Choice β blocker
A patient diagnosed with hypertension and admitted for a laparoscopic knee surgery, asks you whether Tenormin, the antihypertensive drug he is taking, is better than Selozok, the one his neighbour is taking.
| Patient / population | patient with hypertension |
| Intervention | atenolol |
| Comparison | metoprolol |
| Outcomes | (cardiovascular) mortality |
Depending on your needs, choose the appropriate type of filter (SR or RCT). Then use the filter from the most sensitive to the more specific. In other words, if the most sensitive gives you too much results, use a more specific.
Combine the last line using a AND with the results’ set you want to filter.
limit # to systematic reviews
Where # is the line number
This limit will run a query based on the search strategy developed by PubMed.
'meta-analysis'/exp OR 'meta-analysis' OR 'systematic review'/exp OR 'systematic review'
This query is adapted from Wilczynski
All queries are adapted from the Cochrane Handbook
All queries are adapted from Wong
random*:ab,ti or ‘clinical trial’/de or ‘clinical trial’ or ‘health care quality’/exp
random*:ab,ti OR placebo*:de,ab,ti OR (double NEXT/1 blind*):ab,ti
All identified references must exported from the online database; first screening (Title and Abstract) will occur at the reference management software (At KCE, the software in use is EndNote).
Export will preferably result in a text file that is saved (and archived) in the project folder (S:\Project Workingspace\2 Research\04 Search for Evidence\1 Search strategy) and then imported into the reference management software.
Below, the suited export format for each database and the related EndNote Import Filter (import filters are available at S:\Endnote X files\Filters for EndNote X).
| Database | Export options | EndNote Import Filter |
| CINAHL (EBSCO) | _KCE-CINAHL(EBSCO).enf | |
| Cochrane Library (Wiley) | _KCE-Cochrane Library(Wiley).enf | |
| DARE (CRD) | _KCE-DARE(CRD).enf | |
| DARE (Cochrane Library) | _KCE-DARE(Wiley-Cochrane Library).enf | |
| ERIC (Proquest) |
|
|
| EconLit (OVID) |
|
_KCE-EconLit(OVID-KCE).enf |
| Embase (Embase.com) |
|
_KCE-Embase(RIS).enf _KCE-Embase(PLAINTEXT).enf |
| HTA database | _KCE-HTAdb(INAHTA).enf | |
| Journals @ OVID | _KCE-journals@ovid-fulltext(OVID).enf | |
| MedLine (OVID) |
|
_KCE-Medline(OVID).enf |
| MedLine (PubMed) |
_KCE-Medline(PubMed-NLM).enf |
|
| NHSEED (CRD) | _KCE-NHSEED(CRD).enf | |
| Nursing @ OVID | _KCE-Nursing_at_OVID.enf | |
| PEDro | _KCE-PEDro.enf | |
| PsycINFO (OVID) |
|
_KCE-PsycINFO(OVID).enf |
| Sociological Abstracts (Proquest) |
|
_KCE-SociologicalAbs(CSA).enf |
Accuracy is the proportion of all articles that are correctly categorized by the search strategy
Source : http://hiru.mcmaster.ca/hiru/HIRU_Hedges_home.aspx
physician adj5 relationship retrieves records that contain the words physician and relationship within five words of each other in either direction.
E.g. physician patient relationship, patient physician relationship, relationship of the physician to the patient, and so on.
Source: OVID help, available from: http://www.ovid.com /site/help/documentation/ospb/en/syntax.htm#operators
The AND operator lets you retrieve only those records that include all of your search terms. For example, the search “blood pressure AND stroke” retrieves only those records that contain both terms “blood pressure” and “stroke” together in the same record. Results exclude records that do not contain both terms.
Source : OVID help. Available form: http://www.ovid.com/site/help/documentation/ospb/en/syntax.htm#operators
Image source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:LogicGates.svg
Source: Guyatt G, Evidence-Based Medicine Working Group. Users' guides to the medical literature : a manual for evidence-based clinical practice. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Medical; 2008.
