Planning a Search Strategy PICO, Concept Boxes and

Boolean Operators

Presented by Carla Hagstrom and Sandra Kendall September 2015

Online Searching at a Glance

• Useful terminology: o Pearl Searching: find a good article aka 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

Example topic

Is the Ponseti treatment effective for older children with neglected clubfoot?

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

Identify the main concepts

Original Question PICO Searchable question

Is the Ponseti treatment effective for older children with neglected clubfoot?

P = children with neglected clubfoot I = Ponseti therapy C= O = effectiveness of Ponseti therapy

Determine the best resources

There are hundreds of article databases available. Which one will you use?

Suggestions for rehabilitation sciences: 1. CINAHL 2. Scopus 3. MEDLINE (PubMed)

Plan the search • Now you have your searchable questions and

keywords. Where do you start? • Each database has its own indexing system. Many

have their own thesaurus or list of subject headings. If the database you are using has a thesaurus, match your keywords to the thesaurus for a more efficient search.

P I C OPatient/Population

and/or Problem Intervention Comparison/Control

(if applicable)Outcomes (or Effects)

club foot Ponseti therapy effectivenessclubfoot Ponseti treatment outcome

talipes equinovarus non-surgical therapy pie torcido non-surgical treatment

clubfoot Orthopedic Fixation Devices

Alternate Words (Synonyms)

CINAHL

Plan the search

CINAHL

SCOPUS

PubMed

Thank you!