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In Step 3, you will design a search strategy to find all of the articles related to your research question. You will:
There are many factors to think about when building a strong search strategy for systematic reviews. Librarians are available to provide support with this step of the process.
For PRISMA, there are specific items you will want to report from your search. For this step, review the PRISMA-S checklist.
When designing and conducting literature searches, a librarian can help you:
If the APU Librarian is listed as a co-author, they will work with your team to design and report thorough search strategies based on guidelines and standards set forth by Cochrane, PRISMA, JBI and IOM. Our librarians provide:
The goal of a scoping review search is to retrieve all results that are relevant to your topic in order to map (ie, report on the scope), and to identify themes and gaps in the literature. Because scoping review searches can be quite extensive and retrieve large numbers of results, an important aspect is limiting the number of irrelevant results that need to be screened. Librarians are experts trained in literature searching and scoping review methodology.
The goal of a systematic retrieval is to find all results that are relevant to your topic. Because systematic review searches can be quite extensive and retrieve large numbers of results, an essential aspect of systematic searching is limiting the number of irrelevant results that need to be screened. Librarians are experts trained in literature searching and systematic review methodology.
JBI Section 2.4 covers details on searching and gives very helpful information. I would highly recommend that you read this before you begin your search.
2.4.2 The JBI 3-Step Search Process
2.4.2.1 Search sensitivity and specificity (includes a section on using ChatGPT)
Determine a clear and focused question
Describe the articles that can answer the question
Decide which key concepts address the different elements of the question
Decide which elements should be used for the best results
Choose an appropriate database and interface to start with
Document the search process in a text document
Identify appropriate index terms in the thesaurus of the first database
Identify synonyms in the thesaurus
Add variations in search terms
Use database-appropriate syntax, with parentheses, Boolean operators, and field codes
Optimize the search
Evaluate the initial results
Check for errors
Translate to other databases
Test and reiterate
Cancer patients
Adult
A good research question also leads to a direct answer in the form of a thesis.
Some good words and phrases to include in your research question include:
Searchable Questions (from Bissett et al., 2025, p. 58):
Broad Question Key Elements |
|
|---|---|
Population |
Adult Cancer Patients |
Setting |
Palliative Care |
Topic or Intervention |
Spiritual Support / Spirituality-based interventions |
Outcome (if needed) |
Quality of Life, etc. / Providing Support |
Your keywords should be in the research question that you wrote above. Highlight your keywords in your question:
In adult cancer patients in palliative care, what are the best strategies regarding spiritual support?
spiritual
adult
cancer
palliative
support
Generally speaking, when searching literature, you are not searching the full-text article. Instead, you are searching certain citation data fields, like title, abstract, keyword, controlled vocabulary (subject headings) terms, and more. When developing a literature search, a good place to start is to identify searchable concepts of the research question, and then expand by adding other terms to describe those concepts.
Different authors may use slightly different words to describe the same idea. For example, one author may write an article on college students and religion, while another may write about university students and religion. Limiting your search to “college students” will keep you from finding articles about “university students.” Therefore, you should always consider possible synonyms for each of your concepts.
Disciplinary databases often have subject headings (a set of official terms used to describe something). For example, the American Psychological Association Thesaurus is a list of subject heading terms that are assigned to items indexed in the PsycINFO database. Subject heading searching can improve the relevance of your search results since other items in the database about the same thing will have the same subject heading.
Multidisciplinary databases like Web of Science do not have subject headings and must be searched with keywords.
good initial strategy
must perform searches with synonymous words/terms
more likely to have irrelevant results
standardized words or phrases used to categorize literature
relevant results are much more likely
subject headings are not consistent across databases
More on Controlled vocabulary (subject headings) is a set of terminology assigned to citations to describe the content of each reference. Searching with controlled vocabulary can improve the relevancy of search results. Many databases assign controlled vocabulary terms to citations, but their naming schema is often specific to each database. For example, the controlled vocabulary system searchable via PubMed & Medline is MeSH, or Medical Subject Headings. Cinahl is indexed with Cinahl Headings. See the video below on how to search for the controlled vocabulary in Cinahl & Medline.
Note: Controlled vocabulary may be outdated, and some databases allow users to submit requests to update terminology.
