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 Strings Attached, from the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH):
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Database |
Truncation |
Wildcard: 0 or 1 character |
Wildcard: Exactly 1 character |
Phrase |
Proximity |
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OVID databases
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* 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 an "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. |
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* Note: truncation stops automatic mapping to MeSH and shows first 600 possible word endings |
“your phrase” Note: phrase searching stops automatic mapping to MeSH, and does not always find results |
Proximity searching not available in PubMed |
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EBSCO databases
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*
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# 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: |
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* 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
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? |
“your phrase” |
NEAR/x You can specify x number of words; or if you just type NEAR, the default range is within 15 words. |