Search Development and Documentation
As you begin your search process, it is best practice to keep a record of your search strategies and results. Below is an example of a PICO literature search worksheet, and also a search documentation table. You may also keep a citations list of relevant articles (example on pg. 2 of documentation table), or add saved articles to a citation manager.
This page has been adapted from the Systematic Review (in the Health Sciences) guide.
Search Techniques
Searches are typically organized using the Boolean operators OR or AND. OR is used to combine synonyms and related terms for the same concept AND is used to combine different concepts.
Example: Living Donor AND Deceased Donor
Example: Living Donor OR Deceased Donor
The blue in both images represents the article retrieved. Using AND to combine the two search terms will only retrieve results where both terms are used. Using OR to combine the two search terms will retrieve results that use either term separately or both together.
Include controlled vocabulary for applicable databases. Not all databases have controlled vocabulary (also known as subject searching). The following are common databases used in health sciences research that have controlled vocabulary. This is not a comprehensive list. Check each database for controlled vocabulary ability and consult the database help section for help using controlled vocabulary.
| Database | Controlled Vocabulary | Example |
|---|---|---|
| PubMed (Medline) | Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) | "Sexual and Gender Minorities"[Mesh] |
| Ovid Medline | Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) | "Sexual and Gender Minorities"/ |
| Embase | EMTREE | 'sexual and gender minority'/exp |
| CINAHL | CINAHL Headings | (MH "GLBT Persons+") |
| PsycINFO (via Proquest) | APA Thesaurus | MAINSUBJECT.EXACT.EXPLODE("LGBTQ") |
| ERIC (via EBSCO) | ERIC Thesaurus | DE "Homosexuality" |
Proximity searching is a way to search for two or more words that occur within a certain number of words from each other. There may be some cases in which proximity searching would be helpful. Below are some examples. Please refer to the help section of the database.
| Databases | Proximity Indicator | Example |
|---|---|---|
| PubMed | [field:~N] | "hip pain"[Title/Abstract:~2] |
| Ovid Medline | ADJ# | multisensory ADJ8 environment |
| Embase |
NEAR/# NEXT/# (specific order) |
multisensory NEAR/8 environment |
| Cochrane Library | Not possible | N/A |
| CINAHL |
N# W# (specific order) |
multisensory N8 environment |
| Web of Science | NEAR/# | multisensory NEAR/8 environment |
| PsycINFO |
NEAR/# or n/# PRE/# or p/# (specific order) |
multisensory NEAR/8 environment |
More Search Techniques
- Database limits are database-provided limit features that allow users to narrow results based on criteria, such as language, publication type, publication date, etc.
- Database limits are generally NOT recommended for use in systematic reviews, due to their fallibility, unless there is justification provided.
- For example, for example if you want to limit your search results by date, you need a good reason to do so and must explain your reasoning in your protocol and manuscript.
For a more detailed explanation, see ITEM 3: LIMITS AND RESTRICTIONS of the PRISMA-S Explanation and Elaboration document.
- PRISMA-S (Searching)Extension to the PRISMA Statement for Reporting Literature Searches in Systematic Reviews.
Hedges or filters are published search strategies developed by experts and are typically validated. Hedges are often used to narrow results by specific study designs, publication types, population, or topic.
For a more detailed explanation, see ITEM 4: SEARCH FILTERS of the PRISMA-S Explanation and Elaboration document.
- PRISMA-S (Searching)Extension to the PRISMA Statement for Reporting Literature Searches in Systematic Reviews.
Truncation or wildcards are techniques that broadens your search to include various word endings or word variations or spellings. Typical search symbols include the asterisk (*), used to replace one or more characters, usually at the end of the word, and the question mark (?), used to replace a single character, either inside or at the end of the word.
For example:
- toxic* retrieves toxic, toxicity, toxicology, etc.
- behavio?r retrieves behaviour and behavior
- p?diatric retrieves pediatric and paediatric
Tips
- Each database has unique rules. View the help section of each database for instructions on how to search with truncation and wildcards.
- In some instances, it may be better to use the various versions of the word instead of truncation. It depends on the word, word variations, and specific database.
- Test your search in each database with and without truncation before making a decision on which strategy is best for your search.
A phrase search will search for two or more words as an exact phrase. To do so, enclose the words in quotation marks.
For example: "cultural humility."
If you are considering using phrase searching for an SR search, compare your strategy with and without phrase searching in order to determine if you would miss relevant literature using phrase searching.
More Search Tools
- Yale MeSH Analyzer.This tool allows users to enter up to 20 PubMed ID numbers to compare subject indexing terms in an easy to read spreadsheet table. Allows comparison of similar terms which may then be used to build a more comprehensive search. It is designed to build a comprehensive and systematic search, but can be helpful with other literature review searches too. Try it with 4 or 5 PMIDS of core articles for a quick and solid search.
- Citation ChaserThis tool allows searching for articles that cite, or are cited by, a particular research article. In systematic reviews, this supplementary search technique is known as "citation chasing": forward citation chasing looks for all records citing one or more articles of known relevance; backward citation chasing looks for all records referenced in one or more articles.