Information Search Strategies
Introduction
I still remember, during first year of university, we have to attend a tutorial on information searching. In the tutorial, we were introduced with different online database subscribed by university (such as Embase, EBSCOhost, Google Scholar, ProQuest, PubMed and ScienceDirect) as well as few information searching strategies. To be honest, I probably have forgotten most of the tutorial content.
Before performing any Google Search, don't forget to ask yourself if there is any existing references that probably have the information that you are looking for, for example medical textbooks or evidence-based clinical resource.
Below is what I normally practice when performing a Google Search, hence an unofficial sharing on information search strategies.
Choosing Search Terms
When performing a literature search, I normally express the search term in minimum wording in an open manner. For example, to search if it is safe to take saw palmetto supplement in diabetic patients, I will input "saw palmetto diabetes" in the search. By doing this, you will not restrict how the search is being carried out (i.e. you able to find if there is any article on whether saw palmetto may improve or worsen diabetes or even if there is any causal report.)
Identify Alternative Keywords
After performing the search, you may consider exploring using alternative keywords. For example, in the case above, you may want to search also if there is any article on "saw palmetto sugar", "saw palmetto glucose" or "saw palmetto contraindications".
Searching for Exact Phrases
There are times that there is lots of result presented yet lots of them have only included one of the keywords. To tackle this issue, you can put double quotes at the search term (e.g. "genetic engineering"). Once done, only results with exact matches on words within the double quotes will appear.
Final Tip
Perhaps the simplest and most efficient answer for most clinicians searching for information for patient care is a federated search engine such as TRIP (www.tripdatabase.com). It searches
- Synthesised sources (systematic reviews including Cochrane Reviews)
- Summarised sources (including practice guidelines from North American, Europe, Australia/New Zealand and elsewhere, as well as electronic textbooks)
- Pre-appraised sources (such as the journals of Evidence-Based Medicine and Evidence-Based Mental Health)
- All clinical query domains in PubMed
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