Nursing PhD Student Resource Guide

• Create a reference set of 5-10 articles you would like to include in your review.
• List possible key concepts.
• Try to come up with preliminary search terms for each concept.
• Compare your 5-10 articles with the titles and abstracts that show up.
• Combine your key concepts into one search query then assess the scope of your search query by looking at the number of results and their relevancy.
  • If you are not seeing what you are expecting, you may need to adjust the scope of your search or your search terms
  • If you see what you are expecting, spend more time developing relevant search terms.

Adapted from modules created by Janneke Staaks from the University of Amsterdam
https://osf.io/ga2du

Subject headings are keywords that are added to articles within a database.  Subject heading serve as an aid in the retrieval of results by tagging articles on a given topic with the same heading, regardless of the exact words that are used.

Databases like APA PsycINFO, CINAHL, Embase, and Medline via PubMed have their own list of subject headings.  Please note that a subject heading may vary between databases.  

A well known kind of subject heading is a MeSH term.  MeSH is an abbreviation for Medical Subject Heading from the database, Medline via PubMed.  MeSH headings enable PubMed to establish a persistent term to stand for a concept with many synonyms. Some articles also may have no abstract and unless concepts are in the title, we can only retrieve them by MeSH searching.

Please be aware that not all databases will use the same subject headings.  For example, CINAHL uses Medication Compliance while PubMed uses Medication Adherence.

Keyword searches are keywords that are not included within the database's subject headings.  It is recommended to search particular fields such as titles, abstracts, and author-supplied keywords, especially if the articles are not assigned subject headings. The most common source of keywords may come from author-supplied keywords from a journal article. 

Using subject headings only for your searches will not pick up articles recently added to databases because the articles may not have subject headings yet.  It may also take years for a new concept to be added to a database as a subject heading. 

Adapted from modules created by Janneke Staaks from the University of Amsterdam

https://osf.io/dfz2k

Boolean operators are words (AND, OR, NOT) that let you expand or narrow your search parameters when using a database or search engine. You can use these words alongside keywords to refine your search.

Nesting

Nesting is a way to combine several Boolean operators into one comprehensive search statement. Use parentheses ( ) to separate keywords when using more than one operator. Generally, databases process the search in the order of AND, OR, NOT. Searches within parentheses are performed first and operations proceed from left to right.

Example: (fruit) AND (apple OR orange)

Search results will be in the shaded region of the Venn diagram

Phrase Searching 

Phrase searching allows users to search phrases rather than containing a set of keywords in random order. Each database uses different symbols to search a phrase.

How to Construct a Search String