Literature searching: How to search

Online resources on how to search: 

• Medline (Ovid) - do this first - includes key techniques relevant to most databases
• Embase (Ovid)
• Emcare (Ovid)
• APA PsycInfo (Ovid)
• CINAHL (EBSCOhost)
• Cochrane Library (Wiley)
• Ovid Nursing
• Informit Health Collection (RMIT)

The library offers individual search tutorials for SVHM staff (login required): 

• 1 hour tutorials online via or face to face in the Library dependent on current restrictions - Online tutorials
• Learn to search Ovid Medline with a topic of your choice
• Can include information on record keeping for systematic reviews
• Please note that tutorials are designed to teach you generic literature searching skills. With the exception of co-authorship, library staff do not design search strategies for systematic reviews.
• Email us to book a tutorial or find out more. Include your availability, phone number and topic.

• Learn to search Ovid Medline well (we can teach you)
• If you know how to search Ovid Medline, then the same process works for all other Ovid databases - Embase, Emcare, PsycInfo, Ovid Nursing
• Use a combination of subject heading and textword searching for all databases except Informit Health (which does not have subject headings)
• General process:
  • break your topic into simple concepts eg dementia and aggression
  • search subject headings for the first concept eg Dementia/
  • search text synonyms for the first concept in title and abstract eg (dementia or alzheimer*).ti,ab.
  • group the first concept using OR - this combines results but gets rid of duplicates
  • search subject headings for the second concept eg Aggression/ or Violence/
  • search synonyms for the second concept in title and abstract eg (aggress* or violen*).ti,ab.
  • group the second concept using OR
  • combine both concepts using AND to find the overlap
  • limit results carefully eg English language, year range

Image by Helen Wilding