Library Skills
Search Structure
Your first step in your basic advanced search is to create a search strategy. This is the structure that you place your keywords into in order for your search to start off as systematic as possible.
In general, within health-related disciplines, there is a specific structure you should use when creating your search strategy. You should search for each of your concepts separately (where available - some databases, e.g. Scopus, do not allow you to search your concepts separately).
You should first search for your 'population / problem / patient' only, then search for your 'intervention' only etc.
You will join these searches together later. The reason we search separately is to make your search easier to edit if you make mistakes, and for your marker to read.
Your search could be:
- Population / problem / patient
- Intervention
- Comparison
- Outcome
Search Strategy
Next you need to create a search string (this means the way in which you combine search terms and 'string' them together). Your first step is to use Boolean Operators to join your terms together.
To successfully combine search terms together, use 'AND' and 'OR'.
| Synonymous and related search terms (OR) |
Different concepts (AND) |
Best Avoided (NOT) |
|
Combine these terms together with OR:
pain OR injury OR wound |
Combine these terms together with AND:
pain OR injury OR wound AND hand OR finger OR arm |
NOT is another Boolean Operator that you will often see as an option in a database, but it is best avoided. |
| You are likely to get more results this way. | You are likely to get less results, but more focussed on your research question this way. | You are likely to miss key resources by limiting in this way. |
See the short 'Basic Boolean search' video for your database here
Search Techniques
There are various search strategies you can employ in order to make your search string more efficient. See below for various options.
Please be aware that each database works slightly differently, so you should check the help section of each database to see which symbols they use, and how.
Phrase searching is one of the techniques that can be used to ensure your results are as relevant as possible. It can be where more than one word forms the search term.
Place double quotation marks around keywords that are phrases, i.e. two or more words. For example:
| "social media" |
| "mental health" |
| "hand washing" |
However do not overuse phrase searching by placing double quotation marks around sentences, as you will narrow down your search too much and retrieve too few results.
This is an example where phrase searching is overused: "the impact of social media on narcissistic behaviour". This will instruct the search to find items that match exactly what is within the double quotes.
Please be aware that each database works slightly differently, so you should check the help section of each database to see which symbols they use, and how.
Please see the short video on phrase searching for your database here
Truncation and wildcards are search techniques that make a search more effective and efficient. Using truncation and wildcard symbols allow simultaneous searching for different spellings of a word and various word endings.
Truncation is most often used to simultaneously search for plurals and different but related word endings.
The truncation symbol is usually the asterisk * and it replaces one or more letters at the end of the search term entered.
For example, truncating the search term addiction as below, will search for: addict, addicts, addicted and addiction
| addict* |
The Wildcard is most often used to search for different spellings of a word and is usually represented by the question mark ? or a hash sign # or sometimes the asterisk *. The wildcard symbol replaces either none or one letter in the middle of a word.
For example, placing the wildcard symbol in the correct position as below will simultaneously search for the English and American spelling: behaviour and behavior.
| behavio?r |
Please be aware that each database works slightly differently, so you should check the help section of each database to see which symbols they use, and how.
Please see the short video on 'wildcard and trunction' for your database here
Setting limits (sometimes referred to as 'filters') on your search results can help focus your results on your research question, and inclusion and exclusion criteria. Date of publication is a useful limit, as is language. However, if you are at postgraduate level, or planning to publish your research, it's best not to limit by language, and include any papers you are unable to read as an appendix - for transparency and replication purposes.
Limits vary by database, and are often not 100% accurate, so it's often best to avoid using any others.
Please see the videos on 'setting limits' for your database here
Databases
- There is a list of relevant databases in the 'databases & journal articles' tab in the Health Professions library guide which have been selected as most relevant for your area of study.
- Remember though, that the subject that you are researching may be aligned to multiple disciplines; for example, you may be researching 'the benefits of green space on the mental health of children'. Therefore, you may need to use not just health databases, but environmental databases as well. Please check the relevant library subject guide for recommended databases if you are researching a cross-disciplinary area.
- Alternatively, you can go to Primo homepage and click on the Databases tab at the top of the page, or the Databases box. This will take you through to the A-Z list of databases available to you:
The A-Z Databases Page
In the A-Z databases page in Primo you can:
- locate a database by it's title, if you know it by using the alphabetical list
- choose a database from the list of subjects via the drop down menu
- choose a database by type, using via the drop down menu
- choose a database by the platform provider
- search for a database by typing a keyword into the search bar
It can be helpful to understand the difference between a database and a database platform.
A database is an organised collection or index of information records containing, journals. journal articles, videos, images, theses, and more.
A database platform is a company which provides access to a number of different databases.
e.g.
| Database Platform | Databases |
|---|---|
| EBSCOHost | CINAHL |
| Business Source Complete | |
| Green File | |
| ERIC | |
| MEDLINE | |
| SocINDEX | |
| Proquest | Arts & Humanities Fulltext |
| PsycINFO | |
| OVID | EMBASE |
| MEDLINE |
Title / Abstract Searching
When entering your search terms in to a database, you need to tell it where to search for those terms.
A good place to search is in titles OR abstracts of documents - because if any of your keywords appear in the title or abstract of documents, they are likely to be key to those documents.
See the video on 'Title OR abstract search' for your database here
Search history & combining searches
Once you have completed all your individual searches, you will need to combine them. In most databases this function is available in your search history.
Combining your individual concept searches with the Boolean Operator AND will limit your search results to focus on your research question.
In the example below, by combining the concept for 'leg ulcer' with the concept for 'maggot therapy' with the AND Boolean Operator, the search string is telling the database to find results that contain at least one word in each concept.
"leg ulcer" OR "pressure sore" OR "venous ulcer" OR "chronic wound"
AND
"maggot therapy" OR "larval therapy"
Please see the short video on 'combining search terms' for your database here
Saving searches & creating an account
Your current search history is only available whilst your have your browser tab open. To save you searches for a later date (enabling you to re-run them, and to have a history of your searches), you should create an account in each platform (e.g. one for EBSCOhost, one for Proquest etc.)
You do this in the same way as your create an account in any website.
After you have created an account, you can save your searches and/or create email alerts to enable emails to alert you when any new research enters the database that meets your search criteria.
Please see the short videos on 'creating an account', 'saving a search' and 'creating alerts' for your database here