Guides and databases: Medicine &amp; Dentistry: Literature Searching

How to Search for Literature

Literature searching may sound daunting, but there are so many tools at your disposal to make life easier.

To get started, we recommend you check out the e-book How to read a paper by Trisha Greenhalgh. This excellent resource will help you to understand why systematic searching and gathering good quality evidence is so important, and how you can build your own searches and protocols to do it really well.
Second, work through the online tutorial 'Essential search skills for biomedical databases' further down in this page. This will introduce you to boolean search logic and the specific interfaces of several key biomedical databases.
Next, check out the 'Guides for searching databases' box. Here you will find lots more detail on how to use the most important biomedical databases: Medline, PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science.
After that, think about your own research project. Break down your topic area into key research components. The more specific you can be, the better. You may also find the PICO approach detailed below useful for creating a well-rounded clinical question.
Finally, try searching! Once you have selected your databases and finalised your protocol, navigate to the Biomedicine & Health A-Z Databases page (linked below) and have a go. Searching is about experimentation, so don't worry if it takes you a few gos to get the hang of it. Remember, you can always contact us if you need more help!

Biomedicine & Health Library databases A-Z
Browse or search our databases by title.

Essential search skills for biomedical databases

Essential search skills for biomedical databases
This tutorial works through the steps involved in developing and carrying out a successful literature search using biomedical databases. It should take approximately 20-30 minutes.

The PICO Framework

PICO is a planning tool that can be used to structure clinical research questions. It helps to create a focused search topic, whilst also encouraging you to think about the alternate search terms that might be used to describe your topic elements.

Q: Is the use of ibuprofen more effective than paracetamol at reducing fever in young children?

P - Patient/Population	Under 5s Infants Pre-school Children Fever Temperature
I - Intervention	Ibuprofen Nurofen
C - Control/Comparison	Paracetamol Panadol
O - Outcome	Reducing fever Lowering temperature Symptom management Uncontrolled symptoms

Search strategies for literature searching

This online tutorial uses a series of videos and activities to demonstrate some top tips for enhancing your searching skills. The extract below looks at how you decide what terms to use.