Clinical Teaching: Tips for Effective Searching

To quickly find definitions, use the search operator define :

Example:

define :medical anthropology

Note there is a space before the colon but no space between the colon and the term to be defined. 

To eliminate terms from your search use a (-):

Example:

depression -economic

Note there is a space before the hyphen, but no space between the hyphen and the term/phrase to be eliminated.

To include multiple terms in a search use OR: 

Example:

whooping cough OR pertussis 

Note that OR is capitalized.  This search retrieves pages that contain either 'whooping cough' or 'pertussis'. 

To include synonyms in a search use (~):

Example:

~pleuritis

Note that the tilde (~) indicates that the search is to include synonyms for pleuritis such as pleurisy.

To search for an exact phrase use double quotes (" "):

Example:

"personal and professional aspects of medical practice"

Note that the double quotes indicate that all words should be kept together in order, as opposed to searching each word individually. 

Subject headings

Each database has its own subject headings, except for the shared vocabulary used by PubMed and MEDLINE, known as MeSH (Medical Subject Headings).  A subject heading is the preferred iteration of a concept in a database. It provides consistency in context, definition, spelling, and terminology.  

Example: 

Truncation 

Truncation enables searching for a root word to capture all variations of word endings. 

Example:

Inject*= inject, injection, injections, injector 

Depress*= depress, depressive, depressives, depression, depressions 

Although it differs by database, truncation is normally represented by an asterisk

Wildcards

Wildcards work similarly to truncation but within a word, rather than at the end. 

Tumo?r = tumor or tumours

Special?ty = specialty or speciality 

Although it differs by database, wildcards are often represented by question marks.