Medical databases have hundreds of specialized topics, and thousands of articles on any given topic. Because of this, you will need to use different search strategies to find the most relevant research for your class assignments.
Learn about the different strategies below for searching the SOWELA Library's medical databases.
Consumer health information service produced by the United States National Library of Medicine (NLM). The site brings together information from the NLM, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), other U.S. government agencies and health-related organizations.
Only use the most relevant keywords to search the database based on your research question. Also search for synonyms of your keywords.
Example:
Research Question: What are the effects of stress on preterm births?
Keywords: stress, preterm
Synonyms: anxiety, premature, labor, delivery
Using "AND," "OR," and "NOT" can help you can combine your keywords in different ways to more effectively search the library databases. These are known as Boolean operators.
Click on the tabs to learn about how to use each of these operators.
AND: all of the keywords must be in each search result.
Using AND places a higher set of criteria on your search, and will return fewer results.
In this example, searching for "stroke AND paralysis" will only give you results that have both
keywords. You will not be shown articles that only have one of the keywords.
"Venn Diagram for Boolean Operator AND" by ramaxeymiles is licensed under CC BY 2.0
OR: search results can have some or all of the keywords.
Using OR gives the database more options providing you with more results.
In this example, searching for "stroke OR brain infarction OR ischemia" will give you results
that have one, two, or all three of the keywords.
"Venn Diagram for Boolean Operator OR" by ramaxeymiles is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
NOT: eliminates search result the contain the keyword after "not."
Using NOT restricts the results by disqualifying database articles with certain keywords.
In this example, searching for "ischemic stroke NOT hemorrhagic stroke" eliminate any search
results that have the phrase "hemorrhagic stroke."
"Venn diagram for Boolean Operator NOT" by ramaxeymiles is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Many medical databases group their articles under different topics called medical subject headings (MeSH). You can use these MeSH terms to focus your search on the exact topics you need. The databases will also help you discover the MeSH term you need to use.
Advantages: Use the database’s vocabulary for more accurate search results.
Disadvantage: Subject headings are not available for all topics, such as specific cases or newer conditions and treatments.