search strategy assignment

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What is a Search Strategy?

How to search an information source, sample search strategy write up.

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At its most basic, a search strategy is a way of keeping track of where (information sources such as databases, library catalogs, websites, etc.) and what (keywords or search terms) you used to look for sources and research on your topic.

When thinking about how to write up the search strategy for an assignment, including your DNP scholarly project, you will want to keep track of every place that you searched and the exact search terms you used for each source. It is helpful to first think about what constitutes an information sources and then what a search strategy is.

An information source is basically where you search for information. Here are some common examples:

Journal databases - these are journal and citation indexes that use controlled vocabulary and produce clear repeatable results, examples include MEDLINE, CINAHL, and APA PsycInfo
Multi-database searching - some sources allow you to search multiple databases at the same time, for example the databases vendors EBSCO and ProQuest allow you to search more than one database at a time
For example, PubMed and Google Scholar (these seem like databases, but do not have controlled vocabulary or reproducible searches (there is a hidden algorithm that is determining what you see) so for this purpose would not be considered a journal database.)
Also, journal platforms like Elsevier or Sage only allow you to search one publisher's journals and are not considered a journal database.
Any websites you searched, for example, government or agency webpages (this is sometimes called the Grey Literature)
Citation searching - this is when you look at the references of an article you have found, this can be done manual or through Google Scholar. If you have done searching this way, you will want to clearly reference the articles that you mined for citations
Contacts - did you seek additional studies or data by contacting authors or experts in the field?
Other methods - anything else you did to find references

A search strategy, is 'how' you searched the information sources, for each information source you will want to report:

What were the exact keyword and terms you used and how did you combine them? (See box below for more on keywords and Boolean logic)
How did you add anything to limit your search? (for example additional keywords, or limit by article type or publication type, limit by population)
Did you add any filters after you searched? (For example, filter to English language or peer review, or certain publication dates)
Include the date when you performed the search? (When writing up a search strategy you want to include the date you searched, this helps if you (and the reader of your search strategy) come back to see if there is anything new on the topic.)

This information is adapted from the PRISMA-S guidelines for reporting searches and search strategies.

Rethlefsen M. L., Kirtley S., Waffenschmidt S., Ayala A. P., Moher D., Page M.J., Koffel J.B. (2021). PRISMA-S Group. PRISMA-S: an extension to the PRISMA Statement for Reporting Literature Searches in Systematic Reviews. Systematic Reviews, 10 (1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-020-01542-z

You can always start searching an online source by just putting some keywords in the box to see what results come back, but knowing a little more about how the databases work can help in returning more relevant sources.

Boolean Logic: watch this short video on Boolean operators (e.g. AND; OR or NOT)

AND means that both words must be present (makes for more narrow results) - Fungi and Cancer
OR means that either word may be present (makes for broader results and is usually used for synonyms) - Fungi OR Mushrooms
NOT means that a word will be excluded from the results (makes for more narrow results) - (Fungi OR Mushrooms) NOT Yeast

Parentheses: using parenthesis along with Boolean operators can help the database know what results you want (read the Boolean operators in the correct order).

This search, Cancer AND Fungi OR Mushrooms, will return articles about cancer and fungi and articles about mushrooms
This search, Cancer AND (Fungi OR Mushrooms), will return articles about cancer and fungi and articles about cancer and mushrooms

In the EBSCO databases I will usually put synonyms in the same box with an OR and different concepts each in their own box (the boxes effectively work as parentheses in the search:

Truncation symbols: most databases allow the use of * to truncate a word. In searching it will return results for any word that starts with the characters you enter for example: nurs* = nurse, nurses, nursing, and nursery (this can be very helpful if a word has multiple endings, but also note that this last word, nursery, actually has a different meaning than the rest, so sometimes truncating can bring in some irrelevant results.

Search strategy : Searching databases in a consistent, structured manner will save you time. Keeping track of your search history can help you refine your topic, your thinking and your search strategy, and ultimately retrieve more relevant results. After each search, reflect on the keywords and synonyms you used, are there other terms, or another way to combine, to get more relevant results?

