Finding the Literature for Systematic Reviews Anne Donnelly Academic Support Librarian 27th November 2017

Session content Recap of key points from this morning. Overview of key databases and other sources. Some more top tips. Searches of a selection of resources using a demonstration research question. Hands on! The opportunity to ask your questions. Anything else?

Searching the literature - revisited Clarify the research question. Divide into concepts (PICO, if appropriate) Think of best combination of concepts. Think about synonyms & related terms. Identify resources. Test strategy Revise strategy. Re-test strategy. Adapt strategy for different databases.

Demonstration research question What is the effectiveness of cognitive behaviour therapy in chronic fatigue syndrome? Medline Embase PsycINFO Web of Science

Which database? Medline Embase PsycINFO Web of Knowledge One of the longest periods of coverage (rom 1966), with very strong, widely recognised controlled thesaurus of MeSH (Medline Subject Headings) for good relevancy of results. Long indexing delay, not strong for psychology and generally indexes only journal articles. Embase Well structured controlled thesaurus (Emtree) for good relevancy of results. Stronger than Medline for pharmacology and psychiatry and also covers meetings, conferences and symposia. Shorter indexing delay. PsycINFO Though a comparatively small database, good for social, behavioural and psychological aspects of health and illness. Also indexes dissertations, books and book chapters. Web of Knowledge Multi-disciplinary database with coverage back to 1900, offering simultaneous searching of Science Citation Index and Social Science Citation Index, and good for psychiatry or psychology. Does not have a controlled thesaurus. Excellent cited reference search function.

Cited reference search: database comparison Prins JB et al, Cognitive behaviour therapy for chronic fatigue syndrome: a multi centre randomised controlled trial. Lancet 2001, 357, 841-847 Citations Related papers PsycINFO: N/A Medline: 88 Embase: 88 Web of Science: 310 PsycINFO: N/A Medline: 129 Embase: 133 Web of Science: 18,098 Not all databases equally informative! The ‘related papers’ function can also help you to expand your search in other directions.

Searching the literature: some tips … Get organised with mind maps, tables or lists … or just whatever works for you! In addition to thesaurus terms, use text words with variants and synonyms. Phrase searching e.g. “experiential learning” can be useful. Field searching: you can specify the one to search in, e.g. abstract, title, author. Use truncation, e.g. child$ - for children, childhood, child’s. Use the wildcard function to capture variations in spelling and/or unknown characters, e.g. wom?n, behavio?r Try adjacency searching, e.g cognitive adj3 therap* Use search field limits, e.g. ti,ab. Search for specific publication types, e.g. RCT, cohort studies

… and a few more! Check out the scope note – lots of useful info to keep you on track. Check the thesaurus to help you broaden/narrow your search. Explode & focus: useful, but be aware of how they work. You will often need to translate your searches for different databases, e.g. MeSH for Medline, Emtree for Embase. Snowballing: follow up references & citations and see where they lead you. Two many results? Add additional keywords with ‘AND’; use more specific keywords or thesaurus terms; apply limits. Too few results? Check for typos; combine keywords with OR; use truncation; try some synonyms or alternative spelling; check thesaurus terms And finally ... know when to stop and you will probably recognize when that point has been reached!

Quick reminder! Reminder ended! Do document your search. Do use a bibliographic referencing system to manage your results. Reminder ended!

Help Do please just get in touch for further guidance - 1:1s a speciality! anne.donnelly@ed.ac.uk

Appendix A few screenshots from our database!

Getting ready to search Basic search: optional natural language free text search can help get you started. Advanced search: ensure box checked for searching with controlled thesaurus. Change Ovid databases here!

Check that you are on course! The Scope Note ensures that you are searching with the most appropriate term. A look at the subject hierarchy of MeSH terms also offers the opportunity to widen or narrow your search.

Combining & refining your searches with AND …

… and OR! This combination of AND and OR operators was obtained by typing 3 AND (4 OR 5) in a single search here!

An Ovid bibliographic reference Asterisks beside MeSH terms indicate the primary content of the paper. Similar articles – papers that share a number of this paper’s references. Citing articles – later papers that cite this one. Findit@Edinburgh – if no ‘Full Text’ link use to check if available from another provider. You might identify additional terms you had not thought of.

Using Web of Science to expand your search Web of Science bibliographic records very rich sources of additional information, with the Cited Reference Search a notable USP!