Identifying search terms

For any literature search, you will need to identify your search terms.  What words or phrases are you going to search for?   What thesaurus terms are you going to choose? If you are doing a detailed search for evidence for a systematic review, or doing a systematic search for some other reason, identification of search terms will include identification of synonyms, that is, alternative terms for the concept you are interested in.Here are some possible ways to identify thesaurus and free text terms, and synonyms.  Scoping searchUse a PICO grid or similar to identify the search concepts, and search for those.   For example:Search question: antibiotics to treat otitis media in children under 5.P - under fives with otitis mediaI - antibioticsC - no stated comparisionO - no stated outcomesSo, search for otitis media and antibiotics, and see what terms are used in titles and abstracts of the articles you find.Existing strategiesAn existing systematic review should include the search strategy used.  Don't feel you have to copy it (of course, if you are doing this exercise for a dissertation, assignment or thesis, you should not and must not copy it!), but it may give you useful terminology.Background researchUse clues from any background reading you have done about the topic, textbooks, reputable websites, NICE Evidence Search for any clinical topic.Drug information sourcesThe British National Formulary is included in NICE Evidence Search, but also tr...
Source: Browsing - Category: Databases & Libraries Tags: literature searching systematic reviews Source Type: blogs