Steps in developing a search strategy include:

- define terms and write down your research question - identify, and keep track of key words, terms, and phrases - identify keyword synonyms or reflect on narrower (or broader search terms) - determine a timeframe for search results - consider what type of material you will include and why - identify where you will search for the information

This is just one example (not a template) for how a search strategy might be written up. Note that the searches are clearly reproducible, someone could go to the information sources listed and do exactly the same searches. Additionally, it includes the date the searches were done and the limiters applied in each source.

In August 2021, the databases MEDLINE and Biological Abstracts were searched using the terms: (fungi or mushroom*) AND bioactive compounds. In each database the searches were further limited to English language, published between 2016 and 2021, and peer review articles. This resulted in 869 results in MEDLINE, and 2032 in Biological Abstracts. So I did a more narrow search by adding in the concept of depression, leaving me with seven results in Biological Abstracts and five results in MEDLINE. The resulting 12 articles were then hand reviewed by skimming titles and abstracts, and five applicable articles were selected for inclusion. Additionally, the online source, Google Scholar was searched (in incognito mode) using the terms: depression and mushrooms and "bioactive compounds". From there three additional articles were selected from the first two pages of results. As a final step, two previously selected articles were entered back into Google Scholar and the "cited by" function was used to find additional newer articles (Barros et al. 2007; Elkateeb et al. 2019).

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Last Updated: Sep 4, 2024 1:50 PM
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A Guide to Evidence Synthesis: 4. Write a Search Strategy

Meet Our Team
Our Published Reviews and Protocols
What is Evidence Synthesis?
Types of Evidence Synthesis
Evidence Synthesis Across Disciplines
Finding and Appraising Existing Systematic Reviews
0. Develop a Protocol
1. Draft your Research Question
2. Select Databases
3. Select Grey Literature Sources
4. Write a Search Strategy
5. Register a Protocol
6. Translate Search Strategies
7. Citation Management
8. Article Screening
9. Risk of Bias Assessment
10. Data Extraction
11. Synthesize, Map, or Describe the Results
Evidence Synthesis Institute for Librarians
Open Access Evidence Synthesis Resources

Video: Databases and search strategies (3:40 minutes)

Writing a Search Strategy

It is recommended that you work with a librarian to help you design comprehensive search strategies across a variety of databases. Writing a successful search strategy takes an intimate knowledge of bibliographic databases.

Using Boolean logic is an important component of writing a search strategy:

"AND" narrows the search, e.g. children AND exercise
"OR" broadens the search, e.g. (children OR adolescents) AND (exercise OR diet)
"NOT" excludes terms, e.g. exercise NOT diet
"*" at the root of a word finds all forms of that word, e.g. (child* OR adolescen*) AND (exercise* OR diet*)
parentheses ensure all terms will be searched together as a set
quotations around a phrase searches that exact phrase, e.g. (child* OR adolescen* OR "young adult*")

3 Venn diagrams displaying the differences between the Boolean operators AND, OR, and NOT. Using AND narrows a search by requiring that both terms (puppy and kitten) be included in the results. Using OR broadens a search by requiring either term (puppy or kitten) be included in the results. Using NOT excludes just one term (kitten) so that included results only mention puppy and any results that mention kitten are excluded.

Evidence Synthesis Search Strategy Examples

Agriculture example: .

Research question: What are the strategies that farmer organizations use, and what impacts do those strategies have on small-scale producers in Sub Saharan Africa and India?
Key concepts from the question combined with AND: (farmer organizations) AND (Sub-Saharan Africa OR India)
Protocol and search strategies for this question in CAB Abstracts, Scopus, EconLit, and grey literature
Published scoping review for this question

Nutrition Example:

Research question: What are the health benefits and safety of folic acid fortification of wheat and maize flour (i.e. alone or in combination with other micronutrients) on folate status and health outcomes in the overall population, compared to wheat or maize flour without folic acid (or no intervention)?
Key concepts from the question combined with AND: (folic acid) AND (fortification)
Protocol on PROSPERO
Published systematic review for this question with search strategies used in 14 databases

Search Strategy Template and Filters

Human Studies Filter
Randomized Controlled Trial Filters
Other Methodology Search Filters

If you want to exclude animal studies from your search results, you may add a "human studies filter" to the end of your search strategy. This approach works best with databases that use Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) or other controlled vocabulary. You can see an example of how this was used in the MEDLINE(Ovid) search strategy of this published review (lines 13-14).

