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Systematic and Rapid Reviews: How to search the literature

Mae'r dudalen hon hefyd ar gael yn Gymraeg

Key steps to consider when formulating a search strategy

Step 1: Consider the different types of information available to you 

Step 2: Identify the specific resources that you will search

Step 3: Identify the key search terms that you will use

Step 4: Outline your plans for minimizing bias

Step 5: Plan how you are going to store and save the results of your search 

Search filters for medicine and health

“Search filters are collections of search terms designed to retrieve selections of records. Search filters may be designed to retrieve records of research using a specific study design or by topic or by some other feature of the research question.

Filters may have a very specific focus or may be high level. Search filters may be designed to maximise sensitivity (or recall) or to maximise precision (and reduce the number of irrelevant records that need to be assessed for relevance).”

InterTASC Information Specialists’ Sub-Group. (2016). What is the ISSG filter resource? https://sites.google.com/a/york.ac.uk/issg-search-filters-resource/home

Developing a search strategy

Read Chapter 5 - Developing my search strategy.

Read Chapter 2 - Literature searching for systematic reviews

Read Chapter 5 - Searching the literature