Surgical Illustration and Media

This page will guide you through research strategies and available resources for your literature review for Surgical Illustration and Media.

There are two more pages on this guide for image and video resources, and resources for individual surgical disciplines, which are accessible in the tabs on your left (or above, if on a mobile device).

Remember that a literature review must:

1. Be organized around and related directly to the thesis or research question you are developing
2. Synthesize results into a summary of what is and is not known.
3. Identify specific subject areas, controversies, or positions in the literature.
4. Formulate questions that need further research.

For more information on writing literature reviews, see this helpful guide:

Your search strategies will depend partly on the research tools you use. Search engines like Google tend to be less picky about your terms. However, Google search results also usually require more careful evaluation of  source credibility, since it includes a larger number of sources from a wider range of places.

Library databases allow for advanced searching and include high-quality content. They often, however, are more challenging to search than Google. These database search tips will help:

• Limit the number of search terms that you use.
• Use key words that best express your topic. Avoid non-essential terms like "the" and "of."
• Try multiple searches. Experiment with related terms, including broader or narrower terms.
• Explore the database's Advanced Search options.
• On the search results page look for ways to refine your search.

There are several library databases that are specifically for medical and health sciences research:

If you need to search resources in the libraries beyond a specific database listed above, try searching in Library Search through the box below. 

Sometimes its easier to search the journals website for your article then once you have the title, and then search for the title of the article in Library Search or in PubMed (links above). 

• American Surgeon

• Annals of Surgery

• Annals of Vascular Surgery

• Archives of Surgery

• British Journal of Surgery

• JAMA

• Journal of Pediatric Surgery

• Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery

• Journal of Vascular Surgery

• Journal of the American College of Surgeons

• New England Journal of Medicine

• Surgery

• Vascular and Endovascular Surgery

• Vascular Medicine

• Vascular Surgery

• World Journal of Surgery