A simplified explanation of this filter can be seen below:

Add the following lines to the end of your search strategy to filter for randomized controlled trials. These are "validated search filters" meaning they have been tested for sensitivity and specificity, and the results of those tests have been published as a scientific article. The ISSG Search Filters Resource provides validated search filters for many other study design types.

Highly Sensitive MEDLINE (via PubMed) Filter from Cochrane

(randomized controlled trial [pt] OR controlled clinical trial [pt] OR randomized [tiab] OR placebo [tiab] OR drug therapy [sh] OR randomly [tiab] OR trial [tiab] OR groups [tiab])

Highly Sensitive MEDLINE (OVID) Filter from Cochrane

((randomized controlled trial.pt. or controlled clinical trial.pt. or randomized.ab. or placebo.ab. or drug therapy.fs. or randomly.ab. or trial.ab. or groups.ab.) not (exp animals/ not humans.sh.))

CINAHL Filter from Cochrane

TX allocat* random* OR (MH "Quantitative Studies") OR (MH "Placebos") OR TX placebo* OR TX random* allocat* OR (MH "Random Assignment") OR TX randomi* control* trial* OR TX ( (singl* n1 blind*) OR (singl* n1 mask*) ) OR TX ( (doubl* n1 blind*) OR (doubl* n1 mask*) ) OR TX ( (tripl* n1 blind*) OR (tripl* n1 mask*) ) OR TX ( (trebl* n1 blind*) OR (trebl* n1 mask*) ) OR TX clinic* n1 trial* OR PT Clinical trial OR (MH "Clinical Trials+")

PsycINFO Filter from ProQuest:

SU.EXACT("Treatment Effectiveness Evaluation") OR SU.EXACT.EXPLODE("Treatment Outcomes") OR SU.EXACT("Placebo") OR SU.EXACT("Followup Studies") OR placebo* OR random* OR "comparative stud*" OR clinical NEAR/3 trial* OR research NEAR/3 design OR evaluat* NEAR/3 stud* OR prospectiv* NEAR/3 stud* OR (singl* OR doubl* OR trebl* OR tripl*) NEAR/3 (blind* OR mask*)

Web Of Science (WoS) Filter from University of Alberta - Not Validated

TS= clinical trial* OR TS=research design OR TS=comparative stud* OR TS=evaluation stud* OR TS=controlled trial* OR TS=follow-up stud* OR TS=prospective stud* OR TS=random* OR TS=placebo* OR TS=(single blind*) OR TS=(double blind*)

Scopus Filter from Children's Mercy Kansas City

TITLE-ABS-KEY((clinic* w/1 trial*) OR (randomi* w/1 control*) OR (randomi* w/2 trial*) OR (random* w/1 assign*) OR (random* w/1 allocat*) OR (control* w/1 clinic*) OR (control* w/1 trial) OR placebo* OR (Quantitat* w/1 Stud*) OR (control* w/1 stud*) OR (randomi* w/1 stud*) OR (singl* w/1 blind*) or (singl* w/1 mask*) OR (doubl* w/1 blind*) OR (doubl* w/1 mask*) OR (tripl* w/1 blind*) OR (tripl* w/1 mask*) OR (trebl* w/1 blind*) OR (trebl* w/1 mask*)) AND NOT (SRCTYPE(b) OR SRCTYPE(k) OR SRCTYPE(p) OR SRCTYPE(r) OR SRCTYPE(d) OR DOCTYPE(ab) OR DOCTYPE(bk) OR DOCTYPE(ch) OR DOCTYPE(bz) OR DOCTYPE(cr) OR DOCTYPE(ed) OR DOCTYPE(er) OR DOCTYPE(le) OR DOCTYPE(no) OR DOCTYPE(pr) OR DOCTYPE(rp) OR DOCTYPE(re) OR DOCTYPE(sh))

Sources and more information:

Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions
Cochrane RCT Filters for Different Databases
American University of Beirut University Libraries Search Filters / Hedges
Methodology Search Filters by Study Design - Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard University Filters for RCTs, CCTs, Non-randomized/observational designs, and tests of diagnostic accuracy.
Search Filters - American University of Beirut University Libraries Filters for RCTs, GUIDELINEs, systematic reviews, qualitative studies, etc.

Pre-generated queries in Scopus for the UN Sustainable Development Goals

Pre-written SDG search strategies available in Scopus

Scopus, a multidisciplinary research database, provides pre-written search strategies to capture articles on topics about each of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These search strategies were updated in 2023 and are no longer available directly on "Advanced Document Search". To use these SDG search strategies:

Go to the Elsevier 2023 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Mapping page.
Under Files , click on the SDG 2023 Queries folder.
Download the .txt file for each pre-written search strategy you are interested in. You will need to know the number of the SDG of interest (e.g., SDG01.txt is for SDG 1: No Poverty). This .txt file will contain the entire search string for the SDG, already written in Scopus syntax .
In Scopus , click on "Advanced Document Search".
Copy and paste the pre-written SDG search strategy into the search field.

More about the Sustainable Development Goals:

" The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries - developed and developing - in a global partnership. They recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests."

Source: https://sdgs.un.org/goals

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Last Updated: Nov 15, 2024 11:19 AM
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Systematic reviews & evidence synthesis methods.

Schedule a Consultation / Meet our Team
What is Evidence Synthesis?
Types of Evidence Synthesis
Evidence Synthesis Across Disciplines
Finding and Appraising Existing Systematic Reviews
0. Preliminary Searching
1. Develop a Protocol
2. Draft your Research Question
3. Select Databases
4. Select Grey Literature Sources
5. Write a Search Strategy
6. Register a Protocol
7. Translate Search Strategies
8. Citation Management
9. Article Screening
10. Risk of Bias Assessment
11. Data Extraction
12. Synthesize, Map, or Describe the Results
Evidence Synthesis Resources & Tools

Writing a Search Strategy

Using Boolean logic is an important component of writing a search strategy:

"AND" narrows the search, e.g. children AND exercise
"OR" broadens the search, e.g. (children OR adolescents) AND (exercise OR diet)
"NOT" excludes terms, e.g. exercise NOT diet
"*" at the root of a word finds all forms of that word, e.g. (child* OR adolescen*) AND (exercise* OR diet*)
parentheses ensure all terms will be searched together as a set
quotations around a phrase searches that exact phrase, e.g. (child* OR adolescen* OR "young adult*")

Evidence Synthesis Search Strategy Examples

Agriculture Example:

Research question: What are the strategies that farmer organizations use, and what impacts do those strategies have on small-scale producers in Sub Saharan Africa and India?
Key concepts from the question combined with AND: (farmer organizations) AND (Sub-Saharan Africa OR India)
Protocol and search strategies for this question in CAB Abstracts, Scopus, EconLit, and grey literature
Published scoping review for this question

Nutrition Example:

Research question: What are the health benefits and safety of folic acid fortification of wheat and maize flour (i.e. alone or in combination with other micronutrients) on folate status and health outcomes in the overall population, compared to wheat or maize flour without folic acid (or no intervention)?
Key concepts from the question combined with AND: (folic acid) AND (fortification)
Protocol on PROSPERO
Published systematic review for this question with search strategies used in 14 databases

Search Strategy Template and Filters

Human Studies Filter
Randomized Controlled Trial Filters
Other Methodology Search Filters

See Appendix 2 at the end of this published search strategy for an example of a human studies filter in a MEDLINE(Ovid) search strategy.

Line 13 searches for all animal studies, and then line 14 searches for only the full search results in line 12, NOT including any of the animal studies from line 13 (#12 NOT #13).