Smoking Research Program
HLS 396
Special Topics: Risk Behavior Change

Department of Community and Preventive Medicine and the James P. Wilmot Cancer Center

Deborah Ossip-Klein, PhD, Director | Scott McIntosh, PhD, Assistant Director

Office Procedures and Responsibilities

Student Procedures

1. Register with Friends of Strong in the hospital. The procedure is listed further back in this packet.
   
2. To receive credit for hours worked, students must record the hours they work in the sign in/sign out folder each time they come in. This will help us keep track and give credit for hours worked. The folder is kept at Eva’s desk. If you do not record your hours, you will not get credit for working them!
   
3. Create a folder for yourself in the I drive on the computer. Go to I/Students/Studentfolder/yourname. Save your work here.

If you do not have enough assigned tasks, please see your supervisor to provide more structured tasks (short-term or on-going) that you can work on. It is a sign of professionalism and a strong work ethic to proactively ask your supervisor for something additional to do (and can and should be a positive comment on future Letters of Recommendation from our program.)

When no staff is available always be sure to check student tasks on the Smoking Research Website. Also be sure to work out projects with your supervisor. If the office doors are locked, you may do most computer tasks in the MPH student room next to 4W157, but do not long on to the I Drive.

Literature Search Procedures

Tasks that require literature searches should follow this procedure:

1. Look for reputable articles online or in an electronic database. Some of the best databases in Rochester’s system are PsychINFO and MedLine. They will tell you where to find articles dating back to 1967 and 1966 on the specific topics you search for. There are also online electronic journals and other databases that can be found at www.urmc.edu/hslt/miner. There is PubMed at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed. This can also be linked to from the Miner website. If you are looking for something general, google scholar (at the top of the google site) is an acceptable start. No password or account is needed.
   
2. Make sure to get a complete reference for articles (author(s), title, journal, year, pages, etc.) If you use an online source, make sure to get the exact web address. If possible, save a copy of the article as a PDF file.

Information about Miner Library

Miner Library Survival Skills: There is a calendar of classes at the desk on the right upon entering Miner. Miner offers a class on how to “survive” in the library. Check the calendar pamphlet to find a suitable time. If you are already library proficient, you may want to look into the OVID Medline class. OVID Medline is a great resource to search for articles in a broad online database. PubMed includes Medline and citations from additional life science journals. PsycINFO offers access to worldwide literature in psychology and similar fields. This database can be useful in finding info on behavioral research. Web of Science is another digital tool which offers Science Citation Index Expanded, which contains science, technology and biomedical information. Here is a brief outline of how to search for articles:

1. Starting at http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/hslt/miner/ (also the home page in the library) click on MEDLINE under the Digital Library Tab. ‘OVID Medline 1966 to Present with Daily Update’ is good for most searches.
   

Medline Practice Search: Let us say that we want to find some information pertinent to adolescent smokers and quitting.

1. First off, we can search for the keyword adolescent smok$, the $ truncates the keyword, so we can find adolescent smokers, adolescent smoking, etc.
   
2. This results in more than 500 results, certainly too many. Let’s try to search for smoking cessation now. More than 10,000 results. From here we can click on ‘combine searches.’ We can check the boxes for 1 and 2 and we want to add the searches together so we put AND then combine the searches. Now we are left with about 150 results.
   
3. To narrow down even more, we can search for keyword quit. This will turn up a lot of hits, but once again we can combine searches. Combine 3 and 4 and we will be left with a number under 100. Generally you want to find fewer than 100 results because sometimes they won’t be specific enough to what you want to search for and it can be a tedious task to look through all of them.
   
4. Click display to show the results of the search. Viewing the abstract will give a sound overview of the article and you will be able to decide whether it provides the information you seek. If so, there may be the full text available there, otherwise you can use the ‘find text’ option.
   
5. The E-journal resource accessible from the Miner home page is also a good way to find some information especially if you know what journal you want to look into.

To use Interlibrary Loan

There are blue sheets (found in the filing cabinet under the file name Miner Library) if you just wish to order something from the Rochester system that was found under local catalogs at www.lib.rochester.edu and is not online. These sheets can be turned into Miner Library (the library in the Med Center). Since students can request articles for free, request the article under your own name. Don’t order something that will cost money without permission. See the Interlibrary Loan Folder in the file cabinet in 4.W206. If Rochester doesn’t own a book or journal you can try ordering it through Illiad. To use Illiad go to https://illiad.lib.rochester.edu. User id is: smcintosh. Password is: victory.

Dr. McIntosh’s email addresses

Scott_mcintosh@urmc.rochsester.edu

This is Dr. McIntosh’s personal account through the University or Rochester Medical Center (URMC) and should be used for asking him questions that you cannot get answers to elsewhere.

Sresearch_2000@yahoo.com

The password to this account is available from Gabrielle Kapsak or Dr McIntosh. This address receives emails for the entire project. You can log in and look through them as a research tool.

chicclerkship@gmail.com

The password is available from Gabrielle Kapsak or Dr McIntosh. This account can also be used as an information resource.