You can also View the video using Microsoft Stream (link opens in a new window, available for University members only). Watch our 3-minute introduction to subject headings video. Searching with subject headingsĭatabase subject headings are controlled vocabulary terms that a database uses to describe what an article is about. Using this adjacency retrieves papers with phrases like "physician patient relationship", "patient physician relationship", "relationship of the physician to the patient" and so on. This finds more papers than "physician relationship".
In OvidSP databases (like Medline), searching for “physician ADJ3 relationship” will find both physician and relationship within two major words of each other, in any order. This can make your results more relevant generally the closer two words appear to each other, the closer the relationship is between them.Ĭommands for adjacency searching differ among databases, so make sure you consult database guides. You can specify how close two words appear together in your search strategy. Use adjacency searching for more accurate results For example, in the Medline database, “wom#n” will find woman and also women. There are sometimes different symbols to find a variable single character. Wildcards are useful for finding British and American spellings, for example: “behavio?r” in Medline will find both behaviour and behavior. Use it to search for a single character, or no character.Ĭheck the database help section to see which symbol to use as a wildcard. A wildcard finds variant spellings of words. For example, “therap*” will find therapy, therapies, therapist or therapists. Check the database help section if you are not sure which symbol to use. Many databases use an asterisk (*) as their truncation symbol. Truncation is useful for finding singular and plural forms of words and variant endings. You can use truncated and wildcard searches to find variations of your search term. Most databases allow you to search for phrases, but check the database guide if you are unsure. Phrase searching decreases the number of results you get and makes your results more relevant. If you want words to appear next to each other in an exact phrase, use quotation marks, eg “self-esteem”. Some databases will find the exact word or phrase, so make sure your spelling is accurate or you will miss references. You may wish to search in title fields only if you want a small number of specific results.
BOOLEAN SEARCH DEFINITION FREE
Database search strategies use a combination of free text and subject headings (where applicable).Ī keyword search usually looks for your search terms in the title and abstract of a reference. Keywords are free text words and phrases. Using truncation and wildcards can save you time and effort by finding alternative keywords. 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).Īs you search and scan articles and abstracts, you may discover different key terms to enhance your search strategy. Examine relevant abstracts or articles for alternative words, phrases and subject headings (if the database uses subject headings).Search for your concepts on a search engine like Google Scholar, scanning the results for alternative words and phrases.To find alternative keywords or phrases for your concepts try the following:
Your aim is to consider each of your concepts and come up with a list of the different ways they could be expressed. The next sections show some techniques you can use to develop your search strategy.Ĭoncepts can be expressed in different ways eg “self-esteem” might be referred to as “self-worth”. It also shows where keyword techniques like truncation, wildcards and adjacency searching have been used. 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. Take a look at this example literature search in PsycINFO (PDF) about self-esteem. It is a good idea to test your strategies and refine them after you have reviewed the search results. You may wish to develop a number of separate search strategies if your research covers several different areas.
The search strategy combines the key concepts of your search question in order to retrieve accurate results. Help in person for staff and researchersĪ search strategy is an organised structure of key terms used to search a database.Deposit your research outputs in Symplectic.
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