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Table 1 Two main approaches to searching databases for articles

From: How to get started with a systematic review in epidemiology: an introductory guide for early career researchers

MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) Terms

Denoted by a trailing slash, e.g. Accidental Falls/

The complete set of MeSH terms can be searched at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/

Usual to put the explode operator beforehand, telling the database that you want articles with the given term as well as terms in relevant sub-categories, e.g. exp Accidental Falls/

Those for the EMBASE database (“EMTREE”) include all of the MeSH terms

Look at terms assigned to relevant articles which you already have

Free-text terms

Useful as there may not be MeSH term(s) relevant to the area of interest (also newer articles may not yet have been indexed with MeSH terms)

Denoted with double-quotation marks, a full stop and then the fields of interest, e.g. “falls”.ti,ab searches for this word in the title and abstract of all articles

Worth brainstorming synonyms (e.g. “peripheral neuropathy”, “peripheral sensory loss”) and also including alternative spellings (“haemoglobin”, ”hemoglobin” etc.)