A bibliographic index is an "open-end finding guide to the literature of an academic field or discipline (example: Philosopher's Index), to works of a specific literary form (Biography Index) or published in a specific format (Newspaper Abstracts), or to the analyzed contents of a serial publication (New York Times Index). Indexes of this kind are usually issued in monthly or quarterly paperback supplements, cumulated annually.
Some bibliographic indexes are also published online, in which case they are called bibliographic databases
Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliographic_index [visited 2010-09-15]
A bibliographic database is a database of bibliographic records, an organized digital collection of references to published literature, including journal and newspaper articles, conference proceedings, reports, government and legal publications, patents, books, etc. In contrast to library catalogue entries, a large proportion of the bibliographic records in bibliographic databases describe analytics (articles, conference papers, etc.) rather than complete monographs, and they generally contain very rich subject descriptions in the form of keywords, subject classification terms, or abstracts.
A bibliographic database may be general in scope or cover a specific academic discipline. A significant number of bibliographic databases are still proprietary, available by licensing agreement from vendors, or directly from the abstracting and indexing services that create them.
Many bibliographic databases evolve into digital libraries, providing the full-text of the indexed contents. Others converge with non-bibliographic scholarly databases to create more complete disciplinary search engine systems, such as Chemical Abstracts or Entrez
Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliographic_database [visited 2010-09-15]
See : ADJACENT, AND, NEAR, NOT, OR
In the hierachy of a thesaurus, relationship between a term and a more generic term.
Thesauri are multi-hiérarchical: one Heading can be found at several places; each place in the hierarchy of the thesaurus is called a context.
See: Special queries, Subset
ECLIPSE is useful for management, service or health policy related issues.
|
Expectations : |
This is the improvement or innovation or information that you want to see. |
|
Client group : |
|
|
Location : |
|
|
Impact : |
What is the change in the service which is being looked for? What would constitute success? How is this being measured? |
|
Professionals Involved : |
|
|
Service : |
For which service are you looking for information? |
|
Evaluation : |
|
Source : NHS FIFE LIBRARY SERVICES: Guide to Literature Searching. Available from: http://www.nhsfifelibraries.scot.nhs.uk/publications/litsearching.doc [visited 2010-09-15]

Based on: http://smlweb.aub.edu.lb/Tutorial.aspx?file=Tutorials/principles.html and http://nyu.libguides.com/content.php?pid=27011&sid=234199#systematic [visited 2010-09-15]

Source : CEBAM
Explosion consists of selecting one term in the hierarchy of a thesaurus, and including all narrower terms.
Focus consists of selecting a Heading as Major topic. It reduces the amount of results while keeping a good pertinence.
Hedges are special queries developped by HIRU center of the McMaster University (Canada).
See : Special queries
While the main purposes of institutional repositories are to bring together and preserve the intellectual output of a laboratory, department, university, or other entity, the incentives and commitments to change the process of scholarly communication have also begun serving as strong motivators.
Source : http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/may04/drake.shtml [visited 2010-09-15]
A journal’s impact factor is based on two elements: the numerator, which is the number of cites in the current year to any items published in the journal in the previous 2 years; and the denominator, the number of substantive articles (source items) published in the same 2 years.
Source: Eugene Garfield. The Agony and the Ecstasy—The History and Meaning of the Journal Impact Factor. International Congress on Peer Review And Biomedical Publication Chicago, September 16, 2005
Asterisks on MeSH headings and subheadings (e.g., Wound Healing/radiation effects*) designate that they are the major topics of the article, usually obtained from the title and/or statement of purpose
Non-major (non-asterisked) headings and subheadings are usually additional topics substantively discussed within the article, terms added to qualify a major topic (…).
The only indexed MEDLINE citations without an asterisked heading are some biographies in which the subject’s name may be considered the only major point. (…)
Source : http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/disted/mesh/major.html
In resources with controlled vocabulary, you can map search terms to subject headings
Source: OVID help. Available form http://www.ovid.com/site/help/documentation/ospb/en/advanced.htm#map
In the hierarchy of a thesaurus, relationship between a term and a more specific term
Physician NEAR relationship retrieves records that contain the words in the same field
E.g. both words in the Title; in the abstract, and so on
Source : OVID help. Available form: http://www.ovid.com/site/help/documentation/ospb/en/syntax.htm#operators
The NOT operator lets you retrieve records that contain your first term but exclude the second term. In this way, you can restrict the scope of your results. For example, the search health reform not health maintenance organizations retrieves only those records that contain the term health reform but exclude the term health maintenance organizations.
