The document provides guidance on conducting an advanced literature search. It recommends that searches be comprehensive, structured, and auditable. Key steps include identifying concepts, selecting search terms, applying search techniques, selecting databases, refining results, and making a final selection. Databases like CINAHL are suggested. The document provides tips for developing effective search strategies and evaluating search results.

1. Advanced
Literature Searching
Katharine Holmes
Academic Liaison Librarian
k.holmes@uos.ac.uk

2. Your task
To conduct a literature search related to your chosen topic or research question and
explain how you arrived at your final selection of papers.
TIP! Your papers should relate to your research question - they do not need to
answer it!

3. Advanced literature searching
Your search should aim to be:
Comprehensive – you should search a variety of sources including subject
databases, specialist collections (e.g. Cochrane) and key journals not indexed in the
databases.
Structured – you should use a methodical, consistent and structured approach to
search, refine, evaluate and select your articles.
Auditable – you should record your search so that it is transparent and clear how
you arrived at your results.

4. Steps in the literature search process
1. Identify the key concepts of your topic or research question.
2. Select appropriate search terms to describe these using synonyms, related words,
acronyms and abbreviations.
3. Apply standard search techniques e.g. Boolean operators AND OR and truncation.
4. Select appropriate databases to search e.g. Cinahl, British Nursing Database.
5. Refine your search results to primary research and apply date and language limiters.
6. Make your final selection from the remaining articles, applying your exclusion criteria.

5. Do not select articles from a Google search
• Summon and Google are good sources for general background searching only. Any
articles used would still have to be accounted for in a structured database search.
• Searching individual databases gives you much greater control over your search
results with the result you find much better results.
• Structured database searching enables you to document and describe your search in
detail.
Researchers agree that the structured search approach produces the best available
evidence for informing and guiding practice (Parahoo, 1997)

6. Topic or research question
Search plan
Where? Sources
What? Search words
How? Search techniques
Search results
Final selection
Review and refine Evaluate and record
The literature search cycle

7. Nursing and health databases
Specialist databases are useful for finding journal articles:
• Cinahl nursing
• British Nursing Database nursing (Proquest)
• Nursing & Allied Health nursing (Proquest)
• Medline or PubMed medical
• Psychology Database mental health (Proquest)

8. Other useful databases
Specialist databases are useful for finding journal articles:
• Education Database Proquest
• Family Health Database Proquest
• Health Management Proquest
• Public Health Database Proquest

9. • Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health - a specialist database for nursing,
health, midwifery and radiography.
• Access to journal articles from academic and practice journals.
• Advanced search functionality enables deeper searching than Summon.
• Access Cinahl via the A-Z of e-Resources
Cinahl database

10. Identifying your key concepts
• Identify the key concepts (main themes) in your topic or research question
• Develop search strings for each key concept
Research question
The role of the nurse in supporting the spiritual needs of terminally ill patients in
the acute care setting

11. Words which are not key concepts
• Do not develop search strings for words or phrases which are not key
concepts
• These do not help you find relevant articles
The role of the nurse in supporting the spiritual needs of terminally ill patients
in the acute care setting

12. Search terms – less may be more
Using fewer search terms may often help to achieve better search results:
Mental health use Mental*
Terminally ill use Terminal*
Healthcare professionals use Professional*
http://libguides.ucs.ac.uk/

13. Finding alternative search terms
For each concept try to think of as many similar or related words as possible
• E.g. for diet consider the following and use some of these in your search string:
Dietary Nutrition
Food Nourishment
Meals Eating
Malnutrition Malnourishment
Tip! Use an online thesaurus to help with this

14. Synonyms and antonyms
To search comprehensively, you should use various types of search terms e.g.
Synonyms (similar words)
e.g. for head also use skull OR cranial
for dying also use end of life OR palliative
for anxiety also use stress OR burnout
Antonyms (opposite words)
e.g. for success also use failure
for nutrition also use malnutrition
for exercise also use inactivity OR sedentary

15. Acronyms and abbreviations
To search comprehensively, you should use various types of search terms e.g.
Acronyms and abbreviations
e.g. use MRI for magnetic resonance imaging
use QOL for quality of life
use EOL for end of life
Alternative spellings
e.g. use organisation or organization
use pediatrics or paediatrics

16. Boolean operators
Boolean operators are very useful for broadening or narrowing your search results:
OR broadens by finding any word Used within search strings
AND narrows by finding all words Used to combine search strings
Tip! It is good practice to use upper case for Boolean operators

17. Truncation
* Searches for variants of the stem (or root) of words and will increase your search
results:
Nurs* finds: Nurse, nurses, nursing
Child* finds: Child, children, childhood, childbirth
Radiograph* finds: Radiographer, radiographers, radiography
Manag* finds: Manage, manages, manager, managers, management, managing
Midwi* finds: Midwife, midwives, midwifery
TIP! Be careful not to truncate too soon e.g. leg* or comp* will retrieve too may false results

