Systematic Searching

Kieran LambHead of Library Services

Fade Library, Liverpool PCT

• OR, AND, NOT• PICO and ECLIPS tools to make

designing a search strategy easy• Natural Language and Controlled

Vocabularies explained• Where to Search?

Outline

OR

OR – expands a search by creating an either or situation

FISH OR CHIPS

RetrievesFISH

CHIPS

FISH AND CHIPS

AND – limits a search by creating an situation where all elements must be present

FISH AND CHIPS

RetrievesFISH AND CHIPS

AND

NOT – limits a search by creating an situation by excluding records

CHIPS NOT FISH

RetrievesCHIPS

NOT

PICO

P – patient or population

I – Intervention

C – Comparison

O – Outcome

Within columns OR between columns AND

ECLIPS

E – Expectation

C – Client Group

L – Location

I – ImpactP – Profesionals involved

S – Service

Within columns OR between columns AND

1. Controlled Vocabularies use preferred terms to describe concepts e.g. the MESH preferred term for PRIMARY CARE is PRIMARY HEALTH CARE

2. Natural language searches search for the term exactly as you type it and is author dependent.

Systematic searches will use both natural language and controlled vocabularies in their strategy

Natural Language and Controlled Vobaularies

Natural Language v Controlled Vobaularies

Natural LanguageSearches for exactly the term you type

Controlled VocabularySearches for preferred key terms

+ simple and natural

+ precise way of searching (superficially)

+ keeps up-to-date with new developments

- Soft use of languages means synonyms predominate

+ ensures maximum retrieval

+ precisely defined and consitent

+ hierarchy enhances search

+ brownie points for assignments!

- time lag in adoption of new concepts

- need to be consistently applied

- native to each product

Databases to Search

NHS Evidence – Synthesised evidence and materials from NHS Evidence Specialist Collections (Evidence based materials)Cochrane Library - CDR, HTA, DARE, NHSeed, Methodology Register, Controlled Trials Register (Evidence based materials)AMED (Complementary medicine and allied health)BNI (Nursing)CINAHL (Nursing and allied health)Embase (Clinical medicine and pharmacology)HMIC (Policy and management)Medline (Clinical medicine, Allied Health, Nursing, Vet Science)PsycINFO (Psychology and mental health)Best Bets (Evidence based materials) Trip Database (Evidence based materials)

Further ?s

Time to Search