Advanced systematic search

On this page, you will learn how to perform a more advanced systematic search with search blocks. The page also shows how a systematic selection is carried out and how search and selection are shown in table form. Finding useful search terms and subject headings are of great importance in finding your way in the jungle of scientific articles.

If you want to write about teenagers' experiences of getting and living with type 2 diabetes and then search for diabetes AND youth experiences, you will find the articles where the researchers have used these words.

If you want to do a more well thought out search that can give you more relevant articles at once, you can use search blocks when searching. You build search blocks using OR and synonymous words and subject terms.

Example - search with search blocks

In this example, the aim is to find research that has studied teenagers' experiences of getting and living with type 2 diabetes. Two search blocks are built. One with diabetes and one with people's experiences. Both subject headings and search terms are used to include as many different concepts as possible. The image below shows what a word bank can look like.

Assume that the systematic searches will be carried out in at least two databases.

The table above does not yet include young people. It could be included by making a third search block with search terms and subject headings that capture that age group. It is also possible to delimit by age group in several databases. Here it is important to keep in mind that all choices made when a search strategy is built affect the hit lists with articles the searches result in.  The search blocks are built using OR, i.e. the word or:

"Type 2 Diabetes" OR "Type 2 Diabetes" OR (MH "Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2")

This means that the hit list contains articles that contain one or more of the above words. Similar can be done with the words for people's experiences:

"patient* experience*" OR (MH "Life Experiences") OR (MH "Patient Attitudes") OR "patient* attitude*" OR "life experience*" OR "patient* perception*"
 
When reading the article titles and abstracts begins, more useful search terms and subject headings will probably be found that will be added to the search blocks above before the final systematic searches are carried out.

Moving to systematic search

Systematic search is done in the following way:

• Search for the search terms and subject headings one at a time.
• Build search blocks of the words using OR.
• Enter search terms, subject headings and the number of hits in the table (see below).
• When at least two search blocks have been made, these should be added with AND.
• Limit your search. Peer review, year of publication, language of publication, etc.
• The systematic search is complete. Value the search and the hits.

Table of the steps above:

This is followed by the systematic selection of which articles fit into the work to be written and which do not. Do the articles respond to what is being investigated?

• Read all article titles in your hit list. At the title level, what articles seem useful based on your purpose? In case of the slightest uncertainty, let the article accompany you to the next step.
• Read abstracts of the articles where the titles in the previous step seemed relevant. At the abstract level, which articles still seem useful? In case of the slightest uncertainty, let the article accompany you to the next step.
• The last step in the systematic selection, read the articles where the abstract seemed useful. Which of these items can be used in the work. Here the focus is on the results of the articles.

If you write a degree project with systematic search or do some kind of systematic review in your research, it is the results of these articles that are used in your results. During the time the systematic selection has been ongoing, some articles have been deselected/excluded and others have been allowed to remain/be included. These choices must be described in the method section of the text that is written together. Keep in mind that articles that are deselected may fit elsewhere in the text.

To let the reader understand how the systematic searches and the selection of articles have been made, the systematic searches are presented in tables.

Picture of completed systematic search