18. Cinahl citation example

19. Identify the key concepts
The role of the nurse in supporting the spiritual needs of terminally ill patients in the
acute care setting
s1 Spiritual
s2 Terminally ill
s3 Acute care

20. Develop search strings
The role of the nurse in supporting the spiritual needs of terminally ill patients in the
acute care setting
s1 Spiritual* OR faith OR religio* OR god
s2 Terminal* OR end of life OR EOL OR dying OR death
s3 Acute care OR acute setting* OR hospital* OR ward* OR
inpatient*
s4 S1 AND s2 AND s3

21. Search example
Perceptions and experiences of relatives of patients with a head injury
s1 Experienc* OR attitude* OR perception* OR opinion* OR belief*
OR view*
s2 Relatives OR families OR family OR parent*
s3 Head injur* OR head trauma* OR brain injur* OR brain trauma*
s4 S1 AND s2 AND s3

22. Search example
How useful are compression garments in the treatment of patients with leg
ulcers?
s1 Compress* OR pressure OR support*
s2 Garment* OR stocking* OR hosiery
s3 Leg ulcer* OR venous ulcer*
s4 S1 AND s2 AND s3

23. Search example
What are the barriers to using larva therapy in the treatment of leg ulcers?
s1 Larva* OR maggot* OR debrid* OR biodebrid* OR biosurgery
s2 Leg ulcer* OR leg wound*
s3 S1 AND s2 AND s3

24. PEO/PICO elements may differ from search strings
It is not essential to have a search string for each of your PICO/PEO statements e.g.
Outcomes statements are often difficult to define and therefore best excluded from
your database search e.g. improving patient care or the effectiveness of a service.
Some statements may require more than one search string - e.g. if your Population
statement is dementia patients in the acute setting you may need a search string
for both dementia AND acute setting.

25. Do not search within abstract only
• Best practice is to search within the article citation – this includes all the
details about the article e.g. title, abstract and subject headings.
• Limiting your search to words in abstract is not recommended as not all
papers include abstracts.
• An abstract only search would not search within titles or major/minor subject
headings which are specifically added by indexers to improve retrieval.

26. Do not limit results by full-text
• This is not good practice as your results will not be comprehensive.
• You will lose the most recent articles where full-text has been embargoed by
publishers.
• Many citations may have embedded DOI or other links to full-text.
• Full-text may also be found by searching for article titles in Summon or Google

27. Do not limit results to the UK
• The Geography limiter in Cinahl limits to articles published in the UK,
not articles about the UK.
• This is not generally helpful as research done in other countries may still be
still applicable to the UK e.g. in Australia, NZ and Canada where healthcare
systems are similar.

28. Refining your search results
Limit your search results using the refine options offered by the database (these vary).
 Year of publication (last 5-10 years, or since the latest guidance on the topic was
published)
 Academic or peer-reviewed journals (this will help you to exclude review articles in
practice journals)
 Language (the full-text of a few articles may be in languages other than English)
TIP! Apply limits at the end of the search as you can control your results better if you know
how much is available to begin with.

29. Filtering to primary research
A primary research paper will usually describe itself as a study
Other useful terms relating to primary research include:
• Trials
• Findings
• Qualitative
• Sample
• Participants
• RCTs
• Focus groups
TIP! Avoid the using the word research as this is too generic or studies which is
more likely to find systematic reviews

30. Found too many search results?
• Re-run your key search string as words in title (usually the search string describing
your intervention or exposure).
• Remove truncation and search on the most commonly used variant of the word
e.g. older instead of old* for older people.
• Add an extra search string (e.g. for your outcomes) if you have not already
included one. Be aware that outcomes are often difficult to define.

31. Found too few search results?
• Check your spelling.
• Add extra search terms to your search strings e.g. parent* OR mother* OR father*
• Remove the least well defined concept string (this usually relates to outcomes).
• Is there a more relevant database you should be searching?

32. Making your final selection of papers

33. Qualitative research – how can you tell?
• It looks at people’s experiences, perceptions or attitudes – there may not be a
specific intervention.
• Research methodologies include grounded theory, ethnography,
phenomenology.
• Data collection methods include semi-structured interviews, focus groups,
narratives, diaries, observation, case studies.
• Small samples are common.

34. Quantitative research – how can you tell?
• There is a specific intervention – e.g. treatment, service, therapy, drug,
procedure.
• Research methodologies include cohort studies, RCTs, experiments.
• Data collection methods include questionnaires, observations, tests.
• Keywords such as statistics, validity, risk, ratios, sampling, scores.
• Larger samples are common.

