InfoGuides: Systematic Reviews: Search Databases

Searching

PRISMA for Searching

The PRISMA extension for searching (PRISMA-S) was published in 2021. The checklist includes 16 reporting items, each of which is detailed with exemplar reporting and Rationale. This checklist guides the researcher in how to document the search process in a systematic review.

Here is an example of keyword and MeSH search concepts for a PICO question.

PICO: Do e-cigarettes help current smokers, who have tried to quit before, finally succeed in quitting?
MeSH Terms "Smoking Cessation/methods"[Mesh] OR “Tobacco Use Cessation” [Mesh] OR "Tobacco Use Cessation Products"[Mesh]	Keywords (Title/Abstract) “Smoking cessation” [TI/AB] OR “Nicotine Replacement” [TI/AB] OR “Quit* Smoking”[TI/AB] OR “Stop* Smoking” [TI/AB]
AND	AND
MeSH Terms	Keywords “quit attempt*” [TI/AB]
AND	AND
MeSH Terms “Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems” [Mesh]	Keywords E-cigarette[TI/AB] OR “electronic cigarette”[TI/AB] OR Vape [TI/AB] OR Vaping[TI/AB]

Searching in Systematic Reviews video https://youtu.be/eeg_41Ir3Hw

Search using keywords

Use "" for phrase searching: "smoking cessation"
Use * for truncation: protect* retrieves protect, protects, protection, protecting

“Smoking cessation”[Title/Abstract] OR “Nicotine Replacement”[Title/Abstract] OR “Nicotine Inhalant”[Title/Abstract] OR “Nicotine Nasal Spray”[Title/Abstract] OR “Nicotine Lozenge”[Title/Abstract] OR “nicotine patch”[Title/Abstract] OR “Quit* Smoking”[Title/Abstract] OR “Stop* Smoking”[Title/Abstract]

Search using MeSH Subject Headings

"Smoking Cessation/methods"[Mesh] OR “Tobacco Use Cessation”[Mesh] OR "Tobacco Use Cessation Products"[Mesh]

Tutorial: Introduction: What is MeSH?

Databases

PubMed This link opens in a new window
Comprises over 27 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations and abstracts include the fields of biomedicine and health, covering portions of the life sciences, behavioral sciences, chemical sciences, and bioengineering. Provides access to additional relevant web sites and links to the other NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information) molecular biology resources. Tutorial for the PubMed database.
Medline with Full Text This link opens in a new window
The U.S. National Library of Medicine's premier bibliographic database of literature on medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health-care system, and pre-clinical sciences.
Tutorial for the Medline database.
CINAHL Plus with Full Text This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text to journals in the fields of nursing and allied health, with indexing back to 1937. Includes access to health care books, nursing dissertations, conference proceedings, standards of practice, educational software, Evidence-Based Care Sheets, legal cases, drug records, research instruments and clinical trials. Subject coverage includes nursing, biomedicine, alternative/complementary medicine, consumer health and 17 allied health disciplines. View a tutorial on this database here.
Global Health This link opens in a new window
Provides information on international health, biomedical life sciences, non-communicable diseases, public health nutrition, food safety and hygiene, and more. Contains more than 1.4 million records dating back to 1973.
Tutorial for the Global Health database.

IEEE Xplore This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text access to all journals, transactions and conference proceedings published by IEEE and IET. Accesses more than 1,000 books in the IEEE-Wiley eBook Library and IEEE-MIT eBook Library-Computing and Engineering Collection.
View a tutorial on this database here.
Computers and Applied Sciences Complete This link opens in a new window
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Includes indexing and abstracts for academic journals, professional publications, and reference sources. Subject areas include Engineering, Computer Theory & Systems, New Technologies, and Social and Professional context. View a tutorial on this database here.
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Digital Library This link opens in a new window
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Citations and full-text articles in the area of computing and information technologies from journals, magazines, and conference proceedings published by the ACM.
Tutorial for the ACM Digital Library database.

ABI/INFORM Collection This link opens in a new window
The ABI/INFORM Collection includes international coverage and provides researchers a complete picture of companies and business trends around the world.
Tutorial for ABI/INFORM Collection.
Business Source Complete This link opens in a new window
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Covers scholarly journals for business topics such as marketing, management, human resources, MIS, POM, accounting, finance and economics. Includes author profiles, financial data, books, major reference works, book digests, conference proceedings, case studies, company profiles, SWOT analyses, investment research reports, industry reports, market research reports, datamonitor, and country reports from 1886.
Tutorial for the Business Source Complete database.
Public Administration Abstracts This link opens in a new window
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Includes bibliographic records covering areas related to public administration, including public administration theory, and other areas of key relevance to the discipline. Tutorial for the Public Administration Abstracts database.

