Page 1: Evidence-Based Search Process – Graphically depicts the relationships between the type of EBM Foreground Question and the preferred study design in descending levels of evidence. The Clinical Query or "best one-term" is provided to filter your results to the best evidence.
Page 2: Evidence-Based Medicine Pyramid – The traditional hierarchy of evidence that supports therapeutic interventions shows the inverse relationship between quantity and quality/relevance of primary studies and other information sources. When you do not find the answer in a systematic review/meta-analysis, you may need to go down the pyramid and review other resources. It is important to remember that evaluating the merits of an individual study involves more than comparing study design against an evidence hierarchy/pyramid. All information is not necessarily equivalent.
Page 3: Appraisal – Select questions are included to use as a starting point to appraise the evidence retrieved for a specific foreground question.
Did you know there are nearly 10,000 citation styles and formats used around the world? Really! The style you use is typically dictated by the discipline or journal for which you are writing.
AMA style, defined by the American Medical Association (AMA), is common in the field of medicine. The current rules of AMA style are explained in the AMA Manual of Style: A Guide for Authors and Editors (11th edition). AMA style is a numerical citation style: all sources are listed in a numbered reference list at the end, referring to them in the text by the relevant number.
But it isn't as simple as that. Each reference – whether for a book, article, report, or other source – must be in a particular format to help readers locate the original document you used.
The recent update of the Writing Guide expands content, tools, and resources in one guide! New and updated sections include:
Academic Misconduct and Plagiarism – includes links to UT Southwestern policies, information about AI and plagiarism, and TurnItIn Draft Coach™ to facilitate checking for plagiarism, citation, and grammar errors.
Books on Writing – organized into categories: general, bio/medical, nursing and scientific.
Publication Process – includes the Publication Process Checklist, which organizes the process into four main categories and related tasks.
The Library's Services & Partnership Unit offers in-person service from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday (excluding holidays). To quickly identify your “Librarian on Duty”, look for the yellow “Ask me!” badge alongside the UTSW identification badge.
You can also stop by rooms E2.306 or E2.304 or request assistance by:
Searching though the vast educational support offerings contained in our Subject Guides
TurnItIn now available in Word 365
TurnItIn is now available in two systems: D2L and Microsoft Word 365. Everyone with a utsouthwestern.edu email address has access to “Draft Coach” in the Word 365 version.
The similarity report available in the two systems is the same; however, the main difference is that the D2L version provides a method for submitting a paper for a grade and for the paper to be graded. If you are just looking for a similarity score (i.e., a plagiarism checker), then Draft Coach may be easier to use.
Here are instructions for how to use each version.
Word 365
Open Word 365 (Word Online) and paste the content of the trainee’s work into a blank document. (Note: If the trainee wrote it in Word 365, then you can probably just open the document directly if it was shared with you.)
In the menu click on Turnitin. This menu option will appear at the far right after the Help menu and takes a minute or so to appear after starting Word.
A new panel will open on the right side of the screen. The first time you use it, you will be prompted to log in and accept the license terms. In later use, you may be prompted to log into Word 365 or get a notice that authentication failed. (If authentication failed, click on re-try.)
There are four tabs in the Draft Coach panel, one of which is Similarity. Click on it, and then click to run a similarity check.
Once you confirm you will be asked to wait while the report is run. Then you can open the full report.
The similarity report will show the information with potential similarity problems flagged. Each flagged section will include information on where the match was found.
Important: You can only run 3 reports per document. If you need to immediately check another paper, simply open a new Word document, paste the content, and run the check.
D2L
For faculty, you will need to submit your trainee’s Word or PDF document to the self-check assignment in the e-Teaching 101 course.
After the document is submitted, you can go back into the submission and look at your similarity score.
Clicking on the score will bring up a Feedback Studio tab.
In Feedback Studio you can see all the text that Turnitin flagged as a potential similarity problem. Each flagged section will include information on where the match was found.
Archives spotlight: Alice Smith award on display
One of the Library's exhibit cases this semester features Alice Lorraine Smith, M.D. (1920-2014). She was one of the first female students at Southwestern Medical College, and she graduated in 1946, which was just three years before the College merged with the University of Texas System.
Dr. Smith joined the UT Southwestern faculty in 1950 as an assistant professor and worked her way to full professorship in 1976. A leader in cytopathology, she wrote several textbooks on the subject and received the award on display (pictured below) in recognition of her dedication to the field.
Collecting UTSW’s historical records, in digital or physical format, ensures that they can be preserved and made accessible to researchers in the future. If you or your department has items that might be related to the history of UTSW, please reach out to archives@utsouthwestern.edu.
