Search Checklist
The A-Z Databases page is the main place to find and access databases.
You can:
There are many databases to search, depending on the context of your search, it may not be necessary to search all databases.
Your university assignment criteria will list the relevant databases that you need to search.
Depending on your search it is recommended that you search at least two databases to ensure that all major research papers are found on your topic.
If in doubt please contact library@cabrini.com.au to discuss.
These texts have chapters which describe the searching process. Al titles can be borrowed from the Cabrini Library. Please email library@cabrini.com.au
So you now have chosen what databases you will search and you have also planned what subject terms you will use according to the PICO elements.
The next step is to type the terms into the database search engine and use the appropriate Boolean operators to retrieve the best results.
Watch this short video to understand how to group your terms and apply into a search strategy.
This tutorial takes the search from the planning stage to now combining all similar terms as well as combining the groups of terms
Finding the Evidence 2 - Turning search terms into a search strategy- [3 Min.] Centre for Evidence Based Medicine, Oxford
Also refer to the following guides to see how search strategies are entered into the following key databases
Unfortunately all databases have their individual search truncation and limiters. The Flinders University Database guide is a terrific handout which lists all the limiters and truncation symbols according to each database..
Flinders University. Database Syntax Guide for Systematic Reviewers [pdf].
The Boolean search operators are OR AND, NOT. You can use these operators to create a very broad or very narrow search.
For example, kidney or renal disease finds results that contain either kidney or renal disease.
For example, smoking and breast cancer finds articles that contain both smoking and breast cancer.
For example, cloning not sheep finds results that contain cloning but not sheep.
For all similar terms use the OR boolean operator.
Then use the AND boolean operator to combine all the groups together