Note that many questions you may be researching will not fit neatly into a PICO format. Even if they do fit, it's generally not a good idea to include all elements of your PICO in your database search. It's often best to start with the P and I, or the I and O elements.
Optionally, you may want to add some words to your search that describe study design. There are a number of search filters or hedges - pre-constructed searches you can copy and paste - available that help you to search by study design. One source is the ISSG Search Filter Resource:
|
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. |
|
* 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: |
|
|
* 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) |
|
NOTE: CAB is moving to a new site, likely with new search functions, in 2024 |
|
? |
Use proximity: reproductive near/1 "aging" searching phrase in quotes may find undesired results, eg "reproductive aging" will also find "reproductive age" |
near/n ("n" is the number of words) |