The Ovid Support & Training Tools has a variety of training resources, including a dedicated Medline online tutorial, click here at Online training sessions
Flinders University library have produced a database syntax guide to assist with the searching of most major databases.
Medline is a large, multidisciplinary database that includes references from the fields of medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, allied health and pre-clinical sciences.
OVID Medline is the preferred interface for researchers searching the Medline database.
When should I search Medline
When you have selected OVID Medline, via Cabrini's subscription you will be presented with the following search segment.
OVID MEDLINE(R)ALL 1946 to January 26, 2022
This means you can search Medline records from 1946 to the current day you are accesing OVID Medline AS WELL as in process and non-indexed citations.
The default search box on the Cabrini Subscription is Advanced Searching.
Advanced Searching is recommended as it provides the user to do more targeted (precise) searching.
This allows searching of keywords and authorised subject headings which are referred to as MESH terms.
MESH terms are the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) thesaurus is a controlled and hierarchically-organized vocabulary produced by the National Library of Medicine. For further information a short tutorial is available via The National Library of Medicine.
On the search box you will notice that the Map to Subject headings box is ticked. This maps your keywords to authorised subject headings.
All keywords entered may not have a related MESH term as many new studies have not been indexed with an authorised MESH heading i.e ahead of print articles, you will need to include keywords to capture all relevant studies. Also your topic may include new medical terminology that may yet to have been adopted as a formal MESH heading. You will notice whatever keyword you have typed in the search box will automatically appear at the bottom of the recommended MESH terms.
It is recommended to watch the following video below which takes the users from entering keywords, mapping to MESH headings to combining search terms and limiting results as well as viewing records and obtaining fulltext articles directly from the record in the OVID database.
Focus on sections 4-7 to see examples of combining keywords and MESH headings together.
It is common for novice searches to type all terms into one box. Instead type all terms related to your PICO question group by group. All terms relating to the P(population) of your topic are typed in first, all terms related to your I(Intervention) are typed in next, all terms relating to C(comparison) are next. Being methodological in your process, will assist you in getting better results and improving your searching expertise.
It is recommended that each term is typed on its own line. The advantage of this is that OVID allows you to edit your line of searches, so you won't have to re-type your search all over again. If you are as an example typing American and English spellings you can type these terms in the same line e.g. orthopaedic OR orthopedic
However if my population was Breast cancer patients, I use a line by line approach and then combine with the boolean operator OR to group all my similar terms together.
1. Breast cancer
2. Breast neoplasms
1 OR 2
It is recommended not to limit your search by fulltext, or date of publication until after you have run your initial results.
Why?
Don't reinvent the wheel
For searches that are part of a research project or a topic that you wish to keep updated for your own knowledge, you can save your search by setting up a personal registration account. Watch the online short tutorial below to set up this process.
Remember you will always be required to login via your OpenAthens Account if you are accessing OVID Medline from offsite, prior to logging into your personal account.
Don't have an Open Athens account? Register here