Source : OVID help. Available form: http://www.ovid.com/site/help/documentation/ospb/en/syntax.htm#operators
Image source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:LogicGates.svg [visited 2010-09-15]
See : Institutional repositories
By 'open access' to this literature, we mean its free availability on the public internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself. The only constraint on reproduction and distribution, and the only role for copyright in this domain, should be to give authors control over the integrity of their work and the right to be properly acknowledged and cited.
Source: http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/boaifaq.htm#openaccess
The Open Archives Initiative develops and promotes interoperability standards that aim to facilitate the efficient dissemination of content. OAI has its roots in the open access and institutional repository movements. Continued support of this work remains a cornerstone of the Open Archives program. Over time, however, the work of OAI has expanded to promote broad access to digital resources for eScholarship, eLearning, and eScience.
Source : http://www.openarchives.org/
See : ADJACENT, AND, NEAR, NOT, OR
The OR operator lets you retrieve records that contain any of your search terms. For example, the search “heart attack OR myocardial infarction” retrieves records that contain “heart attack”, “myocardial infarction” or both terms. Results are all inclusive
Source : OVID help. Available form: http://www.ovid.com/site/help/documentation/ospb/en/syntax.htm#operators
Image source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:LogicGates.svg
The Permuted index is an alphabetical list of all entry terms of a thesaurus. The entry term sends to the retained term (Subject Heading).
PICO is useful for medical questions and for topics where one thing is being compared with another.
|
Patient :. |
This is the “Who”. For this you need to think of age, sex, ethnic origins or other defining characteristics of the patient and the population |
|
Intervention : |
This is also sometimes known as exposure, and makes up the “What”. This is what is happening to the patient or population, so it could be a drug or a therapy, a screening questionnaire or a health improvement programme. |
|
Comparison : |
With what is the intervention (or indeed population) being compared? This could be a control group. |
|
Outcome : |
What outcome do you expect to see? For example, you may be interested in knowing whether an intervention has a health benefit, or whether an exposure results in mortality. |
Source : NHS FIFE LIBRARY SERVICES: Guide to Literature Searching. Available from: http://www.nhsfifelibraries.scot.nhs.uk/publications/litsearching.doc
|
PICO-Timeframe : |
This refers to one or more time-related variables such as the length of time the treatment should be prescribed or the point at which the outcome is measured. |
|
PICOT-T |
Type of study design |
| PICO-Context: | |
| PICO-Setting: |
Source:
| P | Population |
| I | Index test |
| R | Reference test |
| T | Target disorer |
Precision is the proportion of retrieved articles that are of high quality
Qualifiers (subheadings) afford a convenient means of grouping together those citations which are concerned with a particular aspect of a subject. Not every qualifier is suitable for use with every subject heading.
Associative relationship
Thesaurus relationships include Broader terms, Narrower terms, Used for, Use, Related terms / See also
See: Permuted index
A scope note may be a definition. It may include : Including concepts, excluding concepts; Reference to other terms, Additional instructions,
Source : http://publish.uwo.ca/~craven/677/thesaur/main07.htm [visited 2010-09-15]

For a sensitive search you need to think of all the possible ways an author or an indexer might describe each of your key words in phrases. You might find it useful to check with a medical thesaurus or a list of subject heading such as MESH (Medical Subject Headings).
The more alternative terms you use the more results you will get from the search.
Source : NHS FIFE LIBRARY SERVICES: Guide to Literature Searching. Available from: http://www.nhsfifelibraries.scot.nhs.uk/publications/litsearching.doc
Sensitivity for a given strategy is defined as the proportion of high quality articles that are retrieved
Source : http://hiru.mcmaster.ca/hiru/HIRU_Hedges_home.aspx
Special queries are pre-established queries allowing to identify pertinent references on a specific subject; two kind of special queries are usually available:
See Appendix 2 for a KCE selection of special queries
For a specific search you want to use only terms that relate directly to your question, so you would use only one (or at the most two) way to describe each search term. You may need to check with the MESH as with the databases own thesaurus to ensure that the terms you are using are the terms the indexer would use.
