Literature search strategy form

Write out your search question:
Separate your question into separate topic areas:
4.
For each of those topic areas write down different synonyms/keywords:
Topic
/ Synonym/keywords
Note any phrases, alternative spellings or regional variations :
e.g. “the patient experience” , organisation/organization or GP (UK) vs “physician” (US)
Decide if you can use a wildcard ? or truncation $ symbol anywhere?
e.g. behavio?r or effective$
Think through various search parameters: Can you limit your search by:
Year of publication:
e.g. 2000 onwards…
Publication types:
e.g. journal articles, websites, RCTs, systematic reviews…
Country of Origin:
e.g. UK, USA or Global
Choose your database: (see sheet below for more information)
Health and social care databases
  • HMIC
  • MEDLINE
  • Embase
  • Cinahl
  • British Nursing Index
  • Social Care Online
  • Google Scholar
  • Cochrane
  • AMED
  • Guideline sites e.g. NHS Evidence, NICE
  • Scopus
/ Social science and business databases
  • ASSIA
  • Business Premier
  • Social Sciences Citation Index
  • Social Care Online
  • Sociological Abstracts
  • PsycInfo
  • Scopus
  • Google Scholar

Study your results
Relevant result / Not relevant result
Try snowballing – is there a result that is perfect? Does it have any new synonyms you can use? / Look for words that are irrelevant or have an unexpected meaning in the database and eliminate them
Not retrieved / Use key articles to identify more search terms to pick these up / No action needed
If you need help or advice with any aspect of literature searching please contact either Emma Green () or Rachel Posaner ()
Database: / Subject Coverage:
AMED / This database provides information on alternative medicines including complementary medicine, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, rehabilitation, podiatry, palliative care, and more.
ASSIA / An indexing and abstracting tool covering health, social services, economics, politics, race relations and education.
British Nursing Index / A nursing and midwifery database, covering over 200 UK journals and other English-language titles.
Business Source Premier / A full text business database, covering management, economics, finance, accounting, international business, marketing.
Cinahl / The authoritative resource for nursing and allied health professionals, students, educators and researchers.
Cochrane / A unique source of reliable and up-to-date information on the effects of interventions in health care in fields as diverse as diagnostic tests, public health, health promotion, pharmacology, surgery, psychology and the organization and delivery of health care.
Embase / A major biomedical and pharmaceutical database indexing over 3,500 international journals in the following fields: drug research, pharmacology, pharmaceutics, toxicology, clinical and experimental human medicine, health policy and management, public health, occupational health, environmental health, drug dependence and abuse, psychiatry, forensic medicine, and biomedical engineering/instrumentation.
HMIC
(Health Management Information Consortium) / Comprising of the King's Fund, Nuffield Institute, and Department of Health Databases, HMIC includes bibliographic references often with abstracts of; journal articles, monographs, reports, government documents, and, grey literature all focusing on UK health policy and management related information.
Medline / MEDLINE encompasses information from Index Medicus, Index to Dental Literature, and International Nursing, as well as other sources of coverage in the areas of allied health, biological and physical sciences, humanities and information science as they relate to medicine and health care, communication disorders, population biology, and reproductive biology.
NHS Evidence / A service that enables access to authoritative clinical and non-clinical evidence and best practice through a web-based portal. It helps people from across the NHS, public health and social care sectors to make better decisions as a result. NHS Evidence is managed by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).
PsycInfo / PsycInfo covers the professional and academic literature in psychology and related disciplines, including medicine, psychiatry, nursing, sociology, pharmacology, physiology and linguistics.
Scopus / Scopus is the largest abstract and citation database containing both peer-reviewed research literature and quality web sources.
Social Care Online / A portal to the UK's largest collection of information on social work and social care. You can find everything from research briefings, to reports, government documents, journal articles, events and websites.
Social Sciences Citation Index / A multidisciplinary index to the journal literature of the social sciences. It fully indexes over 1,950 journals across 50 social sciences disciplines. I
Sociological Abstracts / This database abstracts and indexes the international literature of sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioural sciences.