Presentation "How to do a literature search?" by Milica Ševkušić, 13th Belgrade International Symposium on Pain, 18-19 May 2018

1. How to do a literature search?
WORKSHOP 4: Scientific writing workshop
Milica Ševkušić
Institute of Technical Sciences of SASA, Belgrade, Serbia
biblioteka@itn.sanu.ac.rs

2. Aims
• to identify relevant and reliable sources of information;
• to understand searching principles and techniques;
• to use saved searches and alerts;
• to be able to evaluate information;
• to know how to access resources not covered by
subscription.

3. Relevant sources of information

4. Where to search?
• Bibliographic (and citation) databases (PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science,
Dimensions, SCIndeks)
• Full-text databases (publishers’ platforms) and individual journals
• EBSCO Discovery
• Google Scholar
• Repositories and aggregators
• …
Advantages of bibliographic databases: normalized metadata; author’s keywords + terms
from controlled vocabularies
Search multiple sources!

5. Bibliographic databases

6. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/

7. PubMed
• publicly available (no subscription needed);
• search engine relying on a series of bibliographic databases
(primarily MEDLINE);
• provided by National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI);
• abstract-level metadata with links to full text;
• more than 27 million records, since 1966 (some resources back to
1809);
• more than 14 million links to full text, nearly 4 million free-to-read.

8. PubMed tutorials
• https://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/disted/pubmedtutorial/cover.html
Videos:
• Conducting a literature search using PubMed
• Basic Searching in PubMed
• Searching PubMed Like an Expert: Selecting Keywords
• How to combine search lines in PubMed
• Searching PubMed Like An Expert: Using AND and OR; Finding Highly Related Articles
• Searching PubMed Like an Expert: Using MeSH Terms
• Save Searches and Set E-mail Alerts

9. https://www.scopus.com

10. Scopus
• available through subscription (KoBSON);
• Elsevier’s bibliographic and citation database launched in 2004;
• abstract-level metadata with links to full text;
• nearly 70 million records, nearly 23000 serial titles + 15000
books;
• 26% Health sciences, 17% Life sciences (full coverage of
MEDLINE).
https://www.elsevier.com/solutions/scopus/content

11. Scopus - tutorials
• https://blog.scopus.com/posts/6-simple-search-tips-lessons-learned-from-the-
scopus-webinar
• Scopus: search tips to make your research more effective
Videos
• Searching with Scopus
• Scopus Advanced Search
• Scopus Database: Save Searches and Create Alerts

12. http://apps.webofknowledge.com/

13. Web of Science
• Available through subscription
• Bibliographic and citation service currently owned by
Clarivate Analytics; enables access to multiple databases;
• abstract-level metadata with links to full text
• since 1900 (KoBSON subscription - since 1996)

14. Web of Science – tutorials
• https://clarivate.libguides.com/woscc/searchtips
Videos:
• Web of Science - Search Tips
• Web of Science - Advanced Search
• Web of Science - Saving Your Search and Setting Alerts
• https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=web+of+science+searching

15. https://www.dimensions.ai

16. Dimensions
• project by Digital Science launched in January 2018;
• basically a bibliographic and citation database which integrates
funding data, clinical trials, patents, altmetrics;
• abstract-level with links to full text;
• only publication search is free
(https://app.dimensions.ai/discover/publication);
Help:
https://dimensions.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/folders/2300002
9956

18. SCIndeks
• a bibliographic and citation database (as well as
a publishing platform)
• nearly 50 Serbian journals dealing with
medicine and heath sciences
• Basic and advanced search
Help: http://scindeks.ceon.rs/help/en/index.html

19. Publishers’ platforms and individual journals

20. Publishers’ platforms
• subscription-based full-text databases with an
integrated search engine (Science Direct, Wiley Online
Library, Biomed Central, etc.);
• relying on standard searching techniques;
• saved searches and alerts are available;
• supplied with detailed tutorials and technical support.

21. Individual journals
• Various online platforms, some of which
are not supplied with a search engine.
• If searching is not enabled in a website,
use Google’s Advanced search
Enter the
journal’s domain

22. Search engines

23. Available through: http://kobson.nb.rs/kobson.82.html

24. EBSCO Discovery
• subscription-based search engine available through KoBSON
• searches all resources subscribed through KoBSON (all publishers) +
Open Access resources
• Basic search + Advanced search + filters
• saved searches and alerts
Tutorials: http://support.ebsco.com/help/index.php?help_topic_id=1361

26. Google Scholar
• search engine;
• does not have a transparent selection policy;
• links to full text;
• searches metadata and full text from Open Access repositories and
websites.
Tutorials:
• Google Scholar: A quick guide to effective searching
• Using Google's Advanced Search

27. Repositories and aggregators
•provide access to a wide range of sources (not only journal articles and books)
•ensure Open Access

28. http://nardus.mpn.gov.rs/

29. https://www.openaire.eu/search/find?keyword=

30. https://www.base-search.net/Search/Advanced

31. https://share.osf.io/

32. http://www.dart-europe.euhttps://oatd.org/

33. Searching techniques

34. Surveys and practice show that most users:
• search a limited range of sources;
• use simple search;
• rarely use advanced options (Boolean operators – AND, OR,
NOT / AND NOT; and “”);
• rarely use saved searches and alerts.

35. What is searched?
• In most bibliographic databases, search covers a set of metadata
fields.
• EBSCO Discovery makes it possible to search full text (full-text
search slows down the process).
• In digital repositories, both metadata and full text are searched by
default.
• It is usually possible to use Boolean operators in the simple/basic
search field.

