Getting Started in Health Science Searching

Instead of trying to find "the best article", ask yourself:

• What do I need this information to DO for me? 
• What kind of information do I really need to get started? 
• What type of source would have that information?

When in doubt, Ask A Librarian! 

• Use the chat box in the left column of this guide to ask a librarian for help! If no one is available to chat live, your question will become an email, and will be answered when reference hours resume. 
• OR: You can use the contact info on the left side of this guide to contact the Health and Life Sciences Librarian directly.

Background Sources

These sources provide definitions, explanations, and other background information, sometimes assumed to be "common knowledge" in a field. Examples include clinical reference sources like NRCPlus, UpToDate, medical dictionaries, encyclopedias, and drug manuals. If you come across an acronym, drug name, treatment name, or other term you're not clear about, a Background source is where you look it up. In some disciplines, background sources are not cited. Health sciences are different, though, because it's assumed that the average person will need a lot of specialized background information to even begin to understand the scholarly conversation. If you're in doubt about whether you need to cite something, check with your professor or a librarian. 

Exhibits/Evidence Sources 

These sources provide the Evidence that you're using to back up the point you're making in your assignment. Depending on the type of assignment or paper, these sources can include: Practice guidelines, government documents, data sets from the CDC or other organizations, and data from studies published in peer-reviewed journals. Notice that peer-reviewed articles are not the only type of evidence you might use!

Argument

The purpose of these sources is to situate your paper or assignment within the scholarly conversation about your chosen topic. They provide context. Argument sources bring in the words of other authors that you are either agreeing with, building on, or arguing against. You'll bring in others' Arguments, then use your Evidence sources to show why you agree, or disagree, or what you'd add to the conversation. 

Methods 

Similar to Background sources, Method sources help you understand how researchers did what they did. These sources define and explain research procedures, techniques, theories, types of experiments or instruments used, etc. Peer-reviewed studies often explain these things in the "Methods" section of the article, but sometimes you will need to look up a method or term in a reference source. Some highly specialized articles will assume the reader knows hyper-specific methods that are unique to a given discipline. Don't be shy about looking things up! And remember to cite!

Derived from the BEAM framework, originally developed by Joseph Bizup in: Bizup, Joseph. "BEAM: A Rhetorical Vocabulary for Teaching Research-Based Writing." Rhetoric Review 27, no. 1 (2008): 72-86. doi:10.1080/07350190701738858