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Conducting Systematic Literature Search.pdf
By the end of the session you should be equipped with skills to: • Know the importance of an effective systematic literature search • Describe the main features of an effective literature search • Develop a search strategy to carry out an effective search • Evaluate your search results
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Conducting Systematic Literature Search.pdf
- 1. Systematic Literature Search ByAdrine Nyamwiza 15th Nov 2025
- 2. Learning Outcomes By theend of the session you should be equipped with skills to: • Know the importance of an effective systematic literature search • Describe the main features of an effective literature search • Develop a search strategy to carry out an effective search • Evaluate your search results Obtain required documents
- 3. Outline of session •Importance of an effective literature search • Steps in the search process • Frameworks • Search techniques • Demonstration with PubMed / Web of Science / Google scholar / Ebsco
- 4. Importance of effective searching •Failure to locate important studies can significantly affect results & findings • Avoids information overload: There is a lot of information online. Google claims it searches >100 billion web pages • Saves resources (time and money) • Access to more relevant information
- 5. Steps in thesearch process • Scope your search (define & refine question) • Break down the question into concepts using frameworks • Synonyms & best combinations of terms • Select appropriate databases • Compile your search strategy • Conduct search • Adapt strategy for different databases • Find the full text
- 6. Search techniques • BooleanOperators • Synonyms/Alternative terms • Phrase Searching • Truncation (stemming) • Wildcards • Field searching • Subject headings • Setting limits
- 7. Boolean Operators Words /symbols used in search queries to combine or exclude keywords in order to refine / focus search results • AND: Narrows the search. All the terms appear in the search results • OR: Expands the search. Results with at least one of the search terms. Useful with synonyms / related concepts • NOT: Excludes specific terms from the search results. Helps to eliminate irrelevant or unwanted information Boolean operators help in narrowing / broadening search results to match specific research needs
- 8.
- 9. Boolean Operator -OR Information about any or all of the terms: young adult OR adolescent OR youth OR teenager
- 10. Boolean Operator -NOT HIV and AIDS ONLY, unrelated to tuberculosis Tuberculosis HIV and AIDS
- 11. Synonyms • Alternative /related terms • Examples: 1. Nutrition, diet, nutrients 2. Ramadan, intermittent fasting, fasting 3. Adolescents, teenagers, youths, young adults
- 12. Phrase searching •Allows youto search for an exact phrase using: “ ” Google Scholar •maternal mortality - 1,710,000 hits •“maternal mortality” - 523,000 hits In PubMed • maternal mortality - 56,153 hits • “maternal mortality” - 20,185 hits
- 13. Truncation & wildcards •Allowyou to search words ending differently, and alternative spellings: • tumo*r returns tumor (American spelling) and tumour (British spelling) • Organi#e returns organize (American spelling) and organise (British spelling • Pregnan* returns pregnant, pregnancy, pregnancies • Terminologies: "physical therapy" (American), physiotherapy (British)
- 14. Field Searching Searches infields such as Title, DOI, URL or links
- 15. Subject headings • Controlledvocabulary for indexing terms that describe a given subject matter • MeSH = Medical Subject Heading – keywords assigned to each record in MEDLINE • A MeSH Term contains a definition of the term, associated sub-headings, a list of entry terms, and the tree view of the MeSH. • All sub-headings associated to a MeSH Term are displayed below the definition.
- 17. Subject headings –Cancer entry terms • Malignancies • Malignant Neoplasms • Malignant Neoplasm • Neoplasm, Malignant • Neoplasms, Malignant • Benign Neoplasms • Neoplasms, Benign • Benign Neoplasm • Neoplasm, Benign • Neoplasia • Neoplasias • Neoplasm • Tumors • Tumor • Cancer • Cancers • Malignancy
- 18. Setting limits /filters • By Language, Date, Region, Availability (Abstract or full-text), Study design, etc.
- 19. Frameworks: categorise concepts "Inadults with mild hypertension (P), does taking a daily dose of walking exercise (I) compared to no exercise (C) lower blood pressure (O) over a period of 6 weeks (T)?
- 20. Define your ResearchTopic • How many concepts? • Which ones?
- 21. Combine terms with BooleanOperators
- 22. Select sources • PubMed •Web of Science (Core Collection or specific - SCI & SSCI …) • EBSCO – Academic Search Premier… • Google scholar
- 23. Execute the search •Input keywords, phrases or search terms related to your research topic • These might include: • Keywords: Specific terms that describe the topic. • Phrases: Exact terms or expressions, often enclosed in quotation marks (e.g., "climate change") • Synonyms: Different words with similar meanings to ensure comprehensive results
- 24. Summary • Use ofeffective search strategies is essential • The use of a search strategy checklist should be encouraged • Understand and use advanced searching • Boolean searches are powerful and under used • Learn the search routines for all databases
- 26. Demonstration What is thenutritional impact of Ramadan on nursing mothers
- 27. (nutrition* OR diet*OR nutrients) AND ("Intermittent fasting” OR ramadan OR fasting) AND ("nursing mothers" OR breatfe* OR “breast milk” OR lactation)
- 28. Group Activity You willwork collaboratively in your group to complete a short practical exercise on developing systematic review eligibility criteria. Instructions for the Group Activity • Develop a comprehensive search strategy based on the various components/concepts of a selected review question your group has been working on • Use Boolean operators, truncation, keywords and MESH terms appropriately (as taught in the session) • Select an appropriate database • Run the search and note the number of results generated • Document the following clearly in your group’s Google Doc: • The full search strategy used • The database selected • A brief note on the search results/output • Time Allocation: 20 minutes