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Scoping & Systematic Reviews

In this guide you will find information about how to conduct a scoping and systematic review plus information on how librarians can support your in the process.

About Step 3: Conduct a Literature Search

Average time (hours) to complete
                 44                                        

In Step 3, you will design a search strategy to find all of the articles related to your research question. You will:

  1. Define the main concepts of your topic
  2. Choose which databases you want to search
  3. List terms to describe each concept
  4. Add terms from controlled vocabulary like MeSH
  5. Use field tags to tell the database where to search for terms
  6. Combine terms and concepts with Boolean operators AND and OR
  7. Translate your search strategy to match the format standards for each database
  8. Save a copy of your search strategy and details about your search
  9. Review PRISMA-S Checklist

There are many factors to think about when building a strong search strategy for systematic reviews. Librarians are available to provide support with this step of the process.

Click tabs to see how it applies to Step 3: Conduct Literature Searches.

For PRISMA, there are specific items you will want to report from your search.  For this step, review the PRISMA-S checklist.

  • PRISMA-S for Searching
  • Specify all databases, registers, websites, organizations, reference lists, and other sources searched or consulted to identify studies. Specify the date when each source was last searched or consulted. Present the complete search strategies for all databases, registers, and websites, including any filters and limits used.
  • For information on how to document database searches and other search methods on your PRISMA flow diagram, visit our PRISMA 2020 Guide.
Please see Systematic & Scoping Review Service for more
detailed information and to submit a request form. 

When designing and conducting literature searches, a librarian can help you:

  •  How to create a search strategy with Boolean operators, database-specific syntax, subject headings, and appropriate keywords 
  • How to apply previously published systematic/scoping review search strategies to your current search
  • How to test your search strategy's performance 
  • How to translate a search strategy from one database's preferred structure and syntax to another

Partner with a Librarian

If the APU Librarian is listed as a co-author, they will work with your team to design and report thorough search strategies based on guidelines and standards set forth by Cochrane, PRISMA, JBI and IOM.  Our librarians provide:

  • Comprehensive, replicable search strategies for multiple databases and grey literature resources.
  • Zotero library of de-duplicated results or RIS file of de-duplicated results.
  • Excel workbook of search results.
  • Write the complete search methodology that can be included in the final systematic review/scoping review manuscript
  • A completed PRISMA flow diagram in png format.
  • For more info see how your librarian can help
The Scoping Review

The goal of a scoping review search is to retrieve all results that are relevant to your topic in order to map (ie, report on the scope), and to identify themes and gaps in the literature. Because scoping review searches can be quite extensive and retrieve large numbers of results, an important aspect is limiting the number of irrelevant results that need to be screened. Librarians are experts trained in literature searching and scoping review methodology. 

The Systematic Review

The goal of a systematic retrieval is to find all results that are relevant to your topic. Because systematic review searches can be quite extensive and retrieve large numbers of results, an essential aspect of systematic searching is limiting the number of irrelevant results that need to be screened. Librarians are experts trained in literature searching and systematic review methodology. 

 

Ask us a question or partner with a librarian to save time and improve the quality of your review. Our comparison chart detailing two tiers of partnership provides more information on how librarians can collaborate with and contribute to systematic & scoping review teams.

Systematic Approach to Searching

  1. Determine a clear and focused question

  2. Describe the articles that can answer the question

  3. Decide which key concepts address the different elements of the question

  4. Decide which elements should be used for the best results

  5. Choose an appropriate database and interface to start with

  6. Document the search process in a text document

  7. Identify appropriate index terms in the thesaurus of the first database

  8. Identify synonyms in the thesaurus

  9. Add variations in search terms

  10. Use database-appropriate syntax, with parentheses, Boolean operators, and field codes

  11. Optimize the search

  12. Evaluate the initial results

  13. Check for errors

  14. Translate to other databases

  15. Test and reiterate

From Bramer, W. M., Rethlefsen, M. L., Mast, F., & Kleijnen, J. (2018). A systematic approach to searching: An efficient and complete method to develop literature searches. Journal of the Medical Library Association : JMLA, 106(4), 531-541. https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2018.283

Searching For Literature

Topic:  spirituality and palliative care

  • Cancer patients

  • Adult

Checkout these suggestions on selecting a topic:

Developing a Research Question

A good research question also leads to a direct answer in the form of a thesis.

  • Ask open-ended “how” and “why” questions about your general topic. 

  • Consider the “so what” of your topic. Why does this topic matter to you? Why should it matter to others?

Some good words and phrases to include in your research question include:

  • What are…? What do…? What should…? Why…? How…?

  • Effects, benefits, impact, consequences, factors

  • Prevent, promote, encourage

Reflect on the questions you have considered. Identify one question you find engaging and which could be explored further through research.

