Search tips

Information retrieval can take time. Here are some tips to make your search more efficient.

How to find keywords

Finding good keywords is one of the most important and most difficult parts of searching. Start from your research question and identify the keywords that summarise it. Use these words when searching in databases.

Plan your search

Planning your search saves time and makes it easier to explain how you found material for your work. Start by analysing and defining your research question. Consider:

• Why are you looking for information – do you want an overview or more in-depth knowledge?
• What kind of material do you need – books, scientific articles, laws or statistics?
• How much material do you need?
• How recent should the material be?
• Do you need scientific or peer-reviewed material?

When searching in databases, you can often apply filters to limit your results, for example by language or publication date.

Medical subject headings

In the medical field, it is often most effective to search with subject headings. These belong to a controlled vocabulary, where one standardised term is chosen to represent a specific concept.

When searching with subject headings, you must use the terms listed in the database’s subject heading index. In PubMed, for example, MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) terms are used as the controlled vocabulary. These terms can also guide you in finding relevant subject headings in other databases.

• Swedish MeSH
  Use Swedish MeSH when you need to find controlled vocabulary to search in PubMed.
  
• Dictionaries
  Use dictionaries to identify terms that you can apply in your database searches.
  
• Keywords for experiences, emotions, interactions and attitudes
  On the Karolinska Institutet University Library website, you can find a compilation of useful terms related to experiences and treatment. Available in Swedish.

Swedish MeSH

Swedish MeSH is a controlled vocabulary thesaurus that you can use when searching for scientific material in different databases. It can also serve as a dictionary when you want to translate your keywords from Swedish to English, or the other way around.

What is a subject heading list?

A subject heading list is like a dictionary of medical terms. Most medical databases have a subject heading list, but it can be called different things, such as MeSH, Thesaurus, or Subject Headings.

All subject heading lists are based on a controlled vocabulary. This means that specific words are selected to represent a particular concept. The terms are organised in a hierarchy, from broad to more specific. This can help you refine or expand your search. Using a controlled vocabulary usually gives you more relevant results than free-text searching.

What is Swedish MeSH?

MeSH stands for Medical Subject Headings. It is a subject heading list produced by the National Library of Medicine in the United States. The Swedish translation, Swedish MeSH, is created by the Karolinska Institutet University Library.

Not all Swedish terms have an equivalent in the American MeSH, so some translations may be missing. Keep in mind that Swedish MeSH is not a regular Swedish–English dictionary. It shows which terms you should use from the controlled vocabulary when searching in different databases.

• Swedish MeSH
  In Swedish MeSH you will find medical subject headings in both Swedish and English.
  

Example from Swedish MeSH:

If you want to find a subject heading that describes critical life-changing events, you can use one of these terms:

• Livskriser
• Livserfarenhet
• Life experiences
• Life experience
• Event, life change
• Events, life change

In Swedish MeSH, the subject heading Life Change Events is the term to use. Under Synonyms, this heading gathers all of the terms in the list.

MeSH in other databases

MeSH is mainly used in the PubMed database. You can also use MeSH terms as a starting point when searching in other databases. The same subject headings are often used, even if the databases have different subject heading lists.

Keep in mind that your search results may be less accurate if the terms do not match. In other databases, you can find the subject heading list directly within the database, but there is no Swedish translation available.

Search example:

If you search for child AND parents AND disabilities, you will get results, but it will not be clear whether the children or the parents are disabled.

If you search in Swedish MeSH for the concept disabled parents, you will find the subject heading Child of impaired parents.

In the CINAHL Headings, the corresponding subject heading is Children of impaired parents.

Where do I search?

It depends on the type of material you want to find. Different search tools cover different subjects and offer different types of resources.

The Library Search Tool

The Library Search Tool is a good place to start. It lets you search across several databases at the same time. You can use filters to choose whether you want to find articles, books, e-books, or other material. If you get too many results when searching for articles, you can instead try a subject-specific database.

• The Library Search Tool
  Search for books, e-books and journal articles through the Medical E-Library's Search Tool.
  

Databases

A database is a collection of material that has been made searchable. It can cover many subjects or be subject-specific and focus on one particular area.

Some databases contain full-text material, while others only provide references to sources. Databases may also include factual information such as statistics, standards, or patents. Make sure you know what type of material a database provides before you start searching.

In a database, you can often narrow your search more than in the Library Search Tool – for example, by age group or geographic area. Databases work in different ways, so use the help section in each database to learn more about how to search effectively.

• Databases
  Explore the Medical E-Library’s range of databases.
  

Google

If you search with Google, you will miss a lot of scientific material. It is often better to use the Library Search Tool and databases.

You can also use Google Scholar to find scientific material. However, not all content in Google Scholar is scientific. The selection is unclear, so you always need to review the sources critically.

• Google Scholar
  Google’s search service for scholarly publications.
  

How do I search?