Web of Science: Core Collection This link opens in a new window
Contains citations and searchable author abstracts, covering scholarly literature in journals, books and conference proceedings. Includes: Science Citation Index Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index, Arts and Humanities Citation Index, Book Citation Index, Conference Proceedings Citation Index, Current Chemical Reactions, Index Chemicus, and Emerging Sources Citation Index. Additional resources available by selecting from the dropdown list next to the Core Collection heading. Tutorial for the Web of Science: Core Collection database.
Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
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Provides full-text, peer-reviewed journals, as well as indexing and abstracts for monographs, reports, and conference proceedings. Features content going back as far as 1887. Tutorial for the Academic Search Complete database.

Cochrane Library This link opens in a new window
Consists of six databases that contain different types of independent evidence to inform healthcare decision-making.
Tutorial for the Cochrane Library database.
JAMAevidence This link opens in a new window
Uses Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) to help decision makers identify the best available evidence by Providing guides to the systematic consideration of the validity, importance, and applicability of claims about the assessment of health problems and the outcomes of health care. Includes text of two books (Users' Guides to the Medical Literature: A Manual for Evidence-Based Clinical Practice and The Rational Clinical Examination: Evidence-Based Clinical Diagnosis), education guides, glossary, calculators, worksheets, question wizards, weekly RSS feed of featured JAMA articles, compiled clinical scenarios, podcasts, and user-level customization features.
Tutorial for the JAMAevidence database.
DynaMed This link opens in a new window
A clinical point-of-care reference tool created by physicians for physicians and other health care professionals to assist with evidence-based bedside diagnosis and treatment. Tutorial for the DynaMed database.

Building the Search: Systematic Reviews Tutorial for searching for systematic reviews in PubMed

Putting Evidence Into Practice by the Oncology Nurses Society ONS PEP resources are designed to provide evidence-based interventions for patient care and teaching. PEP topic teams of nurse scientists, advanced practice nurses, and staff nurses summarize and synthesize the available evidence in PEP topic areas. Topics are patient-centered outcomes, such as symptoms, that are selected by survey of ONS members and determination of availability of evidence in the topic.

Centre for Evidence-Based Research CEBM aims to develop, teach and promote evidence-based health care through conferences, workshops and EBM tools so that all health care professionals can maintain the highest standards of medicine.
Campbell Systematic Reviews-Campbell Collaboration Campbell systematic reviews follow structured guidelines and standards for summarizing the international research evidence on the effects of interventions in crime and justice, education, international development, and social welfare.
Joanna Briggs Institute Australian center for nursing and qualitative reviews
What Works Clearinghouse Effectiveness reviews in education from U.S. Department of Education
Nutrition Evidence Based Review Program from NIH Office of Dietary Supplements
Collaboration for Environmental Evidence International nonprofit addressing environmental policy and practice
Network for Business Sustainability Business leaders review innovation, global supply chains and more

Campbell Systematic Reviews-Campbell Collaboration
Campbell systematic reviews follow structured guidelines and standards for summarizing the international research evidence on the effects of interventions in crime and justice, education, international development, and social welfare.

Policy File Index This link opens in a new window
Access domestic and foreign public policy research and analytical papers on governmental and legal topics, representing the work of think tanks, research groups, and academic institutes from 1990 to present. Tutorial for Policy File Index database.
ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Full Text This link opens in a new window
Provides a comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses from around the world, spanning from 1743 to the present day and offering full text for graduate works added since 1997, along with selected full text for works written prior to 1997. Contains new international dissertations and theses both in citations and in full text. Tutorial for the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Full Text database.

Harvard Kennedy School Think Tank Search
A custom Google search of more than 480 think tank websites allowing you to do a broad search on your topic to find analysis by leading think tanks.

Manage Citations

Zotero is a free citation management system developed at Mason, and now used internationally. Advantages to using Zotero for a systematic review:

Duplicate removal
Abstracts present for title/abstract review
Format in any citation style

Workshops are offered by University Libraries.

VIDEO: Zotero in Systematic Reviews https://youtu.be/34zrO3fMYBU

Steps for downloading and exporting/importing large sets into Zotero:

In Medline or CINAHL (EBSCO)

Be sure Zotero desktop is open to file you want to download to
Increase citations per page under Page Options to 30
Find the Zotero browser add-on extension in the top right corner (gold file folder)
Click on the gold file folder extension
Select all and OK to transfer to Zotero file

Alternatively:

Increase citations per page under Page Options to 50
Click on Share (right side above results)
Click on Save to folder (this is the EBSCO folder, not the Zotero folder)
On the top blue bar find the EBSCO gold folder and open it
In the right column, click on Export
Check Direct Export in RIS Format on the right
Click Save on the left
Save the RIS file to the desktop
Open Zotero and click on File/Import
Choose the saved file on the desktop and import into Zotero

In Web of Science

Choose Export
Click on RIS(other reference software
Choose the number of citations to download
Under Record Content, choose the drop down menu and add Abstract
Select Export and save the file to the desktop
Open Zotero, Choose File/Import and import the file from the desktop

In PubMed.gov

Click on "Send to" at top right
Choose Citation Manager
Enter total number of records to download
Save file as .nbib
Open Zotero. Choose File/Import