Research Strategies for DHG100
at the Montgomery County Community College Libraries
Objectives - By the end of this assignment, the student will:
Identify PubMed (Medline) as the appropriate database for finding research.
Successfully search PubMed for a professional journal article.
Identify the characteristics of a scholarly or professional journal.
Find and evaluate a website for professional use.
PART 1: Finding current research in your field
To locate journal articles in the field of dental hygiene, you will use PubMed. PubMed is a database that searches thousands of medical, bioscience, and dental journals.
To access PubMed, login to the MyMC3 student portal on the Click Find Articles & More. Click the link for Nursing-Dental-Health. Then scroll down to select PubMed.
Type your search into the search box. When searching PubMed, use as few words and be as specific as possible. If your first search is unsuccessful, try to think of another term to use, or, use a broader term.
In the results of your search, click on the Montgomery County Community College Libraries link. For this assignment, you will need to physically look at a dental journal in print in the library. In the future, or in completing an assignment for another class, you may want to use the Dental Journals link, which will also show you articles that you could order via the library.
Click on an article to read the summary and tomake sure that it has the print collection symbol showing on the right-hand side of the page: You will be finding the journal in which this article appears in the library, so it must be in the library’s Print Collection.
Write down or print out the title of the article, the title of the journal, and the month, year, issue and volume, and page numbers. You will use this information to locate the journal and article in the library. Since the journals must be used in the library and cannot be checked out, plan to spend time reading, reviewing and photocopying needed information.
PART 2: Locating your journal and article
Use the citation information for your article to locate the journal that you need in the library. The journals are located on level 3 of the Library in the Periodicals section. Please ask us for help in finding them!
The journal you select is the journal that you will use for your journal review assignment.
PART 3: Strategies for Finding and Evaluating Professional-level Websites
Search within government or university websites. Conduct an advanced Google search which allows you to facet your search in several ways. Go to Google and type your search term(s) into the search box. Click enter. Then click on thelittle wheel, as shown,
and select the Advanced Searchlink.
This will bring up a detailed advanced search box shown on the right above. Where it says “Search within a site or domain”, type .gov .edu or .org (choose just one.) Facet your search in other ways, as needed.
You can also conduct a simple site search as follows:
Site:.edu “air polishing”
You can also search within a trusted organization’s website. Some websites to consider:
American Dental Hygienists’ Association -
American Dental Association -
National Maternal and Child Oral Health Resource Center -
National Guideline Clearinghouse -
MedlinePlus -
Set up your search as follows -- Site:ada.org “dental sealants”
Remember to evaluate the websites that you find. Make sure you know who or what organization is responsible for the site. If you can’t identify a person or organization that authored a website, don’t use it. If you have never heard of the person or organization, google the name to learn more.
Please Ask! -- If you are having difficulty locating an article, journal, or website, please ask us. The librarians can help save you time and frustration. You can email us at , chat with us on the library website, call us at 215-641-6594 or just stop by. – updated by mbp 8/13