Planning a Search Strategy PICO, Concept Boxes and

Boolean Operators

Presented by Carla Hagstrom and Sandra Kendall September-October 2015

Online Searching at a Glance

Useful terminology: o Pearl Searching: find a good article, i.e, the

“pearl”, and look at the references o Boolean operators: most databases allow

boolean operators to narrow or broaden a search (AND, OR, NOT)

o Truncation: most databases use symbols such as * for truncation, e.g., dent* will retrieve dental, dentistry, dentist, etc.

BOOLEAN

SEARCHING

Using AND, OR, and NOT

AND

bisphosphonates AND osteonecrosis

OR

osteonecrosis OR death of bone OR bone death OR bone necrosis

osteonecrosis NOT femur head necrosis

NOT

Truncation Using * (asterisk) and

? (question mark)

cat* cat

cats http://www.vetprofessionals.com/catprofessional/

http://ochumanesociety.com/dogs---cats-for-adoption/available-pets/cats-and-kittens.htm http://www.swordsandarmor.com/mall/miniature-Catapult-Siege-Weapon.html

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-cow.htm#slideshow

catapult

cattle

gr?y cat

gr?y cat

http://blog.sureflap.com/tag/animal-shelters/ http://dnakluski.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/canadian-flag.gif

http://goodamericanpost.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/american-flag1.jpg

grey cat gray cat

British and North American spellings vary. When entering textwords in search engines for international databases such as Cochrane or Medline, it is necessary to allow for the different spellings, or else some citations may be missed. Use $ or : to get all possible endings (e.g. comput:.mp. for computer, computers, computing, computed, etc.) Use # to replace exactly one character (wom#n.mp. for woman or women) Use ? to replace 0 or 1 character (labo?r.mp. for labor or labour)

Examples U.S. British In OVID, enter as:

anemia/anaemia etiology/aetiology gynecology/gynaecology hemoglobin/haemoglobin

-e-

-ae-

an?emia "etiology or aetiology" gyn?ecology "hemoglobin or haemoglobin"

esophagus/oesophagus fetus/foetus diarrhea/diarrhoea

-e-

-oe-

"esophagus or oesophagus" "fetus or foetus" diarrh?ea

tumor/tumour -o- -ou- tumo?r

organize/organise -z- -s- organi#e

counseling/counselling counseled/counselled

-l-

-ll-

counse$ling for specific ending counsel

sulfur/sulphur -f- -ph- sul#?ur

fiber/fibre -er- -re- fib:

Steps to finding articles • Identify the main concepts or keywords • Determine the best resources

• Plan the search

• Document the search and cite

• Evaluate what you find

Identify the main concepts

• The easiest way to make your question searchable is to break it up into concepts

• For each concept, think of as many

keywords/synonyms as you can • A very popular method to use is PICO

Identify the main concepts

PICO Method P – Population I – Intervention C – Comparison (Optional) O – Outcome

Example topic

How effective is flap repair of obstetric fistula?

Identify the main concepts

Original Question PICO Searchable question

How effective is flap repair of obstetric fistula?

P = patients with obstetric fistula I = flap repair C= O = effectiveness of surgery

P I C OPatient/Population

and/or Problem Intervention Comparison/Control

(if applicable)Outcomes (or Effects)

obstetric fistula flap repair effectivenessvesico-vaginal fistula overlap repair treatment outcomevesicovaginal fistula surgical flaps surgical outcomerecto-vaginal fistula postoperative complicationsrectovaginal fistula

vaginal fistulagenitourinary fistula

Alternate Words (Synonyms)

Plan the search

Determine the best resources

There are hundreds of article databases available.

Which one will you use?

HINARI AND PTOLEMY offer access to dozens of databases, for example:

• Medline or PubMed • Scopus • Popline • Google Scholar • CINAHL

We will do a separate presentation for OVID MEDLINE

PubMed

PubMed has an app for handhelds that uses PICO

Do a Google search for: Pubmed app pico

Scopus

Use # when combining results, e.g., #1 AND #2

Popline

Google Scholar

CINAHL

Thank you!