The physical space of the MSK Library is permanently closed to visitors as of Friday, May 17, 2024. Please visit this guide for more information.
The physical space of the MSK Library is permanently closed to visitors as of Friday, May 17, 2024. Please visit this guide for more information.
Whether you are searching for literature for an evidence-based (PICO) project, or a research question, the steps to create a search are essentially the same. The main differences are the breadth and focus of the topic, as well as how much complexity or detail needs to be included.
Once you have chosen your search topic, the next step is to identify what the major concepts are. These major concepts are going to become the terms you search for in the database.
The search terms you will be using may not always be the concepts you identify from your topic, they may include those terms, but almost always there will be multiple search terms for each concept identified. Here are some ways to assist you in building those search terms for each concept.
It's important to see if there are any controlled vocabulary terms that are related to your concepts, there may even be multiple controlled terms for each concept, or no controlled terms!
The easiest way to go about finding controlled vocabulary is to go to PubMed's MeSH Database. I suggest using PubMed/MeSH since it's easily available and is often the first place to search. It's much easier to take terms identified in PubMed/MeSH and check other databases when needed.
Once in the MeSH Database, simply search for your concept and it will return potentially relevant terms. Sometimes this requires a bit of trial and error, as sometimes a concept may not have an exact term, but by searching for other similar terms you may be able to identify one or more terms that would include your concept.
Synonyms
Identifying synonymous terms for each of your concepts is important, as is making sure that any spelling differences. This is because authors may use different ways to describe the same thing, and it's important to account for all of those different ways. Also, not all results can be captured using controlled vocabulary, so it is still very important to include keywords.
As easy way to find synonyms is if there is a relevant controlled vocabulary term, within the database there will be a list of "entry terms" or synonyms that redirect to that controlled vocabulary term.
Sometimes identifying these terms is as easy as using truncation to include a variety of words based off a single root word. This allows for searching many different words with the same root word, but only using a single term in the actual search strategy. While it may end up including words that you don't necessarily want, the hope is that the rest of the search strategy will be able to eliminate anything irrelevant.
In most databases, truncation is accomplished by adding an astrerik (*) at the end of a root word.
Example
child* would retrieve results with keywords including child, children, childhood, etc
How do CAR-T toxicities present in critically ill cancer patients and what are the best practices to treat these patients?
Terms are combined using Boolean Operators (AND, OR, and NOT).
The simplest way to think about using Boolean Operators is to combine similar terms (same concept) with OR, and dissimilar terms (different concepts) with AND. The operator NOT should be used with extreme caution.
("Breast Neoplasms"[MeSH] OR "breast cancer*"[tiab]) AND ("cancer patient*"[tiab])
(("Cryotherapy"[MeSH] OR "Hypothermia, Induced"[MeSH] OR "hypotherm*"[tiab] OR "cryotherap*"[tiab]) AND ("Scalp"[MeSH] OR "scalp*"[tiab] OR "head*"[tiab])) OR "scalp cool*"[tiab]
("Alopecia"[MeSH] OR "Hair"[MeSH] OR "hair*"[tiab] OR "alopecia"[tiab]) AND ("Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions"[MeSH] OR "adverse react*"[tiab] OR "side effect*"[tiab] OR "adverse event*")
"Drug Therapy"[MeSH] OR "Antineoplastic Agents"[MeSH] OR "Radiotherapy"[MeSH] OR "Chemoradiotherapy"[MeSH] OR "chemo*"[tiab] OR "radiotherap*"[tiab] OR "chemoradiotherap*"[tiab] OR "cancer treatment*"[tiab] OR "cancer therap*"[tiab]
Now combine concepts with AND to create search strategy. Be sure to nest each concept together with parentheses (this may include additional parentheses on top of ones already included).
(("Breast Neoplasms"[MeSH] OR "breast cancer*"[tiab]) AND "cancer patient*"[tiab]) AND ((("Cryotherapy"[MeSH] OR "Hypothermia, Induced"[MeSH] OR "hypotherm*"[tiab] OR "cryotherap*"[tiab]) AND ("Scalp"[MeSH] OR "scalp*"[tiab] OR "head*"[tiab])) OR "scalp cool*"[tiab]) AND (("Alopecia"[MeSH] OR "Hair"[MeSH] OR "hair*"[tiab] OR "alopecia"[tiab]) AND ("Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions"[MeSH] OR "adverse react*"[tiab] OR "side effect*"[tiab] OR "adverse event*")) AND ("Drug Therapy"[MeSH] OR "Antineoplastic Agents"[MeSH] OR "Radiotherapy"[MeSH] OR "Chemoradiotherapy"[MeSH] OR "chemo*"[tiab] OR "radiotherap*"[tiab] OR "chemoradiotherap*"[tiab] OR "cancer treatment*"[tiab] OR "cancer therap*"[tiab])
First combine similar terms together using the Boolean Operator OR. Use parentheses if a concept requires multiple groups of terms, to combine them.
"Immunotherapy, Adoptive"[MeSH] OR "Receptors, Chimeric Antigen"[MeSH] OR "CAR-T cell therap*"[tiab] OR "CAR T-cell therap*"[tiab] OR "CAR-T therap*"[tiab] OR "chimeric antigen receptor*"[tiab]
"Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions"[MeSH] OR "Cytokine Release Syndrome"[MeSH] OR "Neurotoxicity Syndromes"[MeSH] OR "cell-associated neurotoxicity"[Supplementary Concept] OR "toxic*"[tiab] OR "side effect*"[tiab] OR "adverse react*"[tiab] OR "adverse event*"[tiab] OR "cytokine release syndrome*"[tiab] OR "cytokine storm*"[tiab] OR "CRS"[tiab] OR "immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicit*"[tiab] OR "ICANS"[tiab]
"Critical Illness"[MeSH] OR "Critical Care"[MeSH] OR "Intensive Care Units"[MeSH] OR "critical illness*"[tiab] OR "critically ill"[tiab] OR "critical care"[tiab] OR "intensive care"[tiab]) AND ("Neoplasms"[MeSH] OR "cancer*"[tiab]
Now combine concepts with AND to create search strategy. Be sure to nest each concept together with parentheses (this may include additional parentheses if you already have included parentheses within a specific concept).
("Immunotherapy, Adoptive"[MeSH] OR "Receptors, Chimeric Antigen"[MeSH] OR "CAR-T cell therap*"[tiab] OR "CAR T-cell therap*"[tiab] OR "CAR-T therap*"[tiab] OR "chimeric antigen receptor*"[tiab]) AND ("Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions"[MeSH] OR "Cytokine Release Syndrome"[MeSH] OR "Neurotoxicity Syndromes"[MeSH] OR "cell-associated neurotoxicity"[Supplementary Concept] OR "toxic*"[tiab] OR "side effect*"[tiab] OR "adverse react*"[tiab] OR "adverse event*"[tiab] OR "cytokine release syndrome*"[tiab] OR "cytokine storm*"[tiab] OR "CRS"[tiab] OR "immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicit*"[tiab] OR "ICANS"[tiab]) AND ("Critical Illness"[MeSH] OR "Critical Care"[MeSH] OR "Intensive Care Units"[MeSH] OR "critical illness*"[tiab] OR "critically ill"[tiab] OR "critical care"[tiab] OR "intensive care"[tiab]) AND ("Neoplasms"[MeSH] OR "cancer*"[tiab])