How does spirituality provide support to adult cancer patients in palliative care?

Using ChatGPT to help you brainstorm research questions 

PLEASE BE SURE YOUR PROFESSOR ALLOWS YOU TO USE AI TOOLS BEFORE YOU USE IT.

One way to use ChatGPT is to help you brainstorm possible research questions and/or further develop research questions on certain topics (based on Scribbr, 2024). 

For instance, I asked ChatGPT

  • Develop 3 possible research questions on the following topic "the impact of spirituality on providing support to adult cancer patients in palliative care"

Here is ChatGPT's (OpenAI, 2024) response

1. How does spirituality influence the provision of emotional, psychological, and existential support to adult cancer patients in palliative care settings, and what are the key spiritual dimensions that contribute to coping and resilience in this population?
2. What are the unique challenges and opportunities faced by healthcare professionals in integrating spiritual care into the multidisciplinary approach to supporting adult cancer patients receiving palliative care, and how do differing spiritual beliefs and practices among patients affect the delivery of care?
3. What are the perceived effects of incorporating spiritual interventions, such as prayer, meditation, or pastoral counseling, into the holistic care of adult cancer patients in palliative care, and how do these interventions impact patient-reported outcomes such as quality of life, symptom management, and end-of-life decision-making?

You can then narrow this by selecting one question and then focusing on a specific population or areas of interest. You may want to edit the question by removing any "flowerly" language that is present (often is included in ChatGPT responses). Be sure you cite ChatGPT by using the recommendation from APA Style. More information on using ChatGPT in academic research can by found on this Libguide created by "University of Findley" and this article written by Mondal & Mondal (2023)

Identifying Keywords or Main Concepts

Your keywords should be in the research question that you wrote above. Highlight your keywords in your question:

How does spirituality provide support to adult cancer patients in palliative care?

  • spirituality
  • adult
  • cancer
  • palliative
  • support

Generally speaking, when searching literature, you are not searching the full-text article. Instead, you are searching certain citation data fields, like title, abstract, keyword, controlled vocabulary (subject headings) terms, and more. When developing a literature search, a good place to start is to identify searchable concepts of the research question, and then expand by adding other terms to describe those concepts. 

Identifying Synonyms or Related Words

Different authors may use slightly different words to describe the same idea. For example, one author may write an article on college students and religion, while another may write about university students and religion. Limiting your search to “college students” will keep you from finding articles about “university students.” Therefore, you should always consider possible synonyms for each of your concepts.

  • Spirituality - religion, spiritual, faith, prayer, meditation, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, etc.
  • Cancer - oncology, neoplasm, tumor, carcinoma, etc. 
  • Palliative - end of life, death, dying, terminal, hospice, etc. 
  • Support - need, help, comfort, peace, assist, aid, etc.
  • Age Group or Age Related Check box: Adult
Keyword Vs Controlled Vocabulary (or Subject Heading) Search

Disciplinary databases often have subject headings (a set of official terms used to describe something). For example, the American Psychological Association Thesaurus is a list of subject heading terms that are assigned to items indexed in the PsycINFO database. Subject heading searching can improve the relevance of your search results since other items in the database about that same thing will have the same subject heading. 

Multidisciplinary databases like Web of Science do not have subject headings and must be searched with keywords. 

Keywords

  • good initial strategy
  • must perform searches with synonymous words/terms
  • more likely to have irrelevant results

Subject Headings

  • standardized words or phrases used to categorize literature
  • relevant results much more likely
  • subject headings not consistent across databases

More on Controlled vocabulary (subject headings) is a set of terminology assigned to citations to describe the content of each reference. Searching with controlled vocabulary can improve the relevancy of search results. Many databases assign controlled vocabulary terms to citations, but their naming schema is often specific to each database. For example, the controlled vocabulary system searchable via PubMed & Medline is MeSH, or Medical Subject Headings. Cinahl is indexed with Cinahl Headings. See the video below on how to search for the controlled vocabulary in Cinahl & Medline.

Note: Controlled vocabulary may be outdated, and some databases allow users to submit requests to update terminology.

Constructing Search Statements

How Boolean Operators Work

Placing the words “AND” and “OR” (also called Boolean operators) between your search concepts and synonyms can help you create a search statement that retrieves the most relevant sources.

As the diagrams illustrate, using the word “AND” reduces the number of results you get, by requiring that both terms appear in each result. Placing “OR” between search terms expands the number of results because it retrieves sources that use any of the words. Generally speaking, you should use “AND” between each of your concept terms, since you want to find books and articles that address all the aspects of your topic. You should use “OR” between synonyms, to make sure that you find closely related sources.

elated image

Searching Techniques

Truncation Phrase Searching Wildcards Nesting
Broaden your search to include variant word endings and spellings. Enter the root of the word then the truncation symbol, usually the asterisk *. Use quotation marks " " around search words to search for a phrase - only use this around two or more words. Using the phrase search will help you narrow your results. Substitute a symbol for just one character. The most commonly used wildcard symbol is a question mark ? Use parentheses () to put search words into sets. Terms in the parentheses are processed first. Use nesting with AND, OR, & NOT.

