Planning a Database Search

Planning a search is a combination of problem solving skills and basic technical skills. You needtheseskills to implement yoursearch using the interface of the database(s) you choose, for example NHS Evidence's Health CareDatabases Advanced Search[HDAS].

Definitions

Before you read this page, here are some definitions of terms frequently used when talking about searching:
Journal article: an article from a journal, usually from a peer reviewed journal, publishing research on a single topic. Typical peer reviewed journal articles contain a literature review, a description of the research methodology used, the results of the research, discussion of the implications of research, occasionally suggestions for further research on the topic and a bibliography.
Bibliographic record: is a single computer record of the information that comprises a reference to a journal article, typically Author(s), Title of Article, Title of Journal, Volume, Issue and Page Number(s). In addition there may be an Abstract summarising the contents of an article, Keywords that describe the topic of the article and a link to the Full Text of an article.
Database: a database contains bibliographic records of journal articles. The size of databases ranges from hundreds of thousands of records to millions of records, for example, BNI, CINAHL,EMBASE or MEDLINE.
Search strategy: the strategy we use to search databases to find only the articles that are relevant to the topic we are interested in.

The Problem Solving Approach

The problem solving approach means breaking down research questions into small logical steps. You have to start by articulating your problem as a question or sentence. Here are some examples from recent requests for help from the NWAS Library & Information Service:

  • Find recent research on the use of mentorship programs with paramedics in training.
  • Finds articles on how ambulance services mitigate the risks associated with the provision of care of the bariatric patient.
  • Find any information on Community First Responders [CFRs] relating to policies regarding the development of CFRs and future directions.
  • Find research on 360 degree feedback processes in the context of appraisals, reviews and personal development.
  • Research on Ambulance Services andsuccessfulapproachesto the ethnicity monitoring of services including approaches which have worked well in other healthcare settings.
  • Find research on the treatment of spinalinjuriesin prehospital emergency care.
  • Find anyresearchon whether paramedic advanced life support improves mortality for adult patients suffering non-traumatic prehospital cardiac arrest.
  • Find recent research on the efficacy of Paramedic endotracheal intubation.
  • Find recentresearchon the use of Ketamine in the pre-hospital environment.

Analysing Research Questions

The best way to analyse aresearchquestion is to break it down into the concepts or ideas you would like to find in an article on the topic. For example using the research question "Find recentresearchon the use of Ketamine in the pre-hospital environment" we could identify the following concepts:

Concept 1 / Concept 2 / Concept 3
prehospital / Ketamine / recent

You then need to identify words which describe these Concepts, words that you will use in your search. For example we could add the following keywords:

Concept 1 / Concept 2 / Concept 3
prehospital / Ketamine / recent
Keywords / Keywords / Keywords
paramedic / analgesia / 2000 - 2011
ambulance / analgesic
EMS
Emergency Medical Services

Implementing your Search

To prepare your search plan you need to understand how to structure your search so that you can input it into a database. This section takes you through Truncation, Boolean Searching and using Phrases.

Truncation

Truncation is a techniqueto help you to search for words that have multiple or plural endings. It uses the * character sometimes called a wildcard. If you want to search for paramedic or paramedics you should type paramedic*. If you want to search for analgesic, analgesia or analgesics you should type analgesi*. This finds all words beginning analgesi whatever the ending.

Thinking about our search using truncation, the keywords would now look like this:

Concept 1 / Concept 2 / Concept 3
prehospital / Ketamine / recent
Keywords / Keywords / Keywords
paramedic* / analgesi* / 2000 - 2011
ambulance
EMS
Emergency Medical Services

Boolean Logic - AND OR NOT

You need to link concepts and keywords together in a way that a database can process. You do this using the Boolean Logic - AND OR NOT.

OR groups words together that have the same or similar meanings. For example prehospital OR paramedic* OR ambulance finds all articles that contain one or more of these terms.

AND compares sets of journal articles and only displays those that contain all the terms in each set. For example prehospital AND analgesi* finds only articles that contain both terms.

NOT excludes terms from your search. For example Ketamine NOT Morphine finds only articles that contain the word Ketamine and does not find any articles that contain the word morphine even if the word Ketamine is present.

Using Boolean Logic

Boolean logic is built into all databases. Sometimes it is visible, you can see the terms AND OR NOT and select the ones you want from check boxes or pull down menus at other times it is adefaultsetting. In other words the database will process all your keywords using either OR or AND.

It helps to be able to input your search as a Boolean phrase to make sure it is processed in the way that you want. This means grouping OR'd terms together using round brackets ( ) and linking OR's terms using AND. The search toFind recentresearchon the use of Ketamine in the pre-hospital environmentwould look like this

(prehospital OR ambulance OR paramedic* OR EMS OR "Emergency Medical Services") AND (Ketamine OR analgesi*)
The idea of journal articles being recent, or published within a specific time frame can be expressed in two ways. You can list the results of your search with the most recent first or use tools provided by the database interface - NHS Evidence allows you to do this - to specify which dates you want to limit your search to, for example 2000 - 2010.

Phrases

In some instances concepts or ideas cannot be expressed as a single keyword, for example Emergency Medical Servicesor chronic renal failure. Most databases will treat these as phrases and search for exact examples of those phrases in the database. Some, like NHS Evidence require you to put them in parenthesis, for example "Emergency Medical Services".

Matt Holland

NWAS LIS

May 2011