MEDS 361 Applied Psychophysiology and Self-Regulation.: Research Best Practices

Your class assignment: find "peer-reviewed published papers (clinical research and meta-analyses) in support of biological, social, and psychological interventions  for a wide range of medical problems. Craft an idealized and integrated biopsychosocial treatment plan for an individual with a given health condition."

• The best research papers are those labeled research papers or data journal articles in databases. These type of papers provide the original research data. 
• Systematically reviewed research papers are even better.  These are journal articles with original research data being reviewed again, to double check if published methods/data are repeatable and accurate.
• The Cochrane group is one example of an organization that systematically reviews originally published research papers.  This is a slower process so your health condition may not be a topic found yet in the Cochrane Database. In that case use the Pubmed database and other library databases. 
• When conducting a search with GoogleScholar or in a database you can combine  the words "systematic reviews" or "meta analysis" with your keywords, to refine your search results.

Where to search: library databases, use Google Scholar with Library's MORE/more@rit apps,  Summon-Library webpage search box

Keyword selection: Journal article authors and databases dictate which keywords should be used to index the subject in journal articles so readers can find the journal articles.

Keyword search strategy:  PICO Think it out before you type using PICO.

P         are you researching a specific population or patient or medical problem or all 3 characteristics?

I           are you looking for a method or process used in biological, social, and psychological interventions.

C          are you looking for journal articles that provide comparisons?

O         what type of outcome/output are you looking ?integrated bio-psycho-social treatment plan

• The library will not have all cited journals so to get the full text copy of an article contact IDS the interlibrary loan department who will get journal articles from other libraries for you for free.

• Always feel free to contact me your CHST librarian - Dr. Boateng (aabwml@rit.edu) for assistance. You can also click on the Get Help box in this guide.