Truncation |
Phrase Searching |
Wildcards |
Nesting |
|---|---|---|---|
Broaden your search to include variant word endings and spellings. Enter the root of the word then the truncation symbol, usually the asterisk *. |
Use quotation marks " " around search words to search for a phrase - only use this around two or more words. Using the phrase search will help you narrow your results. |
Substitute a symbol for just one character. The most commonly used wildcard symbol is a pound sign # |
Use parentheses () to put search words into sets. Terms in the parentheses are processed first. Use nesting with AND, OR, & NOT. |
Examples:nurs* = nurse, nurses, nursingreligio* = religion, religions, religious, religiosity |
Examples:"end of life""spiritual care" |
Examples:wom#n = women, womanm#n = men, man |
Examples:(screening or detect*) and lupus(cancer* or neoplasm*) and "spiritual* care" |
The organizational structure of literature searches is very important. Specifically, how terms are grouped (or nested) and combined with Boolean operators will drastically impact search results. These commands tell databases exactly how to combine terms together, and if done incorrectly or inefficiently, search results returned may be too broad or irrelevant.
For example, in Medline:
(religio* OR spiritual*) AND cancer* is a properly combined search and it produces around 40,000 results.
religio* OR spiritual* AND cancer* is not properly combined. Databases may read it as everything about religio* OR everything about (spiritual* AND cancer*), which would produce more results than needed.
We recommend one or more of the following:
use a separate search box for each set of synonyms
put all your synonyms together inside a set of parentheses, then put AND between the closing parenthesis of one set and the opening parenthesis of the next set
run each set of synonyms as a separate search, and then combine all your searches
ask a librarian if your search produces too many or too few results
religio* or spiritual* or faith* or christian* or islam* or muslim* or jew* or judaism or pray* or meditat*
AND palliative or "end of life" or terminal* or dying or hospice or death
AND cancer* or oncolog* or neoplasm* or tumor* or malignan* or carcinoma
AND support* or need* or assist* or aid* or peace*
Age Group or Age Related Check box: All Adult
Now you will decide which databases you will use. This will depend on your topic; for instance, if you are focusing on a mental health issue, you may want to include APA PsycInfo or if you are focusing on education, you may want to include ERIC and Academic Search Premier. You can see a list of all the databases recommended on the A-Z database list. Click on the tab Journal Articles & Databases for some suggestions to get started. At a minimum, you should search in Cinahl and Medline.
Element |
Example |
Controlled Vocabulary |
Synonyms/Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|
P Population or Participants |
Breast cancer patients |
Breast Neoplasms, Breast Cancer Lymphedema [MESH] |
breast, cancer*, neoplasm*, lymphedema, tumor*, oncolog* |
C Concept |
Barriers to care |
Healthcare Disparities, Health Inequities, Social Determinants of Health, Health Status Disparities [MESH]Health Services Accessibility, Health Beliefs [Cinahl Headings] |
barrier, disparity*, inequit*, access*, belief* |
C Context |
African Americans |
Black or African American, Black People [MESH]Black Person [Cinahl Headings] |
black, African American |
PICO Element |
Example |
Controlled Vocabulary |
Synonyms/Keyword Terms |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
PPatient(s) / Population(s) |
patients 65 years and older |
"Aged"[Mesh] |
elderelderselderlyagedaginggeriatricgeriatricsgerontologygerontological |
senior citizensenior citizensolder adultolder adultsolder individualsolder patientsolder peopleolder personsadvancing age |
|
IIntervention(s) |
influenza vaccine |
"Influenza Vaccines"[Mesh] |
influenza vaccinesflu vaccineflu vaccinesinfluenza virus vaccineinfluenza virus vaccines((flu OR influenza) AND (vaccine OR vaccines OR vaccination OR immunization)) |
|
CComparison(s) |
not applicable |
- |
- |
|
OOutcome(s) |
pneumonia |
"Pneumonia"[Mesh] |
pneumoniaspulmonary inflammation |
|
A tool to translate a PubMed or Ovid search to other databases
A listing of resources for search translation from Cornell University
A collection of advanced searching techniques from King's College London
Aside from searching databases by topic, another very important way of discovering research is using the reference list of articles and seeing who else has cited the article. How many times an article has been cited can tell you not only how influential an article has been, but can lead you to more articles on your topic.
Supplementary searching is critical for a scoping review, even more so than for other types of reviews. This is because the purpose of a scoping review is to determine the full scope of the literature on your topic. This means searching for things outside of the databases, which are limited in scope and may exclude relevant research.