In a specific search, you would apply more Limits. Limits are search terms such as language, age of article, journal title, article type or limits on the populations such as age, gender, ethnic group etc.
You can limit articles NOT to find certain terms, for example you could search for stress but NOT stress fractures.
The more limits you apply to a search the fewer results you will get from that search.
Source : NHS FIFE LIBRARY SERVICES: Guide to Literature Searching. Available from: http://www.nhsfifelibraries.scot.nhs.uk/publications/litsearching.doc
specificity is the proportion of low quality or off topic articles not retrieved.
Source : http://hiru.mcmaster.ca/hiru/HIRU_Hedges_home.aspx
SPICE is recognises that information practice is a social science, not a “hard science”, by splitting the population component into both setting and perspective. By replacing “outcomes” with “evaluation” the SPICE model incorporates other concepts such as “outputs” and “impact” together with less tangible effects of an intervention
|
Setting |
Where? |
|
Population |
For whom? |
|
Intervention |
What? |
|
Comparison |
Compared with what? |
|
Evaluation |
With what result? |
Source: Booth A. Clear and present questions: formulating questions for evidence based practice. Library Hi Tech. Vol. 24 No. 3, 2006. pp. 355-368
SPIDER is an alternative search strategy tool for qualitative/mixed methods research
|
Sample |
|
Phenomenon of Interest |
|
Design |
|
Evaluation |
|
Research type |
A structured question put together different elements of the same concept (facet).
Examples : ECLIPSE, PICO, PIRT, SPICE, SPIDER
See : Qualifiers
Subject heading is a word or phrase from a controlled vocabulary which is used to describe the subject of a document or a class of documents.
Source : http://www.iva.dk/bh/lifeboat_ko/concepts/subject_heading.htm
PubMed subset is the application of a Special query to PubMed records.
Clinical queries search the user’s keyword in a subset of PubMed instead of the whole PubMed set.
E.g.: Systematic Reviews subset on PubMed (source: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/pubmed_subsets/sysreviews_strategy.html)

A thesaurus is a semantic tool used for information retrieval, query expansion and indexing, among other purposes. It is basically a selection of the basic vocabulary in a domain supplemented with information about synonyms, homonyms, generic terms, part/whole terms, “associative terms” and other information (e.g. frequency and history of terms in a given database).
Source : http://www.iva.dk/bh/lifeboat_ko/concepts/thesauri_and_metathesauri.htm
Truncated lacking an expected or normal element (as a syllable) at the beginning or end
Source: Meeriam-Webster dictionary. Available from : http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionar
Examples :
|
Variants |
Economical vs Economics |
Economic* |
0-n |
|
Singular vs Plural |
Stent vs Stents |
Stent? |
0-1 |
|
EN-us vs EN-uk |
Hematology vs Haematology |
H?ematology |
0-1 |
|
Prefixes |
Pre natal vs prenatal vs pre-natal |
Pre?natal |
0-1 |
In a thesaurus, relationship between a non-descriptor (entre term) and the descriptor which takes its place
In a thesaurus, relationship between the descriptor and the non-descriptor(s) or entry terms it represents
From Oxman, Higgins, and Glasziou (2006)
EXAMPLE:
Summary of findings

Questionnaire used in the KCE research project on citizen and patient participation in reimbursement decision-making (to be published in 2013).
PART 1 – Prior experience and purpose
PART 2 – HOW TO INVOLVE
Explanation by interviewer of levels of participation: inform – consult – debate – co-decision – decision
PART 3 – EXAMPLES OF PARTICIPATION
[Probe for more than one example. If they are giving foreign examples, we ask them how this could work in Belgium. What would be the same, what would be different.]