35. Search table – concept strings
Search
no.
Search words Cinahl British Nursing
Database
Nursing & Allied
Health Database
s1 Diet* OR nutrition* OR food* (words in title) 9067 6059 4500
s2 Old* OR elderly OR aged OR later life 170630 11008 36987
s3 Mental* OR psychiatr* OR psycholog* 26055 20112 15488
s4 s1 AND s2 AND s3 123 95 111
s5 study 900657 55061 763660
s6 S4 AND s5 90 85 50
Database search limits used
By date to <10 years old 85 70 40
By peer-reviewed/academic journal type 42 23 35
By language (or any other database filter) 31 N/A 38
Topic: The impact of dietary behaviour on the mental health of older adults

36. Search table – individual words or phrases
Search no. Search words Cinahl British Nursing
Database
Nursing & Allied
Health Database
s1 Diet* (words in title) 5700 4022 4523
s2 Nutrition* (words in title) 4063 3023 3054
s3 Food* (words in title) 2002 2510 1501
s4 s1 OR s2 OR s3 9067 6059 8010
s5 Old* 60220 58890 75321
s6 Elderly 53200 45021 45109
s7 Aged 40099 35440 30131
s8 Later life 10104 9008 6998
s9 s5 OR s6 OR s7 OR s8 170630 11008 14177
s10 Mental* 12002 11700 12018
s111s0 Psychiatr* 13080 10990 12504
s12 Psycholog* 11034 10540 11599
s13 s10 OR s11 OR s12 26055 20112 22063
s14 s4 AND s9 AND s13 123 95 111
s15 study 900657 55061 763660
s16 s14 AND s15 90 85 50

37. Pre-searching your topic
• You might start the process with only a vague topic rather than with a full research
question e.g. dementia and end of life care
• Use Cinahl for a quick pre-search using your known elements
Dementia
AND End of life
AND Study

38. Pre-searching your topic
• This could be developed further
• Limit your results to the last 10 years
• Scan for recurring themes or topics of interest
Dementia OR alzheimers
AND End of life OR palliative OR dying
AND Study

39. Pre-searching your topic
Add an extra search string to describe the new theme e.g. pain management
TIP! The pre-search is NOT the full search that you will present in your work
Dementia OR alzheimers
AND End of life OR palliative OR dying
AND Pain OR discomfort
AND Study

40. Finding full-text
• If full-text is not available try the following:
• Cinahl articles - check the citation for embedded DOI link
• Proquest articles - use the links to full-text
• Cut and paste the title of the article into Summon or Google
• As a last resort, you can request the article
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPkWGVCBTwo

41. Resource requests
Journal article requests need a signature and must be returned to the Library in person
or by post (they cannot be scanned and emailed)
Allow up to 5 working days for documents to be electronically delivered.
Allowances may be exceeded if students wish to pay personally.
 First year undergraduate (Level 4) - 5 requests free of charge (request forms must be
countersigned by course tutor)
 Second year undergraduate (Level 5) - 5 requests free of charge
 Final year undergraduate (Level 6) - 10 requests free of charge
 Taught Postgraduate - 10 requests free of charge
 Research postgraduate - 20 requests free of charge
 Staff - 20 requests free of charge
£12 per journal request; £15 per book request; £5 to renew a book

42. Retrospective search tips
If you have already found your articles and need to construct a search strategy to account
for them do the following:
• Ensure the articles are studies
• Look at the titles of the articles and determine what the key concepts are
• Develop a search string for each concept ensuring you include at least one word or
phrase from the article title or abstract of each journal.
• Add a string for study – if this word is not mentioned look for related words e.g. sample,
findings, participants etc. (not just research – too generic)

43. Advanced literature search guide
Step by step guide to advanced literature searching including:
• Links to past dissertations with example literature searches
• Session presentation and video lecture
• Video search guides – database search examples
• Thesaurus – help finding search terms
http://libguides.uos.ac.uk/AdvancedLiteratureSearchGuide

44. NICE Evidence https://www.evidence.nhs.uk
Includes high quality information from accredited sources – guidelines, systematic
reviews, care pathways, primary research etc.
Turning Research into Practice (TRIP) https://www.tripdatabase.com/
A clinical search engine for finding high-quality research evidence to support your
practice, care or studies.
Other useful sources for searching

45. Related reference searching
• If you can identify at least one recent relevant article, you can use the
reference list of this article to identify other related articles.
• This is sometimes referred to a citation, snowball or network searching.
• Use the PubMed single citation matcher tool to help with this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPkWGVCBTwo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPkWGVCBTwo

46. Searching individual journals
Use the A-Z of e-Journals tool to search for and access individual journals
http://libguides.uos.ac.uk/a-z-ejournals
• You can browse all issues or search within a journal.
• Useful for accessing journals not included in standard databases.
• Useful for finding full-text if Summon links fail.

47. Follow up support
Support with your literature search - Learning Services (Katharine Holmes)
• Use the booking link http://libguides.uos.ac.uk/121/all-appointments
• Come prepared with your research topic, search terms and initial search strategy
• Small groups can be booked but numbers need to be advised
• Skype appointments available
Support with your question or choice of articles - Tutor or dissertation supervisor
TIP! Try to use a topic you are interested in or passionate about even if it is difficult to find papers