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Subject Guides • Optometry

Researching and Writing a Case Report

Structuring a Case Report

A case report describes and discusses an instance of disease in a patient. A suggested outline of sections for a case report is listed below.

Where to find examples of case reports:

1. Browse optometric journals such as:

2. Look for articles in PubMed using the phrase “case report”.

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Conducting Research -Seven Basic Steps

The 7 basic steps in research that you should always follow are:

Step 1 Formulate a Research Question
Step 2 Identify the key concepts of your research question
Step 3 Create initial search statement(s)
Step 4 Look for background information
Step 5 Look for journal articles
Step 6 Look for additional “grey” literature
Step 7 Evaluate what you have found

Step 1. Formulate a Research Question

Articulating the question you are attempting to answer is the first step in any information seeking process. Write out your research topic or question(s) in sentences.

Step 2. Identify the Key Concepts of your Research Question

Break your information into key concepts or topics. Separate out the "how", "who", "what" aspects. Think of synonyms, phrases, and alternative spellings. Use broader or more specific terminology to describe a concept. These will be the keywords you use in searching Library catalogues, research databases, or even Google. Also consider how you will limit or expand your focus depending on the initial search results.

Create a concept map in a notebook that is readily accessible. The list should continue to grow as you search and learn more about the terminology used in your research area.

Example of a concept map:

Concept 1 Concept 2 Concept 3 Limits
The Disease Disease Issue focus  
Endophthalmitis Bacterial Ocular Review journal articles
Panophthalmitis   Eye 1-2 years
ophthalmitis   Vision English language articles
    optometry  

Step 3. Put it all together: initial search statements

Most databases have a simple keyword search box. But, if you put your search terms into the box the database will look for your terms in every field (eg. title, abstract, and references) of its records. This is why you get such a large amount of irrelevant results.

Instead of entering multiple keywords, use Boolean operators (and, or, not) and some other basic symbols to “force” the database to apply your logic to searching. Also look at the different search options in the drop down menus of the databases (such as author, title, abstract). By choosing one of these options you will force the database to search your terms where you have specified.

Boolean search terms

OR – tells the program that these are different words for the same concept.
Example: ocular OR eye OR vision

AND – tells the program to combine these different concepts together.
Example endophthalmitis AND vision

NOT – tells the program to exclude the term following the “NOT”. Use sparingly!
Example (ocular OR eye) NOT vision

Phrase searching – allow you to search words as one unit. Check the index HELP to determine how phrases should be entered. Some indexes automatically search words entered together as a phrase.
Examples: “bacterial endophthalmitis” / bacterial endophthalmitis

Parentheses – as in mathematical equations, the program will handle everything inside the parentheses first.
Example: (endophthalmitis OR panophthalmitis) AND vision

Wildcard symbols * ? $
These symbols allow you to substitute the symbol for a letter.
Example: promot* for promote, promotion, promoting, promoted
Example: wom?n for women, woman


PLEASE NOTE: Make sure to check the database’s search tips or help before searching as each database may use different symbols.

Step 4. Look for background information

Search for books on your topic, search TRELLIS  the library catalogue, which lists all the resources in the University of Waterloo, University of Guelph, and Wilfrid Laurier University. You might not find a book dealing exclusively with your topic, but you may find one with a broader focus that includes the information you want.

When writing a case report, general books on disease or differential diagnosis will provide valuable background information. Suggestions for books located in the OLRC can be found on the following pages: Eye Diseases (Diagnosis & Management) or Clinical Resources or Ocular Pharmacology

Also consult the the following guide when searching for books and journal articles:

Getting books and journal articles

Step 5. Look for journal articles on your topic

We have selected journal databases to help you find the articles that you need for your research, they are accessible via the Optometry Subject Guide If you haven't used a particular research database before, be sure to take a few minutes to go over the tutorial or help pages. It will save you time in the long run!

For help searching databases consult our courses & tutorials page or contact the to request instruction.

If you are searching from off-campus, connect to the Library's Connect from Home proxy service to ensure that you will be able to get full access to any restricted resources.

Also consult the the following guide when searching for books and journal articles:

Getting books and journal articles

Step 6. Look for additional “grey” literature

Comprehensive searching involves looking beyond book and journal literature to the “grey literature”. Grey literature refers to literature that is not widely published such as reports from societies, theses, and government reports.

In addition to searching indexes, consult Clinical Reviews and Clinical Practice Guidelines.

You may also want to consider the following sources for images related to your case study.

Step 7. Evaluate what you have found

It is important to assess the success of your research search process and the appropriateness of materials found. Producing effective search results isn’t easy.

Identification of new concepts or terminology and revising and re-searching are part of even the most experienced researcher's search process. It is important to identify strategies to handle too many hits or not enough. Here are some strategies to help you modify your search.

  1. Modify Search Terms
    • Add another concept (useful when narrowing your search)
    • Eliminate one of the more generic terms in your search (useful when narrowing your search)
    • Eliminate one of the concepts from your search (useful when broadening your search)
    • Use truncation to capture the variant endings of a keyword

  2. Apply Limits

    Besides modifying your subject keywords, you can filter and improve the search results by applying:
    1. Limit to review articles. Review articles do not present new research findings but provide an overview or summary of research on a specific topic. Useful as a starting point – builds your background knowledge of a topic!
    2. Limit to articles on an age group or gender.
    3. Limit to English only journals.
    4. Limit to a range of publication dates. Search the last 5 years then expand later.

  3. Use Controlled Vocabulary

    Controlled vocabulary, also referred to as subject headings or descriptors, is a list of constant terminology used by the producers of a database to describe subjects. It reduces the guess work of what terminology an author may have used to describe a topic. In PubMed, use the MeSH Database to identify Medical Subject Headings. If you have not searched using MeSH before, take a few minutes to go through the animated tutorials.

  4. Track Related Articles

    If you can identify a few good review or research articles, you can use these articles to help track other related research.
    1. Search for other articles by that author.
    2. Follow up on the article's bibliography (or list of references).
    3. Use the “related article” feature some databases provide.
    4. Use a citation index (Web of Science) to find more recent articles that have cited that paper

Most importantly! Don’t give up! Get help if you have gone through these 7 steps and have not been successful in identifying books, journal articles, or Web sites relevant to your question, then it is time to get help from our .

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Citing References

Citation Styles

To acknowledge someone's work, you cite that work. This means that you give information about the work in your bibliography. A style guide describes a specific format for citing material, to which you have referred in your work. Certain disciplines prefer certain styles. The American Medical Association Style which is used in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and has been adapted for use in many Optometry journals.

American Medical Association (JAMA) style guide

Refworks


The Library offers web accessible citation manager software called RefWorks. RefWorks allows you to create a personal citation database easily and quickly by importing references from text files or online databases such as PubMed. If there isn’t an import filter available (for example none currently exists for VisionCite), then you can enter citations manually. You can easily format these references to a particular style, like JAMA, for inclusion in your paper and bibliography. If you are working on a group project, you can even set up one group account.

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School of Optometry, Witer Learning Resource Centre | 519-888-4005 |
Last Updated: November 28, 2008