You can search in different ways depending on what you are looking for. If your search needs to be systematic, you must follow a planned and documented method. This allows others to repeat the search and get the same results. If you are not searching systematically, you can do a more open search to quickly find information. This type of search is flexible, without a clear plan, and cannot be repeated by someone else.

When searching in a database or using the Library Search Tool, you can choose between systematic and open approaches. You can also refine your search using different techniques or by applying filters.

Searching with natural language

In many databases, you can search using natural language. This means writing your question as if you were speaking to a person. For example:

• Which articles are about AI in education?
• How does climate change affect the Arctic?

You don’t need to use special keywords or combine them with Boolean operators.

Natural language search is available in the Library Search Tool, as well as in databases such as CINAHL, APA PsycInfo, ERIC and Web of Science.

Systematic searching

When you are doing a systematic search, avoid using features like Natural Language or Smart Search in databases. Also, do not use automatic expansions that search with related terms, synonyms, or equivalent subject headings.

Common search techniques

When you are doing a systematic search, avoid using features like Natural Language or Smart Search in databases. Also, do not use automatic expansions that search with related terms, synonyms, or equivalent subject headings.

Phrase search

If the words you use when searching are to stand in a certain order, you can add quotation marks ("...") around them, for example around "World War II". Then the database searches for the words as a unified concept, exactly in the order you wrote them. If you search without quotes, the database can search for each word individually. Then you will most likely get many hits that are about the World War, but not specifically World War II.

Truncation

A word can have several different endings, such as nurse or nurses. To include all variants of the word in your search, you can add an asterisk (*) after the word. This is called truncation.

Example: teach* will return all words beginning with teach, such as teaches, teacher, teachers, teaching. If you do not use truncation, you will only find results with the exact word you searched for. For example, if you search with the word teach you will miss any results containing the words teaching and teacher.

Boolean search

To combine several different keywords, you can use the Boolean operators AND, OR and NOT.

• AND is used when you want all words you search for to be included in the same article. It therefore limits the number of hits. For example, if you search using the combination television AND movies, you will find documents where both the words television and movies are found somewhere in the text.
• OR is used when you want one or the other word to be included in the hits. It increases the number of hits. For example, you can use OR when you want to search for several different synonyms or spelling variations. If you search using the combination television OR movies, the hits will contain either the word television, movies or both.
• NOT is used when you want to limit the number of hits by excluding a word. A search using the combination television NOT movies produces hits that contain the word television, but deletes all hits where the word movies is included. However, when searching with NOT, you may miss interesting hits that contain both the word television and movies.

If you use more than one operator, you need to add parentheses to show the database how the search should be interpreted.

Example: (children OR kids) AND television. The hits then contain either the words children, kids or both, along with the word television.

Subject headings

In some databases you can use subject headings when searching. Subject headings are part of a controlled vocabulary, meaning that a standardised term is chosen to describe a concept.

When searching with subject headings, you need to select the term from the database’s subject heading list. If you do not, your search will be treated as a regular free-text search.

Use the database’s help section for more detailed instructions on how to search with subject headings. Keep in mind that subject headings may vary between databases.

Field search

Field Search is an advanced search that you can use to narrow your search results. In a database, publications usually contain information about authors, title, year of publication, keywords and so on. This means that with the help of different fields you can choose whether you want to search for a specific author, title, journal title and more.

Chain search

By checking the reference lists of publications, you can find useful new sources for your work. This is called a manual search or chain search. In citation databases such as Scopus and Web of Science, you can also find out who has cited a particular source.

Narrow your search with filters

In most databases, you can limit your search by applying filters such as publication date, language, or source type. This helps reduce the number of results and makes it easier to find the most relevant ones.

Another useful filter is Peer-reviewed or Peer-reviewed journals. This should give you material that has been scientifically reviewed, but you should always verify the quality yourself.

Refine your search

Information retrieval is a process where you often need to search several times. You may need to switch databases, change your keywords, or combine them in different ways to get good results.

Too few results:

• Use more general terms to broaden the search.
• Truncate keywords with an asterisk (*) to include word variations.
• Combine synonyms with OR so you do not miss alternative terms.
• Double-check the spelling of your keywords.

Too many results:

• Use more specific keywords.
• Combine terms with AND.
• Apply filters such as date or language.
• Use NOT to exclude terms.

Document your search

A scientific approach requires transparency and reproducibility. This means that your work must be clearly structured so that others can repeat or validate it.

When writing an essay, report, or other assignment, it is common to show how you found your information. Therefore, you should document your entire search process.

Many databases provide a Search History function, where you can review your searches, filters, and save them.

In addition to documenting your search results, make sure to note:

• The date and time of your search.
• Which databases and search services you used.
• The number of results in each database.
• The keywords and search techniques you used.
• Any filters applied, such as peer-reviewed, language, or year.
• The criteria you applied when selecting items.