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Formulating MEDLINE Search Strategy
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- Define your question.
- Select MeSH terms that best represent your concepts.
- EXPLODE MeSH terms to include more specific terms, if
appropriate. (EXPLODE is the default in PubMed.)
- Consider text words when a MeSH term does not exist for your
concept.
- Select appropriate subheadings, if appropriate, to further
define your concept.
- Combine concepts with AND, OR, NOT.
AND is used to connect concepts when both or all must be
present.
Nutrition AND Infant
OR is used to group synonymous terms when at least one must be
present.
Nutrition OR Diet
NOT is used to eliminate articles containing the specified term.
Use NOT cautiously!
Diet NOT Vegetarian
- Refine your search by limiting to age, sex, human, etc.
- Select appropriate research methods terms for selecting literature
with clinical relevancy.
- Review search results.
- Examine MeSH terms of particularly relevant articles in your
retrieval. Rerun search using these terms.
- Use the "Related Articles" feature in PubMed.
- Run search in other databases, as appropriate.
Getting Too Much OR Not Enough from Your MEDLINE
Search?
TECHNIQUES FOR LIMITING: When Search Retrieves
Too
Much |
TECHNIQUES FOR INCREASING RETRIEVAL: When Search
Doesn't
Retrieve Enough |
AND in another concept |
Use OR
with
synonymous/related
concepts |
Limit to English |
Include all
languages (English
abstracts are often available) |
Limit by Age, Sex, Human |
Remove all
Limits |
Limit to Publication Type (Randomized
Controlled Trial,
Review) |
Do not restrict to Publication
Types |
Use Subheadings (Diagnosis,
Therapy) |
Choose All
Subheadings |
Use more specific term (Femoral Neck Fractures
instead of
Hip Fractures) |
Use
broader term (Eye Diseases instead of Retinal Diseases) |
Apply Major Focus to MeSH |
Remove Major Focus limit |
Do not explode term. (Choose "Do Not Explode
This Term" in PubMed.) |
EXPLODE
MeSH to include more
specific terms (Choose EXPLODE in Ovid.) |
Use Text Word in
Title |
Truncate text
words (
recommend*)++ |
Limit to Subsets (e.g., Core Clinical
Journals) |
Use the
"See Related" feature in PubMed |
++ PubMed uses an asterisk (*) . Ovid uses a question mark (?).
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This page is maintained at
www.uic.edu/depts/lib/lhsp/resources/ebm.shtml by Jo
Dorsch, UIC
Library of the Health Sciences-Peoria. Please send comments to Jo Dorsch jod@uic.edu.
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Last updated: Wednesday, 23-Mar-2005 15:38:53 CST
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