Examples:

nurs* = nurse, nurses, nursing

religio* = religion, religions, religious, religiosity

Examples:

"end of life"

"spiritual care"

Examples:

wom?n = women, woman

m?n = men, man

Examples:

(screening or detect*) and lupus

(cancer* or neoplasm*) and "spiritual* care"

 

Combining search elements together

The organizational structure of literature searches is very important. Specifically, how terms are grouped (or nested) and combined with Boolean operators will drastically impact search results. These commands tell databases exactly how to combine terms together, and if done incorrectly or inefficiently, search results returned may be too broad or irrelevant.

For example, in Medline:

(religio* OR spiritual*) AND cancer* is a properly combined search and it produces around 40,000 results.

religio* OR spiritual* AND cancer* is not properly combined.  Databases may read it as everything about religio* OR everything about (spiritual* AND cancer*), which would produce more results than needed.

We recommend one or more of the following:

  • use a separate search box for each set of synonyms
  • put all your synonyms together inside a set of parentheses, then put AND between the closing parenthesis of one set and the opening parenthesis of the next set
  • run each set of synonyms as a separate search, and then combine all your searches
  • ask a librarian if your search produces too many or too few results
Create your search statement

 

religio* or spiritual* or faith* or christian* or islam* or muslim* or jew* or judaism or pray* or meditat*

AND palliative or "end of life" or terminal* or dying or hospice or death

AND cancer* or oncolog* or neoplasm* or tumor* or malignan* or carcinoma

AND support* or need* or assist* or aid* or peace*

Age Group or Age Related Check box: All Adult

Now you will decide which databases you will use. This will depend on your topic; for instance, if you are focusing on a mental health issue, you may want to include APA PsycInfo or if you are focusing on education, you may want to include ERIC and Academic Search Premier. You can see a list of all the databases recommended on the A-Z database list. Click on the tab Journal Articles & Databases for some suggestions to get started. At a minimum, you should search in Cinahl and Medline. 

Now copy and paste your search statement into Cinahl and Medline. 

Example Searchs with Keywords & Subject Headings

PCC For Scoping Reviews

Question:

Element Example Controlled Vocabulary Synonyms/Keywords
P Population or Participants Breast cancer patients Breast Neoplasms, Breast Cancer Lymphedema [MESH] breast, cancer*, neoplasm*, lymphedema, tumor*, oncolog*
C Concept Barriers to care

Healthcare Disparities, Health Inequities, Social Determinants of Health, Health Status Disparities [MESH]

Health Services Accessibility, Health Beliefs [Cinahl Headings]

 barrier, disparity*, inequit*, access*, belief*
C Context African Americans

Black or African American, Black People [MESH]

Black Person [Cinahl Headings]

 black, african american

 

PICO for Systematic Reviews

Question: For patients 65 years and older, does an influenza vaccine reduce the future risk of pneumonia?

PICO Element Example Controlled Vocabulary Synonyms/Keyword Terms

P

Patient(s) / Population(s)

patients 65 years and older

"Aged"[Mesh]

elder

elders

elderly

aged

aging

geriatric

geriatrics

gerontology

gerontological

senior citizen

senior citizens

older adult

older adults

older individuals

older patients

older people

older persons

advancing age

I

Intervention(s)

influenza vaccine

"Influenza Vaccines"[Mesh]

influenza vaccines

flu vaccine

flu vaccines

influenza virus vaccine

influenza virus vaccines

((flu OR influenza) AND (vaccine OR vaccines OR vaccination OR immunization))

C

Comparison(s)

not applicable

-

-

O

Outcome(s)

pneumonia

"Pneumonia"[Mesh]

pneumonias

pulmonary inflammation

Translating search strategies to other databases

Databases often use their own set of terminology and syntax. When searching multiple databases, you need to adjust the search slightly to retrieve comparable results. Our sections on Controlled Vocabulary and Field Tags have information on how to build searches in different databases.  Resources to help with this process are listed below.

References & Citation Searching

Aside from searching databases by topic, another very important way of discovering research is using the reference list of articles and seeing who else has cited the article. How many times an article has been cited can tell you not only how influential an article has been, but can lead you to more articles on your topic. 

one article leads to references and cited bys

Supplementary Searching

Supplementary searching is critical for a scoping review, even more so than for other types of reviews. This is because the purpose of a scoping review is to determine the full scope of the literature on your topic. This means searching for things outside of the databases, which are limited in scope and may exclude relevant research.

