Systematic Reviews: Translating your search strategy

 

Subject headings

 

Most databases use unique subject headings to index their articles - for each database adapt these subject headings. For more information, see: 

https://libguides.library.universityofgalway.ie/Systematic_Reviews/Searchstrategy

https://libguides.library.universityofgalway.ie/Systematic_Reviews/Advancedsearchtechniquess 

 

Note: Some databases (Web of Knowledge, SCOPUS) don’t use subject headings, so you are relying on searching authors’ words – remember to think of different words to describe the topic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Search fields

The fields you can search free-text terms (or the combination of them) vary between the databases. 

Note: The Polyglot Search Translator will help you translate search fields from Medline or PubMed. See box below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Phrase searching, truncation, wildcards, Boolean and proximity operators

Different databases offer different wildcard characters and commands.

Note: The Polyglot Search Translator will help you translate wildcard characters and commands from Medline or PubMed. See box below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Subject headings

As each database has its own indexing system, you need to identify the subject headings for each database separately.

These are the subject headings for the concept of Dementia for some of our  health science databases (note the slightly different spelling): 

MeSH Terms	PsycInfo Thesaurus	CINAHL Headings	Emtree Terms
Dementia Alzheimer disease	Dementia Alzheimer's disease	Dementia Alzheimer's disease	Dementia Alzheimer disease

Also, note how the syntax between different databases varies, even if they use the same heading; e.g. demonstrated for the three databases that use MeSH as the controlled vocabulary:

PubMed	Ovid	Cochrane
Dementia [mh] Alzheimer disease [mh]	exp dementia/ exp Alzheimer disease/	MeSH descriptor: [Dementia] explode all trees MeSH descriptor: [Alzheimer Disease] explode all trees

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Search fields

Not all databases allow users to customise the search fields as freely as Ovid. Simply try to keep the search fields as consistent as possible. This table lists similar options in Health Science databases:

Medline via PubMed	dementia [tiab]
Medline via Ovid	dementia.ab,kf,ti.
Embase	dementia.ab,kw,ti.
EBSCO PsycINFO	TI dementia OR AB dementia
Cochrane	dementia:ti,ab,kw
EBSCO CINAHL	TI dementia OR AB dementia
Web of Science	TOPIC: (dementia)
Scopus	TITLE-ABS-KEY ( dementia )

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Phrase searching, wildcards and proximity operators

Some databases offer a wider range of proximity operators and wildcards than others; plus the function of the symbols used varies between the databases. It is best to visit the Search Help menu for each database or see

The EPOC database syntax guide 

 From Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care  (EPOC) group resources for authors https://epoc.cochrane.org/resources/epoc-resources-review-authors

 

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Here are a few examples for the example search to illustrate the difference of symbols and meaning.

 

Wildcards

Ovid databases	behavio?r.ab,kf,ti.	? stands for zero or one character within a word finds behavior and behaviour
Cochrane	behavi*r:ti,ab,kw	* is used to match multiple characters within a word finds behavior and behaviour
CINAHL	behavio#r.ab,kw,ti.	# finds all citations of the word that appear with or without the extra character finds behavior and behaviour
Web of Science	TOPIC: (behavio$r)	$ useful for finding British and American spellings of same word finds behavior and behaviour
Scopus	Scopus finds common American/British English variant spellings automatically

 

 

Proximity operators

Ovid databases	animal adj2 therapy.ab,kf,ti.	animal and therapy need to be within 2 words of each other: one or no word between them
Medline via PubMed	"animal therapy"[tiab:~2]	Finds the terms when maximum number of words between them is two
Cochrane	animal near/2 therapy:ti,ab,kw	Finds the terms when maximum number of words between them is two
CINAHL	(TI animal N2 therapy) OR (AB animal N2 therapy)	N2 finds the words if they are within two words of one another regardless of the order in which they appear
Web of Science	TOPIC: (animal NEAR/2 therapy)	NEAR/2 maximum 2 words separate the terms
Scopus	TITLE-ABS-KEY ( animal W/2 therapy )	W/2 finds the terms when they are within 2 words of one another

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