A basic introduction to searching the Medline Database on the Ovid platform, using MeSH index headings, additional limits and filters.

1. Developed by US National Library of Medicine (NLM)
this life sciences and biomedicine database uses
specialist Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) to index
highly reputed medical journals.
Ability to map to MeSH search terms and to build up
your search strategy with inbuilt Boolean operators.
A range of ways to refine and limit search results based
on types of studies, cohort study groups and more.
MeSH topics and sub-topics provide a range of ways to
focus in on very specific medical areas of research.
University Library

2. Search OneSearch for the Medline Database
Use pheme to sign in and
get full access
Open record to find full-text link to Medline
NOTE: Medline and Pubmed are both produced by the US National Library of Medicine. Medline represents a more highly
selected range of medical journals, catalogued using MeSH – Medical Subject Headings. Pubmed contains all Medline records
plus articles considered out of scope for Medline.
Our version of Medline is provided within the Ovid database platform and allows for greater control of your search strategy.

3. Beginning your
Search in Medline
Medline is one of many databases delivered through the Ovid Platform
As you build your search concepts they will appear in this
search history area above your search box.
To map your search terms to MeSH subject headings you need to be in
“Advanced Search” and have this tick box selected

4. Select just the one
subject heading and
click “continue” to
view the sub-headings
related to an
individual MeSH term.
Click on a “subject heading” link
to see where this term sits in a
subject classification tree.
You could add other MeSH terms
to your search at this point.
MeSH subject Vs
Keyword Search
Results highlight a MeSH term for Endometriosis
We are given the option to also search for it as a keyword.

5. Working with
subheadings
Choosing the one subject heading at a time will give you access to a number of
sub-headings you can choose from or omit for that specific subject.
For instance, we could select “complications” to limit our results from over
20,000 articles or select to “include all subheadings” at this early stage.
The first completed search is
added to our search history
We can begin to search for
our second core concept.

6. Using MeSH
Subject Scope Notes
Our search of “pelvic pain” revealed several possible relevant headings
We can view the Scope notes to make sure the MeSH term is relevant to our
research question.
The “Scope” information tells us more about the use of each MeSH term

7. Building and Joining
Search Concepts
Once you have built up your core concepts into your search history you can add decide how to
join them together using the AND, OR operators
OR: to bring together all synonyms – similar terms – for a concept
AND: to only return results that have both concepts
Note:
Once you tick select the searched terms the AND, OR buttons become available.
In this search we are joining all the concepts related to “ pelvic pain”, “pelvic AND pain” together.
In this example we have selected to search these as both MeSH terms (/) and key word terms (.mp)
Finally we are joining search “6”: all the concepts related to pelvic pain to our 2nd core concept, Endometriosis “1”

8. Refining with
Additional Limits
Endometriosis AND (pelvic pain/.mp OR (pelvic/.mp AND pain/.mp))
Having combined our core search concepts, we will use “Additional limits” to further refine results
Click on display results and
then select “additional
limits”
from the search box
This will open up a wide
number of other ways you
can limit results
These additional limits in particular may be useful for identifying specific types of
publications, studies and age groups.
NOTE: This may limit results to items that have been fully indexed in Medline only.
Items not yet
fully indexed in
Medline.

9. Refining + Filters
Displayed Results
Endometriosis AND (pelvic pain/.mp OR (pelvic/.mp AND pain/.mp))
You can also choose to refine from the filters available in your search results
Note: You can browse using limits and/or “add to search history” saved area.
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Search results limited to
“Systematic Reviews”

10. However this combination only gives us 7 results and a review of the display of
results indicate they are not very on topic – that we are not using the correct terms.
Look in detail at highly relevant results to
identify other subject and keyword search terms
you could build into your search strategy.
An abstract will tell you a lot about the report or
case study and help you decide if it is a good
focus for your Scientific review assessment.
Honing in on good leads and
modifying your search strategy