• Go to a reputable database such as PubMed, which is a public database funded by the United States National Library of Medicine and National Institutes of Health
    • You can use the PICO method to formulate a specific question you want to find out more about
      • P: patient, population, or problem
      • I: intervention
      • C: comparison
      • O: outcome
    • If you are on a news or social media website reporting on a recent study finding, see you if you can find the title of or direct link to the original article
  • Type keywords into the search box
    • Connect keywords
      • Use “AND” to search for articles that mention both keywords
      • Use “OR” to search for articles that mention either keyword
    • If you have the full title or PubMed ID unique to each article, you can also enter that into the search box
  • After clicking “Search,” a list of articles will appear
    • The article titles, authors, and journal information appear in the search results
  • You can use the “Filter” feature on the left sidebar to narrow down articles
    • Examples include filtering by “Article Type” and “Publication Type”
  • Click on an article that interests you
    • This will take you to the Abstract, which is free
    • If the Abstract continues to interest you, check if you have free access to the full article (labeled in PubMed as “Free PMC Article”)
      • You can also visit the journal website directly (click on the DOI link) to check if it provides free access
        • Some journals are Open Access, which provides free access to readers
      • Some academic institutions and libraries provide their members with free access to articles
      • Some articles are freely available on the internet; websites such as Unpaywall legally provide millions of scholarly articles for free
    • Articles can be read directly on the website or saved as PDF

Congratulations! You finished the guide. Now, let’s do some practice.

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