Build a list of keywords to use in database searching. Keywords are the specific words or short phrases that represent the main ideas of your research question
Example:
Question: How does regular exercise impact weight loss in older adults with obesity?
Keywords: exercise, weight loss, older adults, obesity
Use quotation marks to search for phrases.
Example: “older adults” or “weight loss”
Use the Boolean operator AND to include additional keywords in your search results.
Example: “older adults” AND “weight loss” AND obesity
Use the Boolean operator OR to include alternate keywords in your search.
Example: “older adults” OR “older persons” OR aged
Use the Boolean operator NOT to exclude terms from your search results.
Example: NOT “young adults”
Use truncation* to search for words with similar roots.
Example: obes* = obesity and obese
Combine these search tips in the Advanced Search form to target the articles you need:
You can search for your keywords in many different places in an article and that can have a big difference on the number of results you get. The two most common places to search for your keywords are either in...
Using some combination of TITLE and ALL TEXT searching is usually a good strategy. See below for an example...
Once you have a search you like, you can apply some LIMITERS. Limiters will apply certain conditions on your search (particular date ranges, particular types of articles, etc.) and these can be helpful in settling on your final set of search results. See below for a search that uses limiters...
