.Information Literacy in the Health Sciences

Search engines in databases and on the Internet vary in how you use them depending on how they are built and designed. But there are common search features and functions that occur. Learning about the different features can help you craft a successful search strategy to retrieve what you need.

These are common rules of databases. Your database may not follow them.

• Use parentheses to group complicated search requests.
• Use quotation marks to group phrases.
• The most common truncation symbols are * and ?
• Most databases use AND as a default Boolean term.
• Capitalize Boolean terms.

Most databases allow the user different searching methods. One of the most common searching methods is Boolean Searching, also called keyword searching. This type of search tells the database to retrieve all of the records in the database which contain a word or a set of words. You can alter the results by using Boolean Operators which are the words AND, OR and NOT. See below for an explanation of these terms. Some databases require the Boolean operators to be capitalized or they are searched just like regular search terms.

AND
Example: cookies AND milk

Will retrieve records which contain the word “cookies” and the word “milk.” This operator is used to lessen the number of records retrieved. This is the most common default Boolean term.

OR
Example: caffeine OR coffee

Will retrieve records which contain the word “caffeine” or the word “coffee.” This operator is used to broaden the number of records retrieved.

NOT
Example: chocolate NOT cake

Will retrieve records which contain only the word "chocolate" but not the word "cake." This operator is used to reduce the number of records retrieved.

Use to preserve the “logic” of your Boolean Search. Nesting is the use of parenthesis to put your search words into sets. If you do not use parentheses, Boolean terms are connected according to the default functions of the database. Because it is difficult to keep track of differences in databases and because almost every database accepts parentheses, it is suggested that parentheses ALWAYS be used in a complicated search phrase.

Each of the searches below would retrieve different results.

(Huntingtons AND disease) OR chorea    

Huntingtons AND (disease OR chorea)

(Huntington OR Huntingtons) AND (disease OR chorea)

((diabetes OR diabete) AND (hypertension OR (high blood pressure))) NOT therapy

Use to find different forms of words in a Boolean or keyword search. Some databases use the asterisk, some use a dollar sign, and others use the question mark. The symbol may represent one character or they could represent multiple characters. They usually apply to word endings. They may or may not apply at the beginning or middle of a word. Check the help function of the database you are using to learn the truncation symbol and rules.

neuron*     Will retrieve neuron, neurons, neuronal, neuronopathy, etc.

comput*         Will retrieve compute, computer, computational, computable, etc.

The most common truncation symbols are * and ?

Commonly used words that occur too frequently in records will either be ignored and not searched or they will automatically stop or prevent a computer keyword search. Stop words are usually listed in the Help screens of whatever database you are using. Commonly used words rarely help help you narrow down your search results.

Some common stop words are: the, an, at, for, from, of, then.

The Index is the list of words used by all the records in a database. A database does not directly search its records but actually searches its Index for your word(s), which then tells the database which records contain those words. Some databases allow you to browse the Index directly. The PubMed database contains four separate indexes: a Phrase Index, a Journal Title Index, an Author Names Index, and MeSH Headings.

Stopwords are not included in the database. That is why they cannot be searched.

Many databases contain a thesaurus. This is a directory of assigned Subject
Headings {eg. Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)}. Searching for a subject
heading instead of a word that happens to appear anywhere in a record can
reduce the number of irrelevant records retrieved from your search.

Some databases will automatically include synonyms in the search, whether you
want them to appear or not, so check the rules. This is called thesaurus mapping.

 cancer       Finds cancer and neoplasm in the PubMed database when thesaurus mapping occurs.

Preferentially search MEDLINE, CINAHL, and PubMed using the Subjects. 

CLINICAL SETTING & EHR SYSTEMS

When a patient visits their healthcare providers, their information is entered into the electronic health record (EHR) system. If the patient has the flu, the healthcare providers enter the code for Influenza into the patient's EHR. if any treatments are prescribed, those codes are entered, too. 

When it comes time to send a bill, the clinic runs a search on the EHR system asking for all items in the patient record that are unpaid. They can then generate a bill and send it to the patient. To do this, they have run a search using the medical codes. The medical codes make it easier to pull that information out of the system later.

In addition, periodically the clinic is required to send information to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). So the clinic runs a search for all records coded for Influenza in the past month (week?). Then they can collect the appropriate statistics and information for the CDC and send it off. Again, the clinic used the medical codes to pull information out of the EHR system.

LIBRARY DATABASES

Library databases operate in a similar manner. 

MeSH Terms are Medical Subject Headings. A MeSH Term for a topic is assigned to the record of a publication when the publication is ABOUT that topic. And the MeSH Term "Influenza, Human" is attached to the record of publications that are about human influenza, even if the term "influenza" never appeared in the article but the term "flu" was used instead. And publications about bird flu are not retrieved by a search for the MeSH Term "Influenza, Human." The MeSH Term can make the desired topic more findable. 

Observe the MeSH Terms that have an asterisk (*) next to them. These are "Major Subject Headings." These are the major topics of the publication; the primary focus of the article in the opinion of the database employee who assigned the MeSH Terms. 

Notice the other MeSH Terms. These are minor Subject Headings. OR they are descriptive Subject Headings *about* the publication. So "Humans" tells us that the publication project involved human patients or research subjects. "Animals" would tell us that the project involved patients or research subjects. 

Observe that some words in MeSH follow after a slash (/). These are Subheadings, which modify the MeSH Term. Therefore, "Influenza, Human*/therapy" refers to the "therapy for Human Influenza" and is a Major Subject of the publication.

Therefore, MeSH Terms can be used to help you search. 

LIBRARY PRACTICE EXERCISE

1. Open this database record. 
2. Observe the "Limiters" within the record. What Limiters do you see for this record? (Language, Publication Type, Source, MeSH Terms, etc.)
3. Look at the MeSH Terms. Look at the first MeSH Term with an asterisk (*). Does it have a Subheading? What does the asterisk (*) mean?
4. Click on the first MeSH Term. A search is performed. What is entered into the first search box? What are the first two letters?
5. To the right, click Select a Field (optional). What do those two letters mean?
6. Is full-text of the publication available? Or do you see the link Check Availability?
7. At the top of the window, click MeSH 2023. A new window opens.
8. In the new search box, enter Disease Outbreaks. Skim down the results.
9. Click the link Disease Outbreaks.
10. Scroll down and check the box to the left of Disease Outbreaks.
11. Also check the box to the right of Disease Outbreaks. This will automatically prepare a search for Disease Outbreaks, Epidemics, Opioid Epidemic, Pandemics, Space-Time Clustering, and Disease Hotspots.
12. In the blue box on the right, look at the Subheadings. By default, the database will search all Subheadings unless you check only the boxes of the Subheadings you want to search.
13. Look down in the Blue box. Is there a Related Heading listed?
14. Now, let's search. On the right, click Search Database.
15. The results display. 
16. To the right of the first search box, click Select a Field (optional). What does MH mean?
17. The plus sign (+) means that we exploded the search to find all of the items coded for the MeSH Terms of Disease Outbreaks, Epidemics, Opioid Epidemic, Pandemics, Space-Time Clustering, and Disease Hotspots.
18. Now, do you think you could try this in your own searches? Contact the librarians if you have questions.

Internet browsers like Google, Bing, and Edge, do not have Limiters like the databases. They do allow some Advanced Searching using some of the computer code used to make a webpage, but it is not quite as sophisticated as database codes or Limiters. This is why librarians recommend that you use the specialized databases to find publications in a major or discipline.