Literature searches can be supplemented by hand searching. One of the most popular ways this is done with reviews is by searching the reference list and citing articles of studies included in the review. Another method is manually browsing key journals in your field to make sure no relevant articles are missed. Other sources that may be considered for hand searching include clinical trial registries, white papers and other reports, pharmaceutical or other corporate reports, conference proceedings, theses and dissertations, or professional association guidelines. In addition, citation searching might include getting articles on your topic from professors, colleagues, and classmates. WARNING: Be sure you report these in the appropriate spot on the Prisma flow Diagram!

Documentation of Supplementary Searches

It's important to keep a clear record of your supplementary search strategies and results. Note just where and how you searched, and which included sources were found via these strategies.

Saved Searches and Alerts

Since reviews can take a long time to complete, it is helpful to set up an alert in the databases to notify you if any new articles are added that fit your search criteria. Be sure that you think through your cutoff date for your alert. At some point, you do have to publish.

Be sure that if you do include articles from an alert, you are transparent about them in your reporting.

Note: Librarians recommend that you create logins for your chosen databases and save your searches from the start of the project so that you don't lose any work as you develop your search strategy.

Saving Searches in EBSCO

Within the EBSCO interface, there are several ways to document your search. In general, make sure you've set up an myEBSCO account and are signed in, and have run your final search protocol.

Option 1 

Click on the "Share" button and click on your linked search terms (in the "Add Search to Folder" option). This records your search terms and limits in your myEBSCO folder under the section called "Persistent Links to Searches." See the red arrow on the screen shots to the right. 

Option 2

Click on the "Share" button. Copy and save the URL in the "Use Permalink" section. This will allow you to quickly return to and rerun your search, Note: any newly added articles that match your search criteria will appear. To be aware of those new additions, set up a search alert to be notified of new results. See the green and blue arrows in the screen shot to the right.

Option 3

Beneath the search box, click on "Search History" and select the search you'd like to save. Then click "Save Searchers / Alerts" and complete and save the form on the next screen. Now your search terms can be found in your myEBSCO folder under the "Saved Searches" section. See the yellow arrows in the screen shots below.

Searching Grey Literature

Grey literature typically refers to literature not published in a traditional manner and often not retrievable through large databases and other popular resources. Grey literature should be searched for inclusion in scoping reviews in order to reduce bias and increase thoroughness. There are several databases specific to grey literature that can be searched.

Searching for Clinical Trials Registers

  • More Information on searching for Clinical Trials Registers
    A register in PRISMA refers to a database or other source that contains records of ongoing or completed studies that have not yet been published. These registers can include trial registries, conference proceedings, and grey literature sources, among others. The inclusion of register searching is recommended in systematic reviews to identify relevant studies that may not have been published yet, reducing the risk of publication bias. (Rayyan, 2022)

Document Your Search

Scoping & Systematic review quality is highly dependent on the literature search(es) used to identify studies. To follow best practices for reporting search strategies, as well as increase reproducibility and transparency, document various elements of the literature search for your review. To make this process more clear, a statement and checklist for reporting literature searches has been developed and and can be found below.

Scoping Reviews

 Systematic Reviews

At a minimum, document and report certain elements, such as databases searched, including name (i.e., Scopus) and platform (i.e. Elsevier), websites, registries, and grey literature searched. In addition, this also may include citation searching and reaching out to experts in the field. Search strategies used in each database or source should be documented, along with any filters or limits, and dates searched. If a search has been updated or was built upon previous work, that should be noted as well. It is also helpful to document which search terms have been tested and decisions made for term inclusion or exclusion by the team. Last, any peer review process should be stated, as well as the total number of records identified from each source and how deduplication was handled.

If you have a librarian on your team who is creating and running the searches, they will handle the search documentation.

You can document search strategies in word processing software you are familiar with like Microsoft Word or Excel, or Google Docs or Sheets. A template, and separate example file, is provided below for convenience (coming soon). 

  • Record the information for each database and document the number of records before and after removing duplicates.
  • Total # of records before removing duplicates: 1023 + 2046 = 3069
  • Total # of records after removing duplicates: 2056
  • Original searches (Copy and paste exactly as executed):

Prisma for Searching (Prisma-S)

The PRISMA extension for searching was published in 2021. The checklist includes 16 reporting items, each of which is detailed with exemplar reporting and Rationale. After the completion of the review, an external librarian who is not on the author team should read the review and complete the PRISMA-S Checklist. It is available in PDF, Word, and Excel from the PRISMA website.

The PRISMA-S Extension documents all the required elements needed in your final, published article to ensure that your search is transparent and reproducible. It is recommended that you familiarize yourself with the checklist before finalizing your search strategy to ensure you document all the necessary information.