Literature searches can be supplemented by hand searching. One of the most popular ways this is done with reviews is by searching the reference list and citing articles of studies included in the review. Another method is manually browsing key journals in your field to make sure no relevant articles are missed. Other sources that may be considered for hand searching include clinical trial registries, white papers and other reports, pharmaceutical or other corporate reports, conference proceedings, theses and dissertations, or professional association guidelines. In addition, citation searching might include getting articles on your topic from professors, colleagues, and classmates. WARNING: Be sure you report these in the appropriate spot on the Prisma flow Diagram!
It's important to keep a clear record of your supplementary search strategies and results. Note just where and how you searched, and which included sources were found via these strategies.
Since reviews can take a long time to complete, it is helpful to set up an alert in the databases to notify you if any new articles are added that fit your search criteria. Be sure that you think through your cutoff date for your alert. At some point, you do have to publish.
Be sure that if you do include articles from an alert, you are transparent about them in your reporting.
Note: Librarians recommend that you create logins for your chosen databases and save your searches from the start of the project so that you don't lose any work as you develop your search strategy.
Within the EBSCO interface, there are several ways to document your search. In general, make sure you've set up a myEBSCO account and are signed in, and have run your final search protocol.
Click on the "Share" button and click on your linked search terms (in the "Add Search to Folder" option). This records your search terms and limits in your myEBSCO folder under the section called "Persistent Links to Searches." See the red arrow on the screen shots to the right.
Click on the "Share" button. Copy and save the URL in the "Use Permalink" section. This will allow you to quickly return to and rerun your search, Note: any newly added articles that match your search criteria will appear. To be aware of those new additions, set up a search alert to be notified of new results. See the green and blue arrows in the screen shot to the right.
Beneath the search box, click on "Search History" and select the search you'd like to save. Then click "Save Searchers / Alerts" and complete and save the form on the next screen. Now your search terms can be found in your myEBSCO folder under the "Saved Searches" section. See the yellow arrows in the screen shots below.
Grey literature typically refers to literature not published in a traditional manner and often not retrievable through large databases and other popular resources. Grey literature should be searched for inclusion in scoping reviews in order to reduce bias and increase thoroughness. There are several databases specific to grey literature that can be searched.
Grey literature for Europe
A union catalog of millions of records representing open-access resources from collections worldwide
Grey Matters: a practical tool for searching health-related grey literature (CADTH)
From CADTH, the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health, Grey Matters is a practical tool for searching health-related grey literature. The MS Word document covers a grey literature checklist, including national and international health technology assessment (HTA) web sites, drug and device regulatory agencies, clinical trial registries, health economics resources, Canadian health prevalence or incidence databases, and drug formulary web sites.
Duke Medical Center Library: Searching for Grey Literature
A good online compilation of resources by the Duke Medical Center Library.
UTICA Library: Searching for Grey Literature
This library has comprehensive information on searching for Grey Literature.
University of Maryland: Searching for Grey Literature:
U of M provides an extensive list of links to look for grey literature.
AHRQ and the Effective Health Care Program
Scoping & Systematic review quality is highly dependent on the literature search(es) used to identify studies. To follow best practices for reporting search strategies, as well as increase reproducibility and transparency, document various elements of the literature search for your review. To make this process clearer, a statement and checklist for reporting literature searches have been developed and can be found below.
Scoping Reviews |
Systematic Reviews |
At a minimum, document and report certain elements, such as databases searched, including name (i.e., Scopus) and platform (i.e. Elsevier), websites, registries, and grey literature searched. In addition, this also may include citation searching and reaching out to experts in the field. Search strategies used in each database or source should be documented, along with any filters or limits, and dates searched. If a search has been updated or was built upon previous work, that should be noted as well. It is also helpful to document which search terms have been tested and decisions made for term inclusion or exclusion by the team. Last, any peer review process should be stated, as well as the total number of records identified from each source and how deduplication was handled.
You can document search strategies in word processing software you are familiar with, like Microsoft Word or Excel, or Google Docs or Sheets. A template and separate example file are provided below for convenience (coming soon).
The PRISMA extension for searching was published in 2021. The checklist includes 16 reporting items, each of which is detailed with exemplar reporting and Rationale. After the completion of the review, an external librarian who is not on the author team should read the review and complete the PRISMA-S Checklist. It is available in PDF, Word, and Excel from the PRISMA website.
