LibGuides: Pharmacy : Literature searching

Search Strategies for Literature Searching

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 'Searching biomedical databases' below. This will introduce you to boolean search logic and the specific interfaces of several key biomedical databases.
Next, check out the 'Biomedical database guides' box on this page. Here you will find lots more detail on how to use the most important biomedical databases: Embase, IPA, MEDLINE, PubMed & Web of Science.
After that, think about your own research project. Download our project worksheet (linked below) and use it to 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 Pharmacy 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!

Pharmacy research project and dissertation planning worksheet
Use this worksheet to break down the key concepts in your research project question, decide which databases to search and which keywords to use.

Library databases A-Z

