Guide to Searching Articles

Authors
Affiliations

Doctor of Physical Therapy

B.S. in Kinesiology

Doctor of Physical Therapy

B.A. in Neuroscience

Search Filtering

Goal < 50 abstracts with a search

PICOS Terms

  • Add one term at a time, combined w AND, no long phrases
  • Key terms only
  • Too many results: add pico terms, more specific pico terms, use filters
  • Too few results: remove one or more PICO terms, use less specific PICO terms, search MeSH terms, search for related populations, interventions, outcomes that can be generalized, search alternative databases

Pubmed search guide

  • Quotation marks:
    • No quotations around key terms: Automatically search for related MESH terms
    • Using quotations around key terms: Searches for an exact term or phrase
    • Always use quotation marks when searching with abbreviations or clinical jargon
  • Wildcards (*)
    • Use wildcard “*” to truncate search terms
    • “therap*” will search for: therapy, therapist, therapies, therapeutic, etc.

Pubmed Boolean operators

Linking Terms with boolean operators: AND/OR/NOT

  • Must use all caps
  • Keep terms simple. Avoid multiple word phrases!!

Using the “AND” Function:

Using the “OR” Function: - Parantheses: only required when grouping terms with “OR”

Improper syntax: “Physical therapy OR rehabilitation AND pain OR function”

Proper syntax: (physical therapy OR rehabilitation) AND (pain OR function)

Using the “NOT” Function:

Keyword vs MeSH Terms

  • Keyword: Single term selected by you
    • Not standardized
    • PubMed will search only for the “keyword” (must be in quotes)
    • Useful to narrow down results to a very specific topic
      • “Neck Disability Index”, “NDI”
  • MeSH: Medical Subject Heading
    • Standardized vocabulary used by PubMed to determine which keywords will be recognized (default search)
    • PubMed will search for MeSH term and all relevant subheadings within that term
    • Useful to avoid missing relevant articles when there are many synonyms for your search term

Pubmed Clinical Queries

  • Filter: Preset filters and search terms that automatically limit your search to relevant studies for questions about:
    • Etiology
    • Diagnosis
    • Prognosis
    • Therapy
    • Clinical prediction rules
  • Enter PICO search terms as you normally would, then select type of question
  • Scope:
    • Broad search = more articles to choose from but some not relevant to question
    • Being with the “broad” option then move to “narrow” if there are too many articles
  • Can use for interventions, prognosis, outcomes!
How to find Clinical Queries in Pubmed
  1. Pubmed
  2. Find → Clinical queries
  3. Put in picos terms
  4. Choose filter
  5. Choose scope

Scanning Articles

Begin by scanning article titles and abstracts to find a good match. Key items to look for:

  • Good match between your clinical question and the study design (S - external validity)
  • Compare your patient to the study population (P - internal validity)
  • Intervention/indicator/ and outcomes you want to use for your patient compared to those used in the study (I/O - construct validity)
Warning

Studies should NOT be selected based on whether they report the results you expect or hope for (e.g., positive treatment effects, valid measure, etc.) as this will bias your search.

Citation

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