How to Conduct a Search Strategy

In this lesson, we will review the steps you take in order to perform an effective search using databases and other resources. Every search begins with a research question or topic. If you have not developed your research question or chosen your topic you will need to complete this first step.

Instructions: Select a step to get more information.

Develop a research question or choose a topic
Identify the first step in your research process
Develop your search strategy using PICO
Brainstorm your search terms or identify terminology that must be included in your search
Perform a preliminary search to determine if there is any literature on your topic

Step 1: Developing a Research Question or Choosing a Topic

Introduction

Begin the process by identifying what you have an interest in investigating. What do you what to know? What do you want to learn? Who do you want help? What medication, treatment, procedure, or therapy do you want to research? Is there a specific population you want to focus your research on? Keep in mind the narrower your topic and more focused your research question the less you will find published in a database or online. It is recommended that you begin with a broad search to determine what has been published on a specific patient population, medication, procedure, therapy, etc.

PICO is an acronym for

Patient
Intervention
Comparison
Outcome

PICO is used to create a researchable question based on a clinical situation you have encountered. Based on your PICO question, you will identify keywords and/or subject terms to use in database searches.

You can use PICO to develop your research question.

P

Patient or population/disease: Which population are you studying? (Consider age, gender, ethnicity, group with a certain disorder, etc.)

I

Intervention, prognostic factor, or exposure: What do you want to do for the patient? (Consider therapy, exposure to a disease, risk behavior, prognostic factor, preventative measure, or diagnostic test)

C

Comparison or control: Are you comparing two interventions or variables? (Consider absence of disease, absence of risk factor, or use of placebo)

O

Outcome: What is the expected result or what do you hope to accomplish, improve, or affect? (Consider disease incidence, accuracy of a diagnosis, rate of occurrence of adverse outcome, survival, or mortality rates).

Step 2: Identifying the first step in your research process

Identify a clinical question or problem to investigate.

Brainstorm terms authors or indexers might use to describe your topic.

Take the terms you brainstormed and search for controlled vocabulary in the databases. For example, search PubMed for MeSH terms.

Search the library databases using controlled vocabulary, text terms, or a combination of both to find relevant resources.

Keep record of citations and resources using a citation manager or create an account in a library database, such as My NCBI in PubMed.

Sometimes you have reviewed resources online and through the Library, and need to consult:

A textbook
Human expert(s)
Other resources to acquire information to help you investigate your research question

Step 3: Developing Your Search Strategy Using PICO

You can use PICO to develop your search strategy.

Boolean

Boolean logic is a building block of many computer applications and is an important concept in database searching. Using the correct Boolean operator can make all the difference in a successful search.

AND, OR, NOT

There are three basic Boolean search commands: AND, OR and NOT.

AND searches find all of the search terms. For example, searching on dengue AND malaria AND zika returns only results that contain all three search terms. Very limited results.
OR searches find one term or the other. Searching on dengue OR malaria OR zika returns all items that contain any of the three search terms. Returns a large number of results.
NOT eliminates items that contain the specified term. Searching on malaria NOT zika returns items that are about malaria, but will specifically NOT return items that contain the word zika. This is a way to fine-tune results.

Note: sometimes AND NOT is used; serves the same function as NOT.

Boolean Operators Transcript

Using Boolean Search with Exact Phrases

If you're searching for a phrase rather than just a single word, you can group the words together with quotation marks. Searching for "dengue fever" will return only items with that exact phrase.

When to use parentheses?

Think of your search in concepts, then put those concepts inside parentheses. Different databases have different rules about combining searches. To make sure you get the search you want, use parentheses - every database follows those rules.

Step 4: Brainstorming Your Search Terms

Once you have developed your research question or chosen your topic you can begin to brainstorm terms to use in your database search.

Brainstorm terms authors or indexers might use to describe your topic.
Make a list of terminology and relevant terms to use in your search.
Include synonyms or similar terms to combine using the Boolean operator OR.
Search for controlled vocabulary in the databases (for example, search PubMed for MeSH terms).

Step 5: Preliminary Search

Perform a preliminary search to determine what has been published on your topic or research question. The preliminary search is the point in the research process where you can identify a gap in the literature.

Summary

You are now ready to begin your search for evidence. Remember to use the steps reviewed in this lesson:

Step 1: Develop a research question or choose a topic
Step 2: Identify the first step in your research process
Step 3: Develop your search strategy using PICO
Step 4: Brainstorm your search terms or identify terminology that must be included in your search
Step 5: Perform a preliminary search to determine if there is any literature on your topic