Radiation Oncology

The best way to locate articles is through library databases.  Use your myNOVA username/password for off-campus access.

Select the most important 2-3 terms related to your topic.  Put the word AND between each new term; this tells the database to look for resources with ALL your terms.

radiotherapy AND breast cancer

Use quotation marks ( "  " ) around phrases (two or more words); this tells the database to look for the words in that specific order.

radiotherapy AND "bladder cancer"

Use an asterisk ( * ) to find multiple endings of one word.  Using malignan* as a search term will include results that refer to malignant and malignancy.

malignan*

Articles are published in periodicals, which is any type of publication published at a regular interval (weekly, monthly, quarterly). Periodical types include magazines, newspapers, trade publications, and scholarly journals which:

• Provide detailed information about a specific aspect of a topic.
• Report on events, issues, or scholarly research.
• Are good sources for current or recent information.

Magazines, journals and newspapers typically do NOT provide a summary or overview of a topic.

More information on finding scholarly, peer-reviewed articles.

This video by Yavapai College Library in Prescott, Arizona demonstrates the different types of information found in Google versus library databases. 

Click the  icon located in the bottom right corner to watch the video in fullscreen mode.