Medicine & Health Sciences: Search Strategy

Once your research question is framed, the next step is to identify the key concepts. For each concept, think of synonyms, acronyms, and alternative spellings. These will be the keywords you test in your searches. For example:

• For Heart Attack, you might use myocardial infarction, cardiac infarction, acute coronary syndrome, heart infarction etc.
• For Student Engagement, you might use learner engagement, academic engagement, school engagement, classroom participation, student motivation etc. 

Start by:

• Underlining the main concepts in your question
• Brainstorming related terms or phrases
• Looking at relevant articles to see what terminology is commonly used

Use a 'seed article', a relevant paper you already know, and scan its title, abstract, keywords, and references for more terms.

Create a simple table listing your concepts and their synonyms to organise your thoughts.

Various templates and toolkits are available that will help you document your search process, e.g.

1. Premji, Z. and Hayden, K. (2022) ‘Evidence synthesis and systematic reviews support toolkit’. Available at: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/J7DFX.

This toolkit contains resources, templates and other useful materials for researchers undertaking evidence synthesis projects such as systematic or scoping reviews. This template from  Mining and Seed Papers and Search Development is very useful: https://osf.io/gjsq3

It provides a Search Development Worksheet that you can adapt for your research question and databases, and includes many practical and useful tools including a database syntax cheat sheet

2.  Paul Miller, on behalf of  Effective Practice and Organisation of Care (EPOC) (2021) ‘Search audit template excel spreadsheet’. Zenodo. Available at: https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.5106379.

This excel template provides a spreadsheet is designed to be used for recording and summarising search strategies and PRISMA numbers for systematic reviews

Watch this video guide developed by UCC Library. It offers step by step guidance on the various aspects of developing a search strategy and searching across a range of databases including CINAHL, EMBASE and Web of Science

UCC Library introduction to Searching Techniques for Systematic and other Reviews.

including

• Developing a systematic search strategy
• Selecting your Controlled Vocabulary for your search 

A systematic search is made up of different elements, including: keywords, subject headings, database search operators, Boolean operators, and search fields. After identifying search terms, you can start building a search strategy using appropriate databases for your discipline or topic. 

Start with subject specific databases, then add  multidisciplinary databases like Web of Science and Scopus to capture relevant research published in journals outside your primary field.

• Browse A-Z listing of UCC databases for a full list of databases available.

Remember to create a personal account for each database, allowing you to:

• Save and rerun your searches later
• Set up email alerts
• Export results to your Reference Manager (Zotero, Endnote, Mendeley etc.)

Many databases, but not all, have a thesaurus of preferred terms or a list of Subject Headings applied to articles in the database (i.e. controlled vocabulary). These terms help retrieve relevant results regardless of author terminology. They enable improved accuracy, and the capture of conceptual variations.

Controlled vocabularies are pre-defined terms used by databases to categorise articles consistently.  Databases like PubMed, Embase, CINAHL and PsycINFO assign subject headings (e.g., MeSH terms) to articles. These help you retrieve articles even if different terminology is used by the authors. 

Examples:

• Exploding a term includes narrower terms beneath it in the hierarchy. When available, start wide with “explode” and narrow later if needed.
• Combine these Controlled Vocabulary terms with your Title/Abstract Keyword search using OR for comprehensive results.

To build an effective search strategy, break your research question into key concepts. Think of each concept as a building block.

For each concept:

• Combine controlled vocabulary (e.g. MeSH, CINAHL Headings) with title/abstract keywords using OR 
• This captures different ways a concept might be described.

Once you've searched for each concept, combine the different concept blocks using AND to focus your search.

Key Search Techniques

Boolean Operators

• OR: Combines similar terms: broadens results.
  • Example: depression OR anxiety
• AND: Combines different concepts: narrows results
  • Example: (depression OR anxiety) AND (adolescents OR teenagers)
• NOT: Excludes terms: narrows by removing unwanted concepts. Warning use NOT very sparingly, if at all. NOT can exclude many relevant results

Use capital letters for Boolean operators for clarity. AND, OR, NOT

Other Search Techniques

• Phrase Searching

Use quotation marks to search for exact phrases
Example: "cognitive behavioural therapy", "chronic pain"

• Truncation

Use an asterisk * to find word variants
Example: child* → child, children, childhood

• Wildcards

Use a symbol to replace a character (varies by database)
Example: wom?n → woman, women

• Nesting

Use brackets to control the order of operations
Example: (child* OR adolescen*) AND (anxiety OR depression)

Each platform (PubMed, PsycINFO, Embase, etc.) differs, so do check their FAQs and help pages and use database-specific syntax and search guidelines.

This  database syntax cheat sheet is also useful

Build and Test Your Search

Now it’s time to put your keywords and search techniques together to build your search.
Start with one concept and add others using Boolean logic. Refine your search based on what you find. Remember this is an iterative process.

• Build your search step-by-step: test each concept block individually before combining them
• Adjust based on the number and relevance of results
• Revise, rerun, repeat

You may need to:

• Add new keywords
• Adjust your use of controlled vocabulary
• Modify limits or filters

Keep a search log and save your search history. Use filters (e.g., publication year, language) sparingly, and only when justified.

Document your search strategy carefully so it can be reported and replicated.

Test, revise, and re-run your search.

Systematic searching is not “one and done.” Systematic Searching is Iterative Searching: You will read, revise, and refine as you develop your search.

Once you’ve run your searches across databases, the next step is to organise, track, and prepare your results for screening and analysis. This is a key part of keeping your review systematic and reproducible.

Export Your References
After running your searches. Export your results from each database into reference management software like:

• Zotero
• EndNote
• Mendeley

These tools help you store, organise, and cite your references with ease.

Need help choosing or using reference software? Our Referencing Manager Guide can help you get started.

Keep Track of Your Search Activity
Document:

• The search strategy used in each database
• The number of results retrieved
• Any changes or filters applied
• Your inclusion and exclusion criteria

Use a search log or audit trail (Excel or Word) to stay organised:

This Excel template is very useful:  A spreadsheet designed to be used for recording and summarising search strategiesis  You can download and adapt the EPOC Search Audit Worksheet: 

• Paul Miller, on behalf of Effective Practice and Organisation of Care (EPOC). Search Audit Template Excel Spreadsheet. Zenodo, 15 July 2021., https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.5106379.

Deduplicate Your Results
When searching across multiple databases, you’ll often find duplicate references.

• Use your reference manager’s deduplication tools
• This ensures you don’t screen the same study more than once

Use Screening Tools
For collaborative screening and study selection, try:

• Covidence: Covidence: A specialized platform designed for systematic reviews that facilitates screening, data extraction, and consensus building. UCC Library does not have an institutional subscription to Covidence, though some individual departments maintain their own subscriptions. However, you can also take a free trial with Covidence as an individual subscriber
• Rayyan: A free web-based tool for screening and tagging

Both tools allow you to:

• Blind-screen studies
• Apply inclusion/exclusion criteria
• Tag and organise decisions

Save and Back Up Everything

• Save your search history in each database (most allow you to create a personal account and save searches)
• Keep a secure backup of all exported files, logs, and notes

As said above, Systematic searching is not “one and done.” You will read, revise, and refine. Systematic searching is iterative.

Keeping well-managed records ensures transparency, accuracy, and efficiency throughout your review.