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How to Search the Literature (Advanced)

This guide offers an eight step approach from identifying your topic to managing your search strategy and results

Find Conference Proceedings Abstracts

Indicators of whether a citation is for a conference abstract:

  • it is held in a supplement (suppl # as issue) and single page number,

  • it is one or two pages and the page numbers may begin with A# or S# or i#,

  • it is held in supplemental issues of the journal, or

  • it is grouped together with a page range of abstracts, not indexed individually in the table of contents

How to retrieve the conference abstract:

  • Click on the GetIt link or the DOI within a database accessed through the McMaster Libraries websites.
  • Access the journal's website and scan the archived issues for the supplemental issue, or look for a separate heading called meeting/conference abstracts on the website.

Example 1: Ovid Medline

Step 1: Click on the article title to view the full record (note: the publication type is conference abstract)

Step 2: Scan the record to see if there is a link to the journal website, or in this case, a direct link to the conference abstract:

Step 3: Once on the journal's website, you may see an abstract book, or the first page of the abstract book. Download and search the PDF version of the full book by:

  • page number,
  • abstract number,
  • author name, or
  • part of the title.

Example 2: Journal's Website

Step 1: Search for the journal site using Google or Ulrichsweb, and navigate to the volume and issue.

Wright, B., Kleinman, M. (2021). Advanced survival in complete trisomy 13. Journal of Investigative Medicine, 69(2), 421. 

Step 2: Based on the information that the title is not found in the table of contents, and that it is one page, try the conference abstracts section:

Step 3: Search by the author name, or part of the title to locate the abstract, or open the PDF to locate the page number referenced.