BMED19010 - Macromolecules and Cell Function Course Guide

This guide has been designed to assist you in locating information for the course BMED19010 - Macromolecules and Cell Function.  The course requires that you:

1. Understand how knowledge is arranged and how researchers access knowledge.
2. Identify and use tertiary, secondary and primary sources.
3. Locate, use and evaluate information related to both practical work and assignments.

---

1.  Understand how knowledge is arranged and how researchers access knowledge.

An understanding of how knowledge is arranged will help you select and use the most appropriate source.

Traditionally, information has been classified into three groups - tertiary sources, secondary sources and primary sources.

• Tertiary sources include:
  - Encyclopedias and dictionaries: provide overviews and definitions
  - Journal indexes: enable you to search for articles on a topic
  - Bibliographies: list a range of resources on specific topics 
   
• Secondary sources interpret, assess and summarise the information and ideas presented in primary sources.  They include:
  -  Books (e.g. textbooks)
  -  Review articles in journals
   
• Primary sources deal with original ideas and research.  They include:
  - Research reports
  - Research articles in journals
  - Conference papers (often termed "scientific papers")
  
  Primary sources always have a section describing the experimental methodology used (e.g. "materials and methods")

Further information on these concepts as well as examples can be found on the How Knowledge is Arranged page.

---

2.  Identify and use tertiary, secondary and primary sources.

• Using keywords to search Tertiary Sources
• Using keywords to search Secondary Sources
• Using keywords to search Primary Sources

As a starting point, you need to identify some key terms and phrases, or keywords, that may be useful for searching.  Try to include any other terms that also reflect the focus of your topic.

Note: as you move through the research process, you will discover other keywords which can be added to this collection.

For example, we are looking for information on glycine, so we would include the broader concept of amino acids:

 
You will usually need to combine two or more keywords in your searches, e.g.:  

 
There are some tricks to remember that will make your searches much more effective:

*	Place quotation marks around keywords that you want to search for as a phrase, e.g. "amino acid".  Otherwise, some search engines will read your search as Amino AND Acid, which may return unexpected and unwanted results.
*	allow for singular and plural forms of your keywords where appropriate - this can make a big difference to your number of results.  You need to check this in each search tool you use.  Some will automatically also search for the plural when you enter the singular term (but not the reverse).  Others require you to truncate a term, usually using an asterisk, so that you can search for different word endings.  For example, "amino acid*" will find both "amino acid" and "amino acids" in the library catalogue.
*	use OR to search for similar terms e.g.: "amino acid" OR glycine
*	use AND to search for combinations of different terms e.g.: glycine AND zwitterion.  Try not to combine too many terms (more than about three) at once, or you may not find enough results.  It is better to experiment with a few, smaller searches.

---

Using keywords to searching for Tertiary Sources

Glycine as a research topic has been around for some time.  Consequently, it has had time to filter from the primary sources down to the tertiary sources.  The two tertiary sources below are a good starting point for your topic:

Oxford Reference Online	Encyclopedia of Life Sciences
a comprehensive collection of online dictionaries select the Sciences suite to search	a good quality, online science encyclopedia Search using your keywords, or browse by topic (investigate Biochemistry and Cell Biology)

Using Wikipedia as your only tertiary source is not recommended.   It is an open access encyclopedia which means that anyone can create and edit articles.   Wikipedia lacks structured editorial control of the quality of its content, and although it claims that inaccurate content is usually removed quickly, this is not always the case.  Wikipedia is best used, if it all, as a starting point for further research of other, more scholarly sources.

---

Using keywords to searching for Secondary Sources

Using the Library Catalogue to find books

More help?

Author/title searching Keyword searching Subject-heading searching Phrase searching AND/OR/NOT Boolean searching Where is the resource located? Is the resource available?

When using keywords to search the Library catalogue, you need to keep in mind that the catalogue tends to use broader, rather than specific, scientific terms.  For example, Glycine is a very specific keyword, and using it to search the Library Catalogue may not return very many results (and those it does return may not be what you expect!)

To solve this problem, you will need to think more broadly.  Your readings of tertiary sources will have enabled you to gain more of an overview on Glycine.  For example, you will now know that Glycine is an amino acid.  Amino acid can be used as a keyword for searching the Library Catalogue.

To search in the library catalogue as a phrase, simply surround the terms with quotations, i.e. "amino acid".

Library Catalogue Keywords
"amino acid"	neurotransmitters
glycine	synaptic

You can also search the library catalogue is using subject headings.  All records in the library catalogue include subject headings; you can find them on the 'Complete Record' screen, and link to a list of all resources under a particular heading.  Some sample subject headings which may prove useful are also listed below. 

Library Catalogue Subject Headings
Proteins - Analysis	Amino acid sequence
Amino acids - Analysis	Neurotransmitters
Neural transmission	Neural receptors - Congresses

Your textbook as a secondary source

Secondary sources are based upon the primary sources or original ideas, and they interpret and assess these ideas.

In your own time, select a chapter in your textbook, "Biochemistry" by Garrett and Grisham.  At the end of the chapter you will find a list of references to the primary sources (scientific papers and research articles) and secondary sources (review articles) that the authors have used in that chapter.

---

Using keywords to search for Primary Sources

Using ScienceDirect and Scopus to search for primary sources (journal articles)

More help?

About journals About databases Passwords

In order to effectively demonstrate searching for primary sources, we are going to switch our example from Glycine to the separation of vitamin B12 from haemoglobin.  This is a a fairly new research area, so the information may not yet have made its way into secondary and tertiary sources. 

Try searching in the Science Direct database for journal articles about the process of using sephadex to separate vitamin B12 from haemoglobin. This Flash movie demonstrates a search of ScienceDirect using the terms below. (Duration: 1 min 40sec. File size: 560KB - A free Flash player is available from Adobe.)

Finding journal articles keywords

"size exclusion chromatography"

sephadex

"vitamin B12"

hemoglobin or haemoglobin

Science Direct provides access to journals from only one publisher (Elsevier).  If you want to check what has been published more widely, use the Scopus database.  It doesn't provide full-text articles, but you can use the 'Article Linker' icon to link to any articles available in other library databases (including Science Direct).

For a list of databases relevant to the Biomedical Science discipline, check out:
Databases & Resources by Subject: Biomedical Science

---

3.  Locate, use and evaluate information related to both practical work and assignments.

More help?

Evaluating your resources What is plagiarism?

The examples and keywords in the preceding sections should have given you access to a wide range of information.  It is now time to evaluate and use the information you have located.

At university level it is important to rely on information that meets the standards expected by your lecturers. In many cases your arguments should be supported by what are termed scholarly or "peer-reviewed" publications.

You also need check if additional criteria have been set by your lecturer.  For example, Assignment 2 for BMED19010 - Macromolecules and Cell Function states that information must be published within the last 5 years

Finally, when citing other peoples work in your assignments, it is vital that it is correctly referenced.  There are guidelines and examples on the CQU Referencing pages (see the 'Faculty Styles' link).