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Foundations of Medical Practice (MEDD 411, MEDD 412, MEDD 421, MEDD 422)

Information for first & second year medical students.

Accessing Library Resources from Anywhere

UBC Library e-resources (e-journals, e-books, databases, etc.) are available from any location with internet access.  You will need to sign in once per session using your Campus-Wide Login (CWL). More information about connecting from off-campus is here.  

In general, it's a good policy to connect to resources (even free resources like PubMed and Google Scholar) through the UBC Library website (rather than going direct to the resource), as this will allow you to sign in and access full text.  Please reach out for help if you are experiencing any difficulties in accessing library resources.  

We also recommend the UBC Library browser extension, which helps to connect you to the full text of articles and e-books at UBC Library when you're browsing other sites. Download the extension for your favourite browser and select "University of British Columbia". You will then be prompted to log in with your CWL to get the full text of articles you encounter when when you're browsing the web. 

Course Readings

Many of your instructors have identified readings to accompany and enrich lectures, labs and tutorials. Many readings are drawn from textbooks, all of which are available as eBooks from UBC library and can be accessed via the course textbook pages linked in the left-hand navigation of this guide.

Where is the Library?

For those based at VFMP, Woodward Library is your library.  It is located about 5 minutes away from the LSC (just to the north, on the other side of the hospital), and has computers, printers, room for studying (including group study rooms), friendly staff and librarians, as well as all the print books for your program. UBC has another great library to serve you in the Vancouver area - the Biomedical Branch at VGH. BMB has an excellent collection of print books (including print editions of many UGME course textbooks), as well as friendly staff and a great librarian, computers, a printer, study carrels, group study rooms and 24/7 access with hospital ID.  Stop by to check it out - many students study there if it's more convenient to their home.  

If you are an IMP, NMP or SMP student, you will enjoy full library services at your local university library (in addition to access to UBC Library e-resources), as well as support from a designated librarian. 

Copyright, Citing Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism

UBC's Copyright Office offers a variety of services to assist all members of the university community in properly applying copyright requirements.  Copyright Office staff are available to answer questions that are not covered in their documentation, and workshops are also offered.  

Academic integrity is honest and responsible scholarship. As a university student, you are expected to submit original work and give credit to other peoples' ideas. More information, tips and an interactive tutorial are available here.  

Proper citation of sources is essential to good academic work.  UBC Library has a detailed guide on this topic, including links to style guides (including Vancouver Style, usually required for submission to biomedical journals), information about citation management tools and more. 

Specialized Software

Some UBC Library workstations provide access to specialized software such as Adobe Creative Cloud, Audacity, NVivo, SPSS, etc. In addition, some UBC workstations can be accessed remotely via the Remote Labs service. More information on Remote Labs for students and for faculty is available; login here

UBC IT provides students with access to free software of various kinds; read more here.

Using UBC Library

Online tutorials on a variety of subjects are available from UBC Library.  

Support

Workshops on a wide variety of topics are offered at UBC Library: RefWorks (and other citation management tools), MEDLINE searching, systematic review searching, getting started with NVivo or R, research data management, etc.  Many classes are online; view upcoming classes available here.  

At the distributed sites, workshops are also available:

If you're not finding what you need, or if you would like to meet with a librarian to talk about research strategies, resources, citation management, etc., please do contact us!  We are accessible via Zoom, email, phone, in person - whatever works for you.