3. How to construct your own search for evidence

Using PubMed to search for evidence

This short, online tutorial from the US National Library of Medicine explains how to convert your information request into appropriate search terms for PubMed, the public interface of Medline (mentioned above), as well as how to filter and refine your searches. There’s also a short PubMed user guide, to help answer any questions you may have when searching PubMed.

Nuts and bolts of searching

In this short (10 minute) presentation, ARC West’s Senior Research Associate in Information Retrieval (Sarah Dawson), talks about the nuts and bolts of searching including key elements such as BOOLEAN operators, truncation and phrase searching.

More in-depth searching resources

These slides were made for the MSc Public Health course at University of Bristol to support literature searching for a systematic review (Author: Sarah Dawson, Senior Research Associate in Information Retrieval, ARC West and University of Bristol). Please note: some content is specific to those with access to a University of Bristol account. See the guidance above for other ways to access the databases mentioned in the presentation.

If you would like to take a more in-depth look at the techniques of literature searching, this online course on the NHS E-Learning for Health platform is a step-by-step guide to finding information and developing effective searching skills. It comprises seven modules of 10-20 minutes each and is free to access without creating an account.

For anyone carrying out a full systematic review, more detailed training in literature searching may be required. You can search our database of local training providers to find a suitable course (topic = Research Methods) to find opportunities.