Systematic probing questions for all examples the respondent gives:
PART 4 – WRAPPING UP
Based on the choice made, probe again with regard to:
Understand the priorities :
Closing question when thanking:
The example presented below is fictitious. It could have been used in the KCE research project on refractive eye surgery (in progress), but instead a questionnaire was used.
Bonjour,
Je me présente, je m’appelle [Prénom Nom], je travaille pour [institution] en tant que [décrire sa fonction en essayant de ne pas se positionner comme ‘supérieur’ au(x) répondant(s)], C’est moi qui distribuerai la parole ce soir et modérerai la discussion.
Comme vous le savez, nous réalisons en ce moment un projet relatif au [sujet de l’étude].
Dans ce cadre, nous souhaiterions connaitre les opinion, expériences, sentiments de [description de la population d’étude] quant à [description du sujet de l’étude].
Ce projet est financé/demandé par [bailleur de fonds] avec pour objectif de [objectif de l’étude].
Nous vous avons contacté parce que vous [reprendre les caractéristiques du segment de l’échantillon attendu]. Vous avez été identifié(s) via [source de recrutement].
Notre discussion durera approximativement [fourchette de durée de l’interview/focus group].
Le contenu des discussions et les propos échangées resteront confidentiels. Autrement dit, si certaines phrases seront reprises dans notre rapport final, aucune citation ne reprendra le nom de la personne qui l’a formulée.
(Pour les focus groups) Avant de commencer, je voudrais également vous présenter [Prénom Nom de l’observateur] qui va observer ce groupe afin de voir comment se déroulent les discussions et m’aider éventuellement à distribuer équitablement la parole et garder le temps en vue.
Je vous présente également et [Prénom et Nom du rapporteur] qui prendra note des discussions.
(Pour tous) Je souhaiterais par ailleurs vous demander l’autorisation d’enregistrer l’entretien/les discussions : cela nous permettra de revenir sur vos propos exacts lors de l’analyse de l’ensemble des entretiens, de ne pas déformer vos propos en cas de citation pour illustrer nos résultats et ne pas prendre de notes trop précise pendant l’entretien, ce qui facilitera nos échanges. Si vous/personne n’y voit d’inconvénients, je laisse le dictaphone enregistrer. (celui-ci ayant été enclenché dès le début de l’entretien)
Quelques règles de base : il n’y a pas de bonne ou mauvaise réponse. Les discussions se font dans le respect mutuel de chacun.
(Pour les focus groups) Nous vous remercions de bien vouloir ne pas rapporter ce qui se sera dit ici à l’extérieur du groupe.
Pour ce qui est de la prise de parole, ne parlez pas entre vous, en aparté, mais faites profiter le groupe de vos réflexions. En plus, s’il y a plusieurs conversations en même temps, l’enregistrement en pâtira. Si vous souhaitez prendre la parole, faites-moi un petit signe.
(Pour tous) Vous êtes libre de quitter le groupe/arrêter l’interview à tout moment.
(Pour les focus groups) Avant de passer à la première question, je vous propose de commencer par un tour de table afin de vous présenter en donnant votre prénom et [1 ou 2 caractéristiques en fonction de la question de recherche]. Si vous préférez vous pouvez donner un pseudonyme.
|
Research questions of the focus groups |
|
|
Population |
|
|
Segmentation of the participants |
Criteria: FG1: FG2: FG3: FG4: … |
|
Recruiting mode (comfort, snowballing, …) |
decision |
|
Type of interview (directed, half-directed) |
decision |
|
Interview guideline |
- principal question - specific questions - time per question |
|
Test of the guideline |
|
|
Material |
Tape recorder/ numeric recorder Batteries (tape) |
|
Organization of the meetings |
Decide where Decide when Contact people (presentation of the studies, time needed, practical information, … |
In what follows we will elaborate on two other checklists enabling qualitative researchers to guard the quality of their work.
Henwood and Pidgeon105 identified seven attributes which characterise good qualitative research. Their schema, which links criteria with methods of achieving sound research, offers a helpful guide for novice researchers. They argue for:
Malterud106 provides the following checklist:
Aim
Method and design
Data collection and sampling
Theoretical Framework
Analysis
Findings
Discussion
Presentation
References