Skip to Main Content
MCPHS Library Logo

*Health Sciences

Provides resources, strategies, and tips for finding research in Health Sciences

What's On This Page?

On this page you'll find some helpful tips and tricks to effectively search for articles, as well as some subject-specific search strategies for health sciences.

Basic Searching: Keywords and Boolean Connectors

What are Keywords?

A version of a keyword search is the way most of us look for scholarly articles in database. It's a great approach! 

Figuring out the best keywords for your research topic/question is a process. Start with one or a few words, then adjust them as you start finding sources that describe the topic. Sometimes one specific word will be enough, and sometimes you'll need several different words to describe a concept AND you will need to connect that concept to another concept. You'll shift, adapt, and expand your search keywords as you go! Your words bridge between the known and unknown topics of your research question.

What are Boolean Connectors?

These are the words that you use to tell a database how your search terms are related to each other.

Boolean Connector Purpose
AND finds the overlap between two concepts. It gives things that match both concepts.

AND

Connects different concepts (keywords).

Narrows down the number of results.
OR is additive and gives anything that matches any of your terms

OR

Connects synonyms.

Expands the number of results.
NOT is subtractive. It removes one concept from another.

NOT

Excludes a concept.

Use with extreme caution (even librarians don't use this one much).

Connect Keywords Using Boolean: Examples

OR: Connects Similar Concepts 

It expands the number of results on the topic.

Examples Topics of Interest  Search terms connected by OR
head injuries head injury OR concussion OR traumatic brain injury
systemic racism systemic racism OR institutional racism OR discrimination OR racial bias 
mental health mental health OR mental illness OR psychological health 

AND: Connects Different Concepts

It narrows down the number of results.

Example Topics of Interest Search terms connected by AND
the mental health of college students mental health AND college students
effects of social media on body image social media AND body image

NOT: Excludes a Concept 

Use with extreme caution.

Example Topic of Interest Search terms connected by NOT
tobacco use besides smoking tobacco use NOT smoking
non-medical pollution pollution NOT medication

Basic Searching: Truncation, Phrase Searching, and Controlled Vocabulary

Make the Database Work More

  Truncation

...uses the asterisk (*) to end a word at its core, allowing you to retrieve many more documents containing variations of the search term.  Example: educat* will find educate, educates, education, educators, educating and more.

 

Phrase Searching

...is when you put quotations marks around two or more words, so that the database looks for those words in that exact order. Examples: "higher education," "public health" and "pharmaceutical industry."

 

Controlled Vocabulary

...uses the database's own terms to describe what each article is about. Searching using controlled vocabularies is a great way to get at everything on a topic in a database.

Basic Searching: Useful Parts of a Good Article

Once you know you have a good article, there are a lot of useful parts to it - far beyond the content.

Useful Part Explanation
Keywords Check the author-generated keywords, the database subject headings, the title, abstract and introduction for words that may be great additional/alternative search terms. You don't have to know everything about a topic before you start searching. Let what you find introduce you to the language of the field.
Author(s) If they have written one article on this topic, they may have written more. Click on the authors' names to find what else they have in the database. Or use their names (individually) as a search term elsewhere.
Journal They may have published other articles on your topic. Sometimes a special issue will focus on a single topic. Consider browsing or searching within a specific publication. Oftentimes you'll end up searching in the journal's website.
Instruments Authors might have already created and validated an instrument (survey, tests, and measures). Consider if you can use/adapt it for your own work. Check for details in the methods section, an original citation in the reference, and/or a copy in the appendix.
References Experts on this topic have gathered and evaluated these sources. Check them for potential sources for your own work.

Check for useful tools in the database or search engine:

  • Cited By: Use these links and buttons to find newer sources that have used your source as a reference.
  • Similar Articles, Related Articles, You might also like..., and other similar tools: Use these links and buttons to find sources that may be about the same topic.

Advanced Searching: PICO Framework

The Basics

The PICO framework helps you think about what you want to know. It breaks your question into four parts:

P

  • Stands for the Patient, Population, or Problem. (Who or what are you studying?)
  • Could include things like: preexisting health conditions, age group, biological sex, ethnicity, geographic location.
  • You may have more than one idea as part of your P. Only focus on the most important one(s).
  • Example: nurses

I

  • Stands for the Intervention OR Exposure. (What did you or something else do to them?)
  • Could include a medication, a procedure, a training session, a chemical accident, a natural disaster, etc.
  • Choose a single intervention. (Your intervention could have multiple parts.)
  • Example: mindfulness-based interventions

C

  • Stands for Comparison or Control. (What else could you have done? What else could they have been exposed to?)
  • Could include a different medication, a different procedure, the standard of care, a placebo, or nothing.)
  • Choose a single comparison. (Your comparison could have multiple parts).
  • Example: burnout

O

  • Stands for Outcome. (What result do you expect from your intervention?)
  • Could be something positive (such as a reduction of symptoms) or something negative (such as increased risk of a side effect).
  • Be specific.
  • Discuss with your patient to identify the outcome(s) that matter most.
  • Example: stress reduction

Use those parts to structure your question. For instance, you could ask "In <Population>, what is the effect of <Intervention> compared to <Comparison> on <Outcome>. Example: In nurses with burnout, what is the effect of mindfulness-based interventions on stress reduction? 

You can use AND to combine those parts in your search. Usually, you will only need to include two or three parts in your actual search.

Example Search:

mindfulness interventions
AND
stress reduction OR stress management
AND
job burnout
AND
nurs*

Extensions

Some people also add one or more additional parts:

T: Time. (What is the duration of the study?)

T: Type of Question. (Do you want to know about therapy, diagnosis, etiology, or something else?)

S: Setting. (Where does the intervention take place?)

S: Study Design. (What kind of study would help you answer this question?)

Other Frameworks

PICO is a common framework. Other frameworks, such as SPICE or PEO will be more appropriate for some topics.

How Do I...?

Connect with the MCPHS Libraries via Social Media: Instagram