The Search Process Piece by Piece

The Pieces

The Pieces

• Creating a well-built question that is answerable and contains the following elements: problem/population, intervention, comparison and outcome.

• Distilling the major concepts from the research question in order to derive search terms

• Identifying major stakeholders interested in your particular research topic in order to identify appropriate information sources, especially article databases.

• Searching using controlled vocabulary vs. keyword searching; to do a comprehensive search, both may be required and there is an art to keyword searching (i.e., synonyms and variant spellings)

• Applying exclusion and inclusion criteria (i.e., determining study types, population, language)

• Managing output (i.e., citation management, keeping search strategies, updating search results)

• Knowing when to stop and writing up the search process

Creating a well-built question – meet PICO• Population/Problem

What is the target disease/disorder/condition? Who is affected?

• InterventionWhat are you proposing to do to or for this particular population/problem?

• ComparisonIs there a comparison to the Intervention? If there is no comparison, you can leave this blank. NB: with medications ‘placebo’ may be the comparison.

• OutcomeWhat is it you seek to achieve or measure in the population/problem in terms of the Intervention? Is there a scale or measurement instrument that would quantify a change, e.g., Body Mass Index, Physical Activity Scale for the Elderly, Mini-Mental Status exam, Beck Inventory, etc.?

Creating a well-built question

In people who smoke, do pictorial warnings improve the probability of quitting?

Population/Problem : People who smoke

Intervention: pictorial warnings

Comparison: no warnings Outcome: reduced or termination of smoking

In patients [include significant demographics] with [specify Target Problem ] does [specify Intervention] or [specify Comparison, if any] affect [specify Outcome]?

Problem/Population

AND

Intervention

AND

Comparison

AND

Outcome

smokers Pictorial warnings none Reduce or quit smoking

Distilling the major concepts

Identifying major stakeholders:“Who cares about this?”

Public Health Medical Practioners

Tobacco industry

MEDLINE (PubMed or Ovid MEDLINE)

Web of Science

Point-of-care tools (DynaMed)

Problem/Population

AND

Intervention

AND

Comparison

AND

Outcome

Smokers pictorial warnings Smoking cessation

OR OR OR OR

smok* Product labeling/product labelling

smoking

OR OR OR OR

Tobacco products packaging

OR OR OR OR

Tobacco use

OR

Searching using controlled vocabulary vs. keyword searching

Searching using controlled vocabulary vs.

keyword searching

Concepts MeSH

Smokingsmokers tobacco

SmokingTobacco products

Tobacco use

Pictorial labelingPackaging

Labeling/labelling

product labeling

Quit/stop smokingReduce smoking

Smoking cessation

Question Domains • Foreground questions fall into general question domains. • Each domain is best answered by particular study types.• Study types are powerful limits to finding best evidence.

Question Domain Suggested Best Study Types

Diagnosis RCTs > prospective studies (which make a blind comparison to the gold standard)

Therapy RCTs > cohort studies > case-control studies

Etiology/Harm RCTs > cohort studies > case-control studies

Prognosis cohort studies > case-control studies

Economic Analysis costs and cost analysis

Applying exclusion and  inclusion criteria Ways to appropriate limit the results retrieved:

• Study type (‘hierarchy of ‘evidence)• Population (adults, children, United States)• Language• Year of publication

Applying exclusion and  inclusion criteria:

Hierarchy of Evidence

Managing output

• Citation management

• Retaining search strategies

• Updating search results

Citation management options

Tufts: • EndNote Desktop• EndNote Online Premium (cloud-based/sync with desktop version)• RefWorks (cloud-based)

Freely available (limited file storage capacity):• Zotero (cloud-based/sync with desktop version)• Mendeley (cloud-based/sync with desktop version)• EndNote Online Basic (cloud-based)

Retaining and updating search strategies

• Create an account on the database, i.e., MyNCBI account (PubMed) ,My Account (Ovid)

• Save search strategies and citations

• Create alerts

• Send search strategies to others

Evidence Analysis Log

Literature Search Tracking Log

Knowing when to stop

• Same citations retrieved by different databases

• Citations you retrieve reference each other

• Recent, high-quality systematic reviews are available

Need Help?

Toolbelt for Master of Nutrition Science and Policy (MNSP)Health and Nutrition PolicySystematic ReviewsSystematic Reviews of Nutrition and Public Health

Please contact me!

Amy Lapidowamy.lapidow@tufts.edu1.617.636.0892

Searching the Literature

Searching is an art and science

• Be flexible• Look at the terms… would a machine think they are the same thing?• Do you need all the terms you chose?• Are there multiple forms of the word or is there a common word root

you want?

What databases will be searched?

• Does the database have a controlled vocabulary (like MeSH)?• How are the mechanics of the platform on which that database

resides different from other databases?• How does truncation work?• How to search words next to each other?• How do the citations get into the citation manager ?

• Is there a particular feature of the database to use?