1. @kaimrc_edu
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2. Literature Searches
4th Research Summer School
12 June 2012
Taghreed Justinia Msc PhD
Asst. Professor, Department of Health Informatics
Asst. Director, Information & Communication Technology
KSAU-HS, NGHA
Tel. +966 2 6240000 ext 26217 / 26210
Email: JustiniaT@ngha.med.sa

3. In this session…
 Choosing Search Terms
 Search strategy Worksheet
 Conducting the Search
 Concepts
 Applying Practical Screening Criteria
 PubMed Example
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4. Steps in
literature review writing
 Selecting the research questions
 Selecting the sources
 Choosing search terms
 Conducting the search
 Applying practical screening criteria
 Critically appraising the literature
 Journals & Articles
 Websites
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5. Citation List
 Searching databases will result in a list of citations,
which include the information needed to locate the
articles in print journals and other sources
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6. Choosing Search Terms
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7. Bibliographic Databases
 Medicine
 MEDLINE (PubMed or Ovid), EMBASE, Cochrane Library, PsycINFO
 Multidisciplinary
 Scopus
 Web of Science
 Nursing and Allied Health
 CINAHL
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8. Break down the
research question
 Select your database
 Break down the research question into concepts
 Identify subject headings for each concept
 Identify text words for each concept
 Use a “target article” to help identify search terms
(keywords)
 Use a worksheet to keep track of your terms
 Your database will determine your subject headings and
operators (i.e., truncation symbols)
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9. Different databases have
different subject headings
Database Subject Headings
Medline/PUBMED MeSH
EMBASE EMTREE
CINAHL CINAHL Headings
Cochrane Library MeSH
PsycINFO Thesaurus of Psychological Index
Terms
Scopus, Web of Science N/A
 Select subject headings that are the closest match for your concept
 General descriptors: Anatomy
 More specific descriptors: Ankle
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10. Search Strategy Worksheet
Search Strategy Worksheet_________________________________________________
Search statement: I am looking for articles about ___________________________________________________________________
After writing out the search statement, underline the key concepts. Decide how the concepts will be combined together using the
AND and OR Boolean operators. Concepts to be ANDed go across the grid and concepts to be ORed go down the grid.
Fill in the grid with the key concepts and possible synonyms for each concept.
AND AND AND AND
OR
OR
OR
OR
OR
OR
OR
Databases to search:___________________________________________________________________________________________
Limits to apply:_______________________________________________________________________________________________
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11. Key Operators in OVID
Operator Command Example
* Find alternate endings to this nurs* [will find nurse, nursing,
word nurses]
.tw. Search for this term in the anxiety.tw.
Title and Abstract fields
adj Search for one term within x patient adj3 anxiety [will find
number of terms from another patient within three words of
anxiety]
AND Find articles where both terms smoking AND cessation
appear
OR Find articles where either smoking OR tobacco
term appears
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12. Conducting the Search
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13. Conducing the Search
 Start with your first concept
 Search for the subject headings first
 Then search text words
 Combine these synonymous searches with OR using your
search history
 Repeat for your second, third, and subsequent concepts
 Finally, combine large search results set with AND
 Example MeSH search: hypertenstion AND toxicity
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14. Concepts
Which concepts are contained in the question:
Does hand washing prevent MRSA in the ICU?
Hand washing
Prevention
MRSA
ICU
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15. Does hand washing prevent
MRSA in the ICU?
Hand washing MRSA ICU Prevention
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16. Getting the search results
Concept 1 Concept 1
SEARCH 1 SEARCH 6
SEARCH 2 SEARCH 7
SEARCH 3 SEARCH 8
SEARCH 4 SEARCH 9
SEARCH 5 = 1 OR 2 OR 3 OR 4 SEARCH 10 = 6 OR 7 OR 8 OR 9
SEARCH 11 = 5 AND 10 = RESULTS
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17. Applying Practical
Screening Criteria
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18. Limits Examples
 Date of publication
 only studies conducted between 2005 and 2010
 Participants or subjects
 only children 6 to 12 years of age
 Publication language
 only materials written in English or French
 Research design
 only clinical trials
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19. PubMed Demonstration
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20. PubMed
 An example using MeSH terms
 MeSH = Medical Subject Heading
 Access the MeSH Database by choosing the option on
the Pubmed homepage
 Click the search button without entering any search
terms to go to the database homepage
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28. Combining MeSH Terms
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30. Search for MeSH Terms
 With the first search term (MRSA) entered in the
PubMed search builder, we can continue to use the
MeSH Database to find terms and build our PubMed
search
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31. Combining Concepts
 We want to find articles that include both the concept
of MRSA AND the concept of Hand washing.
 So we added our second term to the search builder
with the default AND
 Both terms have been added and we can now click the
Search PubMed button.
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34. Good Search Results!
 This search yielded a good number of articles on out
topic
 We can continue to build more MeSH terms and
narrow down the search
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35. Useful References
 Fink, A. (2005). Conducting Research Literature Reviews. London:
Sage.
 Greenhalgh, T. (2006). How to read a paper (3rd ed.). London: BMJ
Publishing Group.
 Sackett, D., Straus, S., & Richardson, W. (2000). Evidence-based
medicine (2nd ed.). Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone.
 Wilson, P. (2002). How to find the good and avoid the bad or
ugly. A short guide to tools for rating quality of health
information on the internet. BMJ, 324, 598-602.
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36. Useful Sites
 NHS Solutions for Public Health
http://www.sph.nhs.uk/what-we-do/public-health-workforce/resources
 CADTH. Grey Matters: a practical search tool for evidence-based
medicine - http://cadth.ca/en/resources/grey-matters
 Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews and Interventions -
http://www.cochrane-handbook.org/
 IOM (Institute of Medicine). Finding what works in health care:
standards for systematic reviews -
http://www.iom.edu/Reports/2011/Finding-What-Works-in-Health-Care-Stan
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37. Questions?
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