Welcome to get acquainted with the information search process in health sciences with the help of this web-guide. The aim of this guide is to help you with seeking scientific information at its different stages, as well as with the use of information sources in the branch library of the Health Sciences.

Being familiar with the information sources, scientific publication channels and ways of retrieving information from your own scientific field is an important part of a research process. Seeking scientific information and its critical evaluation are also included in the concept of “information literacy.” Information literacy means the ability to recognize when information is required and then to locate it and retrieve it, as well as being able to critically and ethically evaluate the found information. (Recommendation to universities for including information literacy competency in the new degree structures) The whole process of information seeking will be addressed in the guide, and it will cover the areas of defining the required information, as well as how to search for, select, evaluate and acquire it. The actual process of information retrieval, that is, searching for information for example from databases, will be covered, beginning with the basics of information retrieval. Furthermore, the guide will introduce the essential information sources on Health Sciences that are available at the Tampere University Library.

The aim of this guide is to introduce you to ways you can search for and find source materials. The starting point of the structure of this guide is where to search for and how to proceed if you need information that can be found for instance in a book or in a journal article. The guide describes what ways there are to retrieve information and how to plan and carry out a search. It will also shed light on the basics of information retrieval, as well as on its concepts and techniques. Moreover, the guide will also discuss information sources, their evaluation and reference practices. Printed and electronic materials (the material on the web) will be introduced in context with the information sources. There are also other guides for writing and researching, which give you guidelines, pieces of advice and tips to support your research process. To mention a few, there are for example the Creative thesis writing : a guide to development and research work (LINNA 00 Hakala) and the Guide to writing empirical papers, theses, and dissertations (Electronic resource via NELLI-portal)

Other guides

• From the National Electronic Library (FinELib)  web pages you will find an educational package about information acquisition, in which the process of information acquisition is covered from the selection of an information source and defining the search terms, up to finding the material.
• Online Dictionary for Library and Information Science