Conducting a Literature Review for Health Sciences

DEVELOPING YOUR SEARCH STRATEGY--some TIPS

• Combine keywords with AND and OR
• Field searching: search by title, author, keyword, source, etc
• Sort by Relevance, Newest, etc.

• Subjet searching in each database (MeSH, Thesaurus, CINAHL Headings, Subject Terms)
• Use the database's limiters (e.g. limit by "peer-review", year, English-language)

Keywords vs. Subject Headings

• To pinpoint your keywords, use subject searching (use subject headings--controlled vocabulary of a database). 

• Some keywords have assigned subject headings while others do not. 
• To find if your keyword(s) have a suggested subject heading,
  look for a link to the Thesaurus, Subject Terms, MeSH, CINAHL Headings (names varies depending on database).
• Some databases do not allow subject searching (that is, they don't have a thesaurus). 

• Spell out acronyms.  For example, "Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act"  for HIPAA

• Whenever possible, include on your search synonyms or alternative terms to describe your topic. 
  For example:  (youth OR adolescent OR teenager)
  For example: (therapy OR intervention OR program OR treatment)

Also consider other search tactics such as Truncation and Field Searching.

Research support from subject specialist/liaison librarians.  Librarians can help you with...

• Developing your search strategy
• Identifying keywords and finding the full-text (whole article)
• Suggest relevant databases to search
• Managing your references with citation management tools (e.g. Zotero, EndNoteWeb)
• and more