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Global Health

Database search tips for global health

You may want to start your search in Ovid Medline, then expand to other databases. Some databases with a global focus are linked below; if you're researching a specific region or country, see the Regional Resources and Special Topics tab for more database ideas.

Search filters for various regions are available for use in Medline and other databases. These are pre-constructed searches which you can use or adapt in your own search.

Database Commands

 

Database

Truncation

Wildcard:

0 or 1 character

Wildcard:

Exactly 1 character

Phrase

Proximity

OVID databases

 

*  or  $  or  :

Examples:
 

pharm$ will find:

pharmacy, pharmacist, pharmaceutical….

Child* will find:

children, childbirth, child-centred, childhood…

?

Examples:

flavo?r

P?ediatric

#

Example:
 

wom#n

Quotation marks only needed if there's a word like "and," "or" or "use" in your phrase:

Examples:

“Sensitivity and Specificity”

“Substance use disorder”

 adjn

(adj=adjacent and "n" is the number of words)

 

Example:

environment* adj3 health will find environment, environmental etc. within 3 words of health.

PubMed

*

Note: truncation stops automatic mapping to MeSH 

    

“your phrase”

Note: phrase searching stops automatic mapping to MeSH, and does not always find results

"search terms"[Field:~n]

Available for title and abstract only.

Example:

"nursing education"[Title/Abstract:~2]

EBSCO databases

 

*

 

#

Examples:

flavo#r

P#ediatric

?

Example:

wom?n

“your phrase”

Nn or Wn

(N= Near, W= Within and "n" is the number of words)

Example:
seat* n5 wheelchair will find seat or seating etc. within 5 words of wheelchair.

Web of Science

 

 

*

Web of Science allows left-sided truncation as well as right-sided.

Example: *statin will find:

atorvastatin, simvastatin, pravastatin…

$ for exactly 0-1 characters

* for 0-multiple characters

 

?

“your phrase”

NEAR/n

You can specify n number of words; or if you just type NEAR, the default range is within 15 words.
Scopus

*

Scopus automatically searches for plurals and applies stemming

?

Scopus automatically includes spelling variants

?

Scopus automatically includes spelling variants

"your phrase"

loose phrase - searches for words in same field (title, abstract, or keyword), but not necessarily as an exact phrase.

{exact phrase}

Use curly brackets to look only for exact phrase. Note that hyphens count - eg, {COVID 19} and {COVID-19} will find different results. Can't use truncation or wildcards with exact phrase searching.

W/n (words in any order within n words of each other)

PRE/n (looks for words only in the order they are entered)

Proquest databases

*note: consider changing the drop-down next to the search box to "NOFT" instead of "anywhere" when searching these databases

 *

*

for up to 5 characters in middle of word

 ? "your phrase"

NEAR/n (if you don't specify n, default is 4)

PRE/n (looks for words only in the order they are entered)

CABI Digital Library

 
*


or
Automatic Stemming

Use quotation marks "XXX" to turn off Auto-stemming

   ?

"your phrase"

Note that * and ? are ignored within quotes

"word1 word2"~n

("n" is the number of words)

Database Searching Tutorials