36. Boolean operators
AND both terms must be found in each item. Narrows the
search.
OR either term (or both) must be found in returned
documents. Broadens the search.
NOT or AND NOT (depending on the search engine) – the first
term is searched, then any records containing the term
after the NOT operator are subtracted from the results.
Narrows the search.

37. Types of search
Basic/Simple search – one or more search terms are
entered in the search field
Advanced search – multiple search criteria are combined
using multiple search fields and Boolean operators
Expert search – complex search syntax is defined using field
tags, Boolean operators and brackets.
The distinction is sometimes vague. Advanced Search in the Web of Science and Scopus corresponds to expert search. In
PubMed, “expert” search strings may be entered in the Basic search field.

38. Basic search
Search string: neuropathy treatment
PubMed automatically enriches the search string
and searches for:
neuropathy[All Fields] AND ("therapy"[Subheading]
OR "therapy"[All Fields] OR "treatment"[All Fields]
OR "therapeutics"[MeSH Terms] OR
"therapeutics"[All Fields])

39. In Scopus, a search field must be defined. The
implied Boolean operator in Basic search is AND.
Basic search in Scopus and Web of Science is
similar to Advanced search in PubMed.
In the Web of Science, a search field must be defined. The
implied Boolean operator in Basic search is AND.
In Google Scholar, the implied Boolean operator in Basic
search is AND. Google Scholar offers related search
strings.
By default, Dimensions search all fields. The implied
Boolean operator in Basic search is AND.

40. Basic search – searching for a specific phrase
"neuropathy treatment"[All Fields]
Enclose the search string in “” to search
for a specific phrase!

41. Advanced search

42. • Search string:
Search string: ((neuropathy) AND treatment) NOT
diabetes in All Fields
PubMed searches for:
(neuropathy[All Fields] AND ("therapy"[Subheading] OR
"therapy"[All Fields] OR "treatment"[All Fields] OR
"therapeutics"[MeSH Terms] OR "therapeutics"[All
Fields])) NOT ("diabetes mellitus"[MeSH Terms] OR
("diabetes"[All Fields] AND "mellitus"[All Fields]) OR
"diabetes mellitus"[All Fields] OR "diabetes"[All Fields] OR
"diabetes insipidus"[MeSH Terms] OR ("diabetes"[All
Fields] AND "insipidus"[All Fields]) OR "diabetes
insipidus"[All Fields])

43. Searching may be
limited to specific
fields.

44. Using truncation to
broaden the search
asterisk (*) for truncation

45. MeSH Terms [MH]
The NLM Medical Subject Headings controlled
vocabulary of biomedical terms that is used to
describe the subject of each journal article in
MEDLINE. MeSH contains approximately 26 thousand
terms and is updated annually to reflect changes in
medicine and medical terminology. MeSH terms are
arranged hierarchically by subject categories with
more specific terms arranged beneath broader terms.
PubMed allows you to view this hierarchy and select
terms for searching in the MeSH Database.
Searching by MeSH terms

46. Searching by author keywords
Other Term [OT]
The author keyword field (OT field) is
searchable with the text word [tw]
and other term [ot] search tags. To
retrieve all citations that have
keywords, use the query haskeyword.
Other term data may display an
asterisk to indicate a major concept;
however, you cannot search other
terms with a major concept tag.

47. Applying filters to narrow the search - PubMed

48. Applying filters

51. Expert search (Advanced search in WoS and Scopus)
Warning: too many conditions
may result in “nothing found”!

52. Abstract search in Dimensions
• Getting closer to natural language search
• Text is pasted in the search field and the search is performed based on
the terms extracted (by software) from the text.

53. Saving a search and creating a search alert

54. • Only registered users may set up saved search alerts
• Registration is free (i.e. covered by subscription)

55. Saved search alerts
Setting up
preferences

56. Evaluating information

57. Evaluating information
• relevance to your research problem;
• test the strengths and weaknesses of methods used and arguments
presented;
• check the relationship to other studies;
Also:
• check where the retrieved articles have been cited (and in which context);
• check any comments and discussions, if available, especially in PubPeer
and other platforms for post-publication peer review.

58. PubPeer
• Platform for scholarly discussion and post-publication peer review
• Anyone may comment any article in the database (basically, articles that have a DOI) anonymously;
comments are moderated.
• Many comments report statistical errors, plagiarism, image manipulation, duplicate publication, etc.
• Some comments initiate a fruitful discussion.
• If installed, a plug-in marks articles commented on PubPeer when they appear in your browser; the
green band links to comments in PubPeer.

60. Access to resources not covered by subscription

61. Access to OA content
Web of Science distinguishes among various types of Open Access; records are linked to versions deposited in OA
repositories, if available
Gold – published in Gold OA journals (both APC-free OA journals and those charging an APC)
Green Accepted – published in subscription-based journals but the accepted manuscript is deposited in a
repository (and available to readers free of charge), usually after an embargo period
Green Published – published in subscription-based journals but the published version is deposited in a repository
(and available to readers free of charge), usually after an embargo period
Only Gold OA articles are identified as “Open Access” in Scopus and
Dimensions
Free full text in PubMed covers
both Gold OA content and
accepted manuscripts deposited
in PubMed Central

62. Search
repository
aggregators

63. Unpaywall plugin
• A free plugin for Chrome and Firefox (https://unpaywall.org/products/extension)
discovers Open Access Content
Unpaywall has
found an accepted
manuscript in a
digital repository

64. Questions?
biblioteka@itn.sanu.ac.rs