eHealth Observatory

Review Guidance

Search Strategy

Developing the search strategy involves:

  1. Identifying databases and other sources to search
  2. Identifying keywords and search terms
  3. Constructing queries using keywords and terms
  4. Applying any limits to the results (e.g. specific publication years)

An approach we have used when constructing complex database queries is generating a table to track individual queries and results (Note: you may have multiple query tables if using multiple sources):

Search Number Query # of Results
S1 ("A*") OR ("B*") OR (MH "C") OR (MH "D") OR (MH "E") OR (MH "F+") 1000
S2 (MH "G") OR (MH "H+") OR (MH "I") OR ("J") OR ("K") OR ("L")   900
S3 S1 AND S2 200

A-L represent general terms
MH represents a MeSH term. Some databases use a defined set of terms.

Once the search has been conducted, the results need to be compiled into a format that all reviewers can use to conduct the review. For our reviews, we create a basic worksheet to capture details of each result returned. This worksheet can then be used for other parts of the review by adding or removing columns as needed.

Template:

Result ID Source Date Retrieved Authors Title Periodical
1 Medline Aug. 12/13 XXX XXX XXX
2          
3          
Pub Year Vol Issue Pages Abstract Link
2000 2 12 235-239 XXX www...
           
           

 

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