles have not yet been tagged with MeSH terms (medical subject headings). Contact the library liaison pictured at the left for more information or help in doing a literature search.