MEPN Information Resources

You can always start searching an online source by just putting some keywords in the box to see what results come back, but knowing a little more about how the databases work can help in returning more relevant sources.

Boolean Logic: watch this short video on Boolean operators (e.g. AND; OR or NOT)

• AND means that both words must be present (makes for more narrow results) - Fungi and Cancer
• OR means that either word may be present (makes for broader results and is usually used for synonyms) - Fungi OR Mushrooms
• NOT means that a word will be excluded from the results (makes for more narrow results) - (Fungi OR Mushrooms) NOT Yeast

Parentheses: using parenthesis along with Boolean operators can help the database know what results you want (read the Boolean operators in the correct order).

• This search, Cancer AND Fungi OR Mushrooms, will return articles about cancer and fungi and articles about mushrooms
• This search, Cancer AND (Fungi OR Mushrooms), will return articles about cancer and fungi and articles about cancer and mushrooms

In the EBSCO databases I will usually put synonyms in the same box with an OR and different concepts each in their own box (the boxes effectively work as parentheses in the search:

Truncation symbols: most databases allow the use of * to truncate a word.  In searching it will return results for any word that starts with the characters you enter for example: nurs* = nurse, nurses, nursing, and nursery (this can be very helpful if a word has multiple endings, but also note that this last word, nursery, actually has a different meaning than the rest, so sometimes truncating can bring in some irrelevant results.

Search strategy: Searching databases in a consistent, structured manner will save you time. Keeping track of your search history can help you refine your topic, your thinking and your search strategy, and ultimately retrieve more relevant results. After each search, reflect on the keywords and synonyms you used, are there other terms, or another way to combine, to get more relevant results?

Steps in developing a search strategy include:

   - define terms and write down your research question 
    - identify, and keep track of key words, terms, and phrases
   - identify keyword synonyms or reflect on narrower (or broader search terms)
   - determine a timeframe for search results
   - consider what type of material you will include and why
   - identify where you will search for the information

Sometimes when you aren't finding much on your topic it may be due to the search terms you are using - have you found the terms that are used in the profession or by the databases subject headings?  Are there synonyms or acronyms associated with your topic?

It can be helpful to think in terms of your main topic(s), population terms, and other limiting terms.

For example, if I am interested in looking at the current treatments for women with high blood pressure, it might break down like this:

Main topic: High Blood Pressure
Secondary Topic: Treatment
Population: Women and Adults
Other limits for example, I want to see research articles in the last 5 years (current) in English

Then I might want to think about synonyms or more specific terms:

High Blood Pressure - likely called hypertension
Treatment - do I mean diet therapy or drug therapy or both; also am I interested in prevention or only treatment?

You might also want to consider if your search terms are too broad - for example, you might want to look at something related to patient safety, but what does that really mean?  The more specific you can be when searching the databases the better your search results. 

For example, note how these two different agencies list different concerns and similar concerns using different language:

The National Patient Safety Foundations list some concerns as: adverse events, near misses, and errors - for hospitalized patients they give examples of adverse drug events, hospital-acquired infections, postoperative adverse events, hospital-acquired pressure ulcers, and falls

The Joint Commission lists common patient safety concerns as: medication errors, unsafe surgical procedures, health care-associated infections, diagnostic errors, patient falls, pressure ulcers and patient misidentification

Finding the database subject headings can help in searching.  In PubMed and MEDLINE, these are called MeSH (short for Medical Subject Heading).  Below you can see an example of the "tree structure"  that lets you see broader and narrower terms on the same topic.  Sometimes these terms can seem the same - for example searching hypertension will bring back several of the narrower terms that include hypertension, but not the one that starts with hypertensive.  

Cardiovascular Disease
     Vascular Diseases
          Hypertension
              Hypertension, Pregnancy-Induced
              Hypertensive Crisis
              Masked Hypertension