LibGuides: Systematic Reviews: Searching

Search Strategy

The goal of systematic review searches is to identify all relevant studies on a topic. Therefore, systematic review searches are typically quite extensive. It is necessary, however, to strike a balance between striving for comprehensiveness and maintaining relevance when developing a search strategy. Increasing the comprehensiveness (or sensitivity) of a search will reduce its precision and will retrieve more non-relevant articles.

For more information, check out IOM Standards for Systematic Reviews: Standard 3.1: Conduct a comprehensive systematic search for evidence

The goal of a systematic review search is to maximize recall and precision while keeping results manageable. Recall (sensitivity) is defined as the number of relevant reports identified divided by the total number of reports in existence. Precision (specificity) is defined as the number of relevant reports identified divided by the total number of reports identified.

Issues to consider when creating a systematic review search:

All concepts are included in the strategy
All appropriate subject headings are used
Appropriate use of explosion
Appropriate use of subheadings and floating subheadings
Use of natural language (text words) in addition to controlled vocabulary terms
Use of appropriate synonyms, acronyms, etc.
Truncation and spelling variation as appropriate
Appropriate use of limits such as language, years, etc.
Field searching, publication type, author, etc.
Boolean operators used appropriately
Line errors: when searches are combined using line numbers, be sure the numbers refer to the searches intended
Check indexing of relevant articles
Search strategy adapted as needed for multiple databases

Searching Manuals and Checklists

Literature Searching Planning form (Duke University)

Cochrane Handbook: Searching for Studies (See Part 2, Chapter 6)

Finding Evidence for Comparing Medical Interventions (AHRQ)

Search Strategy Checklist (Duke University)

Peer Review of Electronic Search Strategies (PRESS) (CADTH, Canada)

Systematic Review Information Retrieval Checklist (Campbell Collaboration)

Literature Searching Guidelines Checklist for Researchers (Yale University)

Databases for Searching the Literature and Grey Literature

APA PsycInfo (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
An index with summaries of citations to articles in over 1,300 psychology research journals. Articles date from 1806 - present. Note: There are less than 146 records with publication dates prior to 1890. Updated weekly.
CINAHL Complete (EBSCOHost)
CINAHL Complete is the world's most comprehensive source of full-text for nursing & allied health journals, providing full text for more than 1,300 journals indexed in CINAHL.
Cochrane Library (Wiley)
Contains high-quality, independent evidence to inform health care decision-making. It includes reliable evidence to bring you the combined results of the worldÕs best medical research studies.
Google Scholar
Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites. Google Scholar helps you find relevant work across the world of scholarly research.

Health Systems Evidence
The world's most comprehensive, free access point for evidence to support policy makers, stakeholders and researchers interested in how to strengthen or reform health systems or in how to get cost-effective programs, services and drugs to those who need them.

PubMed
This link to PubMed is for those affiliated with WSU. PubMed comprises more than 30 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites.

Searching Health Technologies Assessment Agencies
A custom Google search that searches International Health Technology websites as compiled by the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health.
TRIP Database
A clinical search engine designed to allow users to quickly and easily find and use high-quality research evidence.

Web of Science (Clarivate Analytics)
Includes Arts & Humanities, Social Sciences and Science Citation indexes, Journal Citation Reports, BIOSIS Previews, BIOSIS Citation Index, Derwent Innovations patent searching, MEDLINE, and Zoological Record. Updated weekly.

Search Filters

Clinical Queries in PubMed

These search strategies help find citations that correspond to a specific clinical study category

Cochrane Handbook

See Part 2, Section 6.4.11: Search Filters

InterTASC Information Specialists' Sub-Group

The ISSG has developed a quality checklist to assess published filters designed to retrieve records by specific study design.

Blog: PubMed Search Strategies

This blog has been created to share PubMed search strategies

Articles on Search Filters in PubMed

Runs a search in PubMed for articles about search filters.

Common Search Strategies (Filters) to Limit Retrieval

Cochrane Filter for Humans Only:

NOT (animals [mh] NOT humans [mh])

Duke Modified Cochrane Strategy for Randomized Trials in PubMed:

(randomized controlled trial[pt] OR controlled clinical trial[pt] OR randomized[tiab] OR randomised[tiab] OR randomization[tiab] OR randomisation[tiab] OR placebo[tiab] OR drug therapy[sh] OR randomly[tiab] OR trial[tiab] OR groups[tiab] NOT (animals[mh] NOT humans[mh]) NOT (Editorial[pt] OR Letter[pt] OR Case Reports[pt] OR Comment[pt]