Writing search strategy literature review

Writing search strategy literature review

The search strategy combinations of key terms and inclusion and exclusion criteria are stated in Appendix 1. The researcher also reviewed relevant academic books, organisational publications and ‘grey’ literature. A summary table and critique of the 37 reviewed articles identified by designated terms is included as Appendix blogger.comted Reading Time: 2 mins Sep 23,  · Documenting search strategies is part of the Search for studies step. The search process needs to be documented in enough detail throughout the process to ensure that it can be reported correctly in the review, to the extent that all the searches of all the databases are reproducible. It should be borne in mind at the outset that the full search strategies for each database will need to be included in an Appendix of the blogger.com: Michaela Venn Aug 04,  · The names of the sources you search and which provider you accessed them through - eg Medline (Ovid), Web of Science (Thomson Reuters). You should also include any other literature sources you used. The search strategies that you applied when searching different sources (eg Medline, Web of Science) can be added as an appendix to your blogger.com: Karen McNally

Developing a search strategy - Literature Review - Library Guides at Charles Sturt University

A search strategy is an organised structure of key terms used to search a database. The search strategy combines the key concepts of your search question in order to retrieve accurate results. Each database works differently so you need to adapt your search strategy for each database. You may wish to develop a number of separate search strategies if your research covers several different areas.

It is a good idea to test your strategies and refine them after you have reviewed the search results. Take a look at this example literature search in PsycINFO PDF about self-esteem.

The example shows the subject heading and keyword searches that have been carried out for each concept within our research question and how they have been combined using Boolean operators.

It also shows where keyword techniques like truncation, wildcards and adjacency searching have been used. Your aim is to consider each of your concepts and come up with a list of the different ways they could be expressed. When you've done this, you should have lists of words and phrases for each concept as in this completed PICO model PDF or this example concept map PDF.

As you search and scan articles and abstracts, you may discover different key terms to enhance your search strategy. Keywords are free text words and phrases. Database search strategies use a combination of free text and subject headings where applicable. A keyword search usually looks for your search terms in the title and abstract of a reference. You may wish to search in title fields only if you want a small number of specific results. Some databases will find the exact word or phrase, so make sure your spelling is accurate or you will miss references.

Phrase searching decreases the number of results you get and makes your results more relevant. Most databases allow you to search for phrases, writing search strategy literature review, but check the database guide if you are unsure. You can use truncated and wildcard searches to find variations of your search term. Truncation is useful for finding singular and plural forms of words and variant endings. Check the database help section if you are not sure which symbol to use.

A wildcard finds variant spellings of words. Use it to search for a single character, or no character. There are sometimes different symbols to find a variable single character.

You can specify how close two words appear together in your search strategy. This can make your results more relevant; generally the closer two words appear to each other, the closer the relationship is between them. Commands for adjacency searching differ writing search strategy literature review databases, so make sure you consult database guides. This finds more papers than "physician relationship". Using this adjacency retrieves papers with phrases like "physician patient relationship", "patient physician relationship", "relationship of the physician to the patient" and so on.

Database subject headings are controlled vocabulary terms that a database uses to describe what an article is about. Watch our 3-minute introduction to subject headings video. You can also View the video using Microsoft Stream link opens in a new window, available for University members only. Using appropriate subject headings enhances your search and will help you to find more results on your topic. This is because subject headings find articles according to their subject, even if the article does not use your chosen key words.

You should combine both subject headings and keywords in your search strategy for each of the concepts you identify. This is particularly important if you are undertaking a systematic review or an in-depth piece of work. Subject headings may vary between databases, so you need to investigate each database separately to find the subject headings they use.

For example, for Medline you can use MeSH Medical Subject Headings and for Embase you can use the EMTREE thesaurus. SEARCH TIP: In Ovid databases, search for a known key paper by title, writing search strategy literature review the "complete reference" button to see which subject headings the database indexers have given that article, and consider adding relevant ones to your own search strategy.

Boolean operators AND, writing search strategy literature review, OR and NOT allow you to try different combinations of search terms or subject headings.

Databases often show Boolean operators as buttons or drop-down menus that you can click to combine your search terms or results.

NOT excludes a search term or concept. It should be used with caution as you may inadvertently exclude relevant references. Cited reference searching can complement your literature search. However be careful not to just look at papers that have been cited in isolation. A robust literature search is also needed to writing search strategy literature review publication bias.

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Library Study and research support Literature searching Literature searching explained, writing search strategy literature review. Show all contents Contents. Your search strategy will account for all: possible search terms keywords and phrases truncated and wildcard variations of search terms subject headings where applicable Each database writing search strategy literature review differently so you need to adapt your search strategy for each database.

How a search strategy looks in practice Take a look at this example literature search in PsycINFO PDF about self-esteem, writing search strategy literature review. Search strategy techniques The next sections show some techniques you can use to develop your search strategy. To find alternative keywords or phrases for your concepts try the following: Use a thesaurus to identify synonyms.

Search for your concepts on a search engine like Google Scholar, scanning the results for alternative words and phrases, writing search strategy literature review. Examine relevant abstracts or articles for alternative words, phrases and subject headings if the database uses subject headings. Using truncation and wildcards can save you time and effort by finding alternative keywords.

Search with keywords Keywords are free text words and phrases. Truncation and wildcard searches You can use truncated and wildcard searches to find variations of your search term. Check the database help section to see which symbol to use as a wildcard. Use adjacency searching for more accurate results You can specify how close two words appear together in your search strategy.

Searching with subject headings Database subject headings are controlled vocabulary terms that a database uses to describe what an article is about. This is particularly important if you are undertaking a systematic review or an in-depth piece of work Subject headings may vary between databases, so you need to investigate writing search strategy literature review database separately to find the subject headings they use.

Use Boolean logic to combine search terms Boolean operators AND, OR and NOT allow you to try different combinations of search terms or subject headings. The main Boolean operators are: OR AND NOT OR is used to find articles that mention either of the topics you search for. AND is used to find articles that mention both of the searched topics. Citation searching Citation searching is a method to find articles that have been cited by other publications. Use citation searching or cited reference searching to: find out whether articles have been cited by other authors find more recent papers on the same or similar subject discover how a known idea or innovation has been confirmed, applied, improved, extended, or corrected help make your literature review more comprehensive, writing search strategy literature review.

You can use cited reference searching in: OvidSP databases Google Scholar Web of Science Scopus Cited reference searching can complement your literature search.

Basic Search Strategies for Systematic Reviews

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Literature Review - Literature Review - Library Guides at CQUniversity

Aug 19,  · Writing a successful search strategy takes an intimate knowledge of bibliographic databases. Using Boolean logic is an important component of writing a search strategy: "AND" narrows the search, e.g. children AND exercise. "OR" broadens the search, e.g. (children OR adolescents) AND (exercise OR diet) "NOT" excludes terms, e.g. exercise NOT blogger.com: Erin Eldermire Aug 04,  · The names of the sources you search and which provider you accessed them through - eg Medline (Ovid), Web of Science (Thomson Reuters). You should also include any other literature sources you used. The search strategies that you applied when searching different sources (eg Medline, Web of Science) can be added as an appendix to your blogger.com: Karen McNally You should take this into account when devising and applying your search strategy for the literature. 4. Remaining literature needs to be filtered according to contribution of the text to the development of the research area. Regardless of the type of the selected research area, the literature review will identify many works that have been completed by respected authorities in the area. Due to the word limitation