The basic evidence based research steps are:
About the tool
State the problem as a question.
Ex: Do overweight teens show improved eating habits when using a nutrition phone app?
A well-built question helps you to search when keywords are divided into search elements.
Select keywords or phrases from your question as your search terms.
List synonyms and look for alternate terms as you search in the library catalog and databases.
Ex: overweight teens OR teenagers OR youth, nutrition OR eating habits, app OR phone application.
It may help to use PICO to separate your search elements and categorize you search.
(Patient/problem to address-Intervention considered-Comparison {if relevant}-Outcome)
For a video on the clinical question, see Yale Cushing/Whitney Library's Find it Fast series.
http://www.med.yale.edu/library/education/guides/screencasts/finditfast/finditfast_2/
For more information on PICO, see http://libguides.hsl.washington.edu/content.php?pid=231619&sid=1931590 (1)
Need background information or an overview from experts before you start?
Search for books or a good article by using your broadest keyword or "phrase."
Search tools to locate books are library catalogs. LCU Library catalog http://library.lcu.edu/uhtbin/cgisirsi.exe/x/0/0/49
Need search help? See the video on searching the LCU Library catalog http://panoptoweb.lcu.edu/CourseCast/Viewer/Default.aspx?id=b7b54e22-f2bf-4459-a290-fc77b6b571c6