Database Guide: Medline via Ovid

Advanced Search

Geng started

catalogue and in the search box type ‘Medline’. Click on the View

It tab and open the rst link it gives you called view full text.

From the new webpage click on the quick link Connect to

MEDLINE via OvidSP in the box on the right-hand side of the

page.

When you get to Medline via Ovid you will automacally be on Basic Search—change this now to Advanced

Search.

Produced by the U.S. Naonal Library of Medicine (NLM), Medline is a key internaonal database for medical

research. In this guide we will be looking at the Advanced Search opon on Medline via Ovid. There are many

dierent ways you can search Ovid, Advanced Search allows you to use the database’s subject headings (also

known as MeSH terms) and is the best opon for performing a systemac search.

Planning your search

It’s important to think carefully about your search strategy before you start. On Advanced Search all terms

need to be searched for separately, this means breaking your research queson down into key concepts.

For example, imagine you want to nd informaon on the following queson;

How eecve is speech therapy at treang post-stroke aphasia?

Our key concepts for this queson would be;

stroke (AND) aphasia (AND) speech therapy

Searching

Once you’ve thought about your concepts you’re then ready to conduct your search. Begin by typing one of

your concepts into the search box;

The box Map Term to Subject Heading should automacally

be cked for you—this will allow you to use the database’s

subject headings (MeSH terms).

When you click search the database will then take you to a new page showing you a list of suggested subject

headings.

What are Subject Headings??

Subject headings are the ocial terms that make up the database’s index. They are a way of searching for

topics rather than individual keywords.

For example: Every arcle about cancer, regardless of what spelling or terminology it’s using, will be indexed

under the subject heading Neoplasms.

Using subject headings therefore reduces the risk of missing relevant arcles simply because they are using

dierent terminology.

Select the subject heading which

matches your concept - if there is a

clear match this will oen

automacally be highlight for you.

The Scope buon provides

informaon about what the

subject heading covers and what

it should be used for.

If there is no suitable subject heading you can search for your

concept as a normal keyword - this means searching for an exact

match for the word stroke in the tle, abstract and other elds

of the arcle record.

Once you’ve selected your subject headings click Connue >>

You will then be asked to select some subheadings for your concept. Subheadings are a way of focusing your

search. For example in our search we may only be interested in the Rehabilitaon aspects of stroke.

For a systemac search it is

generally advised against using

subheadings. However they can

be useful if you are geng

thousands of irrelevant results.

They are also parcularly useful

for when you just wish to browse

arcles within a focused clinical

area.

Once you’ve selected your subheadings click Connue >>

All your results for stroke will then be displayed. Click on Search History at the top of the screen to see exactly

how many arcles have been retrieved.

Next steps

Once you’ve conducted a search for your rst concept you then need to go through exactly the same process

again for all you other concepts. The aim is end up with all the relevant terms listed in your search history.

You can then combine them together to achieve a nal set of results.

Tick the searches you wish

to combine and then the

AND / OR buons will

appear. To nd arcles

containing all of your terms

select AND.

You can select as many subheadings as

you wish. In most cases you will simply

wish to include everything - to do this

ck Include All Subheadings.

Advanced techniques - Explode and Focus

When selecng your subject headings you also have the to opon to Explode or Focus the subject heading.

Explode means you will search for the subject heading you’ve selected plus any narrower terms which come

underneath it in the index. If you click on the subject heading itself you can see what these narrower terms

will be.

Focus means that you will only retrieve arcles where the subject heading you’ve selected is listed as the

main focus of the arcle. This means you will get less but more relevant results.

Free-text searching

Using the subject headings is a good way to conduct an advanced search on Medline, however for a really

comprehensive search you also need to supplement your search with some free-text terms. This means

searching for keywords in the tle, abstract and other elds of an arcle’s record. The reasons for adding

free-text terms to your search are;

1. Not all arcles in Medline are indexed with subject headings (parcularly the most recent publica-

ons). If you only search with subject headings you will miss these potenally relevant arcles.

2. Searching for both subject headings and free-text demonstrates a rigorous, all bases covered ap-

proach to a search - parcularly important if you are conducng a systemac review.

For a systemac search it is oen good pracce to select explode and ignore focus.

To add free-text terms to your search simply ck search as Keyword at the boom of the list of subject

headings. You can select both the subject heading and free-text term at the same me or select the free-text

term on its own. Note: If you select both terms at the same me you will not have the opon of selecng

subheading on the following page.

Alternavely you can unck the box Map Term to Subject Heading on the main search page.

Separate free-text and subject

heading searches can then be

combined in the search history with

OR.

Unck Map Term to Subject

Heading.

Advanced techniques for free-text searching

When using free-text terms there are some tricks you can use to make your searching quicker and more precise.

* truncates words e.g. Parkinson* will search for Parkinson, Parkinson’s and Parkinsonism

# is a wildcard and searches for variable single characters e.g. wom#n searches for woman and women

? is another wildcard which searches for a single character or no character at all. This is useful for some Brish/

American spelling dierences e.g. p?ediatrics retrieves both paediatrics and pediatrics.

ADJ allows you to specify how close you want your words to appear together. This can help you to improve the

relevancy of your results. E.g. nurse ADJ3 handwashing will retrieve arcles where the words nurse and hand-

washing appearing within 3 words of each other.

Applying limits to your search

Applying limits helps you to focus your search. For example you may only want to nd clinical trials published in English,

in the last 5 years. You can set some of these limits before you search or to see the full range of limits available apply

them aer right at the end aer you’ve combined all your searches together.

Click on Limits under the search box and then Addional Limits.

Addional Limits will show you the full range of limits available

including age group, gender and publicaon type. Once you’ve

made your selecon simply click Limit a Search at the boom

of the page.

The limits will automacally be applied to the last search you

carried out or you can select any search from your search

history at the top of the page.

Finding the full-text

Most records in Medline will only give you the basic informaon of the published research. To read the full-text you need

to check to see if the library has a subscripon to the journal the arcle is published in.

To do this click on the purple Find It links. These will bounce you back to our library catalogue and check

for access.

Managing your results

Once you’ve conducted a search there are lots of opons for organising and managing your results. You can re-

sort your results, print out or email a list of your results and export your results to a reference management

soware such as EndNote.

You can also create a personal account on the Ovid plaorm. This will allow you to save your search history, set

up auto-alerts for new arcles and create project folders. To register simply click My Account at the top of the

screen and Create Account. Use your Sheeld email address when registering.

Once you’ve created your account everything you save will be accessible from My Workspace.

Further help and support

Visit the Library’s Informaon Skills Resource for tutorials on literature searching, referencing and more.

hp://www.librarydevelopment.group.shef.ac.uk/

If you have any quesons contact the Library helpdesk;

hp://libraryhelp.shef.ac.uk/

Or for specialist support speak to your Liaison Librarian for Medicine, Denstry and Health;

hp://www.sheeld.ac.uk/library/liaison/med

Example Search Strategy

There’s no single right way to do a search - it all depends on your research queson. However a good search is

one that gets the right balance between precision and recall. Where this balance lies depends on your aim at

the me (e.g. whether you are doing a systemac review or just want to nd a few highly relevant arcles).

Below is an example of a search for our research queson;

How eecve is speech therapy at treang post-stroke aphasia?