Search Strategies for Health Sciences Research

Figuring out how to communicate with databases in order to find research articles can be a bit tricky. While you can ask Google a question and get an answer, academic databases are a bit different and you have to use a different strategy if you want to make sure you are finding the best evidence from the published scholarly literature.

Take this research question: 

Does noise level in neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) have an effect on brain development? 

There are three main concepts in this question: 

1. Neonatal Intensive Care Unit 
2. Noise 
3. Brain Development

So for a first search, you can incorporate each of these concepts:

Neonatal Intensive Care Unit AND Noise AND Brain Development 

You do not want to simply paste a question into a database search box. Rather, you'll want to only use the most essential parts of the question.

This question also included a directional outcome, "effect." Words like effect, affect, impact, etc. can be more trouble than they are worth. For example, think about an article that says, "the impact of noise on brain development." This article is 100% on topic, but because your search specified "effect" as a required term, you would not see this article in your search results.

A Note About Outdated Terminology

Searching for medical research, particularly as it pertains to marginalized identities, can be complicated. The words that we use to describe ourselves may change over time, and the language used by the community may also differ from what is used by medical providers. You may see words in databases that are outdated or even offensive. Controlled vocabulary (i.e., subject headings like MeSH terms) are updated regularly, but they can still be behind the times, so it is important to know both the subject headings used and lay terms that could be used to describe your patient group. In order to get the most expansive search results, you should try a mix of keywords and subject headings when doing a database search. 

Acronyms :(

The Health Sciences fields use a ton of acronyms. In general, you should spell out the phrase or word rather than using the acronym. For example, use intensive care unit instead of ICU, or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder instead of PTSD.

Use Synonyms

Once you have your PICOT question built, you can identify the main points; often these will be your primary search terms. But you might want to include synonyms or alternative search terms to broaden your search and get more results. For the most comprehensive search, we recommend using a combination of keywords and subject headings (such as MeSH or CINAHL Subject Headings).

For example, if you are searching for information about older people, you might try the following terms:

• Older people
• Elderly (considered an outdated term, but still widely used in medical research)
• Geriatric
• Aging

  Using Generative AI to find search terms

Generative AI (such as ChatGPT) won't build a search and find great articles for you, but as a text generation it does a great job of finding potential synonyms to use in your search. For example, you can ask a question like this: 

I am conducting an undergraduate research paper and am looking for search terms to use in a database search. My research question is, "In adults with hypertension, is telemonitoring effective is reducing blood pressure?" Please provide a list of search terms that will retrieve articles on this topic.

You can also break down each concept in your question, to help construct your search better. For example:

Prompt #1:

I am conducting an undergraduate research paper and am looking for search terms to use in a database search. What are some search terms that I can use to find journal articles on the topic of hypertension?

Prompt #2:

Thank you. What are some search terms I can use for telemonitoring blood pressure?

Prompt #3: 

Using boolean search operators, please compile all of these search terms into a single search string.

As of now, ChatGPT and other generative AI tools cannot accurately suggest subject headings to use in database searches. You can learn more about subject headings on the next page.

  What is a Point of Care tool?

Point of Care tools are reference tools that provide quick information to help clinicians at the "point-of-care." When getting started in thinking about a clinical question, utilizing a Point of Care tool can be really helpful in learning more about a topic and in identifying potential search terms, including both lay terms and medical terminology.

One great way to find alternative keywords is to use a medical encyclopedia or Point of Care tool -- not only will you learn more about the concept, but you'll learn common alternative terms.

In addition to keywords, you can also use controlled vocabulary, or subject headings, to find research. Learn more about subject headings on the next page.