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DX Sciences: Search Tips & Strategies

tips and links for finding answers and materials for your papers and research

Page Outline

There are many ways to search.  Scoll on down and find the tips that work for you & your project. 

This page covers:

  • Getting Started
  • Combining your terms & Boolean
  • Subject Terms & Keywords
  • Ancestry Searching

Scroll down to see more!

Getting Started

Use multiple databases/search engines.  There will be overlap in what you find, but each will have something unique.   The following should be helpful for most if not all searches.  All of these are available off of our website either under quick links or All Resources:

               CINAHL
               MEDLINE or PubMed (basically the same database, just different search interface)
               Scopus
               CAB 

 

Extrapolation is key.  Keep in mind that you will have to pull pieces of information from various articles to make your point.  You might not – probably won’t – find the perfect article that sums up your position.  (If you do find that perfect article, it actually means that you should pick another topic as someone has beaten you to the idea!)

Take notes as you go.  It’s really hard to find or document things after the fact.  (I’ve found this out the hard way!)  So tract where you search, the terms you use, and the citations you find as you go.  Paper or online doesn’t matter.  Just track it.  Also, if an article looks *remotely* useful, make note of it.  It’s always easier to cross it off later than try to find it again.  (Sometimes you can’t find it again.  I’ve learned that the hard way too!)

Combining Terms & Boolean

Start with one concept at a time.  That way you can mix and match search sets.  Also, when you have multiple concepts it’s easy to end up with nothing.  Start with one and add the others one at a time.  You might find that you can only use two concepts together out of three.  You might need to mix and match them in different combinations.

Combine terms with OR to get more results.   If there isn’t much on your topic, combine terms ( e.g.  subject terms & the keyword terms) with OR to find the most articles.  A search on the stages of grief in Ovid MEDLINE might look like: 

stages of grief.mp. OR Grief/

(The .mp. after 'stages of grief' means that it was searched as a keyword in the title, abstract, and subject fields.  The slash (/) after 'Grief' means that it was searched as a MeSH term in the subject field only.)

Combine terms with AND to get fewer results & to bring topics together.  To combine the search on stages of grief and end of life care, you need to combine the two searches with an AND.  In Ovid MEDLINE, one possible search looks like: 

1      grief.mp. OR Grief/
2      Terminal Care/
3      1 AND 2

You can also type it out in one line like this:   (grief OR Grief/) AND Terminal Care/

If you want to be really comprehensive, you can use additional terms like so: 

      (grief OR Grief/) AND (Terminal Care/ OR end of life care)

What does Boolean mean?   George Boole was a mathmetician who had the happy thought that you can combine sets with AND, OR, NOT.  Boolean Logic is named after him.   Simple as that.

Subject Terms & Keywords

Spell out terms.  Some databases/search engines can't handle their abreviations.   Ovid MEDLINE is pretty good at deciphering them; however, check out ALS.  It will find Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis AND it will also find articles on Advanced Life Saving.   Best to type out the full term.

Use available subject terms.   In MEDLINE, for example, searching end of life care takes you to Terminal Illness as a subject term.  This usually gets you more results and also allows you to use the Explode feature. 

Explode when using subject terms.   If you look at the subject terms Respiratory Therapy or Blood Coagulation Factors, you’ll see that you can check a box labeled ‘explode.’   This will get you additional specific subject terms. In the case of Respiratory Therapy, it gets you 15 additional subject terms.  This is the same as getting 15 more file folders of articles which are NOT included in the broader term, Respiratory Therapy.
              
Respiratory Therapy
Chest Wall Oscillation
Drainage, Postural
Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation
Oxygen Inhalation Therapy 
Hyperbaric Oxygenation
Respiration, Artificial
High-Frequency Ventilation +
Interactive Ventilatory Support
Liquid Ventilation
Positive-Pressure Respiration +
Ventilator Weaning

Note: the plus sign + means that there are additional Subject terms that are not shown, however they will be included in the explode. 

Look for additional terms to search on in titles, abstracts, assigned subject terms, and full text of articles.   You might find that there are additional terms that you can search on.  For the stages of grief example, perhaps terms such as loss, bereavement, or grieving will be useful in finding more or more relevant articles.  When you are searching by keyword, it is especially important to use all the relevant terms.

Not everyone in a specific specialty or field uses the same terms when writing up articles.  Trick is to find the terms that they do use.    Once you find the terms, re-do the search.  This is why I break my searches in to separate topics.  I can then mix and match them without having to rekey everything.

Check the subject terms used by the database/search engine you are in.   Each one has a different focus and therefore, can use a different term for the same idea.  You can also use this as a way to find additional terms that you can add into your search.

Ancestry Searching - Don't Throw Out Older Articles!

You can find good articles by looking at References and Cited by.  

References are the articles and documents listed in an article's bibliography or reference list.  This will take you into the past, to older articles.   

You can travel to the future by looking at Citing articles or Cited by links in search engines such as CINAHL, Scopus, or Google Scholar. Say you have an article from 2000 and you want something more current. You can search it by title in Scopus.  If the article is found, check to see if there is a  number on the far right under the Cited column.  Clicking on that number will take you to the more current articles that used the original one in their footnote section.
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