Comprehensive Literature Searching in the Health Sciences

Use this guide to learn how to properly and effectively conduct comprehensive searches of the literature. 

Remember that searching:

• is an ITERATIVE process
• often requires re-evaluation and testing, from adding or changing keywords and the ways they relate to each other, to choosing new resources to search, and even rewording or straight-up changing the research question!
• is a logic puzzle that requires an understanding of precision and sensitivity
• pretty fun once you get the hang of the process!

This guide is structured around the steps to searching the scholarly literature. Use the links below to navigate through this guide.

1. Searching scholarly databases

• Formulate your research question 
• Consider Precision and Sensitivity of your Search
• Gather synonyms for your search concepts
• Combine your search terms logically using AND/OR (Boolean Operators)
• Find database-specific subject heading(s) and create textword queries for each search concept
• Select appropriate database(s)
• Conduct your search, using a structured, methodologically rigorous approach. This includes:
  • Testing your search to improve its performance
  • Translate your search to run it across multiple databases
  • Properly document your search
• Manage your search results
• Find full texts of articles

2. Supplement your database search with targeted searches

3. Search Grey Literature

4. Health Science Database Tutorials

We have also created a series of tutorials for common databases in health science:

• Medline (Ovid) 
• Embase (Ovid)
• CINAHL (EBSCO)
• Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials - CENTRAL (Ovid) 
• Scopus 
• Web of Science
• ERIC (ProQuest)
• AgeLine (EBSCO)

Throughout this guide, we link to several handouts and worksheets that you can use to help you develop your comprehensive database search. For convenience, you can access all of these search handouts in one place.

The Essentials of Conducting Systematic Reviews - Module 4: Searching for Eligible Studies

Queen's Library has developed a new self-paced module on "Searching for Eligible Studies", that may be a helpful supplement to the content in this guide.