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Demystifying the Search Button: A Comprehensive PubMed Search Strategy for Performing an Exhaustive Literature Review

A thorough review of the literature is the basis of all research and evidence-based practice. A gold-standard efficient and exhaustive search strategy is needed to ensure all relevant citations have been captured and that the search performed is reproducible. The PubMed database comprises both the M...

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Autores principales: McKeever, Liam, Nguyen, Van, Peterson, Sarah J., Gomez-Perez, Sandra, Braunschweig, Carol
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: SAGE Publications 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4513072/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26129895
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0148607115593791
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author McKeever, Liam
Nguyen, Van
Peterson, Sarah J.
Gomez-Perez, Sandra
Braunschweig, Carol
author_facet McKeever, Liam
Nguyen, Van
Peterson, Sarah J.
Gomez-Perez, Sandra
Braunschweig, Carol
author_sort McKeever, Liam
collection PubMed
description A thorough review of the literature is the basis of all research and evidence-based practice. A gold-standard efficient and exhaustive search strategy is needed to ensure all relevant citations have been captured and that the search performed is reproducible. The PubMed database comprises both the MEDLINE and non-MEDLINE databases. MEDLINE-based search strategies are robust but capture only 89% of the total available citations in PubMed. The remaining 11% include the most recent and possibly relevant citations but are only searchable through less efficient techniques. An effective search strategy must employ both the MEDLINE and the non-MEDLINE portion of PubMed to ensure all studies have been identified. The robust MEDLINE search strategies are used for the MEDLINE portion of the search. Usage of the less robust strategies is then efficiently confined to search only the remaining 11% of PubMed citations that have not been indexed for MEDLINE. The current article offers step-by-step instructions for building such a search exploring methods for the discovery of medical subject heading (MeSH) terms to search MEDLINE, text-based methods for exploring the non-MEDLINE database, information on the limitations of convenience algorithms such as the “related citations feature,” the strengths and pitfalls associated with commonly used filters, the proper usage of Boolean operators to organize a master search strategy, and instructions for automating that search through “MyNCBI” to receive search query updates by email as new citations become available.
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spelling pubmed-45130722015-07-31 Demystifying the Search Button: A Comprehensive PubMed Search Strategy for Performing an Exhaustive Literature Review McKeever, Liam Nguyen, Van Peterson, Sarah J. Gomez-Perez, Sandra Braunschweig, Carol JPEN J Parenter Enteral Nutr Tutorial A thorough review of the literature is the basis of all research and evidence-based practice. A gold-standard efficient and exhaustive search strategy is needed to ensure all relevant citations have been captured and that the search performed is reproducible. The PubMed database comprises both the MEDLINE and non-MEDLINE databases. MEDLINE-based search strategies are robust but capture only 89% of the total available citations in PubMed. The remaining 11% include the most recent and possibly relevant citations but are only searchable through less efficient techniques. An effective search strategy must employ both the MEDLINE and the non-MEDLINE portion of PubMed to ensure all studies have been identified. The robust MEDLINE search strategies are used for the MEDLINE portion of the search. Usage of the less robust strategies is then efficiently confined to search only the remaining 11% of PubMed citations that have not been indexed for MEDLINE. The current article offers step-by-step instructions for building such a search exploring methods for the discovery of medical subject heading (MeSH) terms to search MEDLINE, text-based methods for exploring the non-MEDLINE database, information on the limitations of convenience algorithms such as the “related citations feature,” the strengths and pitfalls associated with commonly used filters, the proper usage of Boolean operators to organize a master search strategy, and instructions for automating that search through “MyNCBI” to receive search query updates by email as new citations become available. SAGE Publications 2015-08 /pmc/articles/PMC4513072/ /pubmed/26129895 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0148607115593791 Text en © 2015 The Author(s) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (http://www.uk.sagepub.com/aboutus/openaccess.htm).
spellingShingle Tutorial
McKeever, Liam
Nguyen, Van
Peterson, Sarah J.
Gomez-Perez, Sandra
Braunschweig, Carol
Demystifying the Search Button: A Comprehensive PubMed Search Strategy for Performing an Exhaustive Literature Review
title Demystifying the Search Button: A Comprehensive PubMed Search Strategy for Performing an Exhaustive Literature Review
title_full Demystifying the Search Button: A Comprehensive PubMed Search Strategy for Performing an Exhaustive Literature Review
title_fullStr Demystifying the Search Button: A Comprehensive PubMed Search Strategy for Performing an Exhaustive Literature Review
title_full_unstemmed Demystifying the Search Button: A Comprehensive PubMed Search Strategy for Performing an Exhaustive Literature Review
title_short Demystifying the Search Button: A Comprehensive PubMed Search Strategy for Performing an Exhaustive Literature Review
title_sort demystifying the search button: a comprehensive pubmed search strategy for performing an exhaustive literature review
topic Tutorial
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4513072/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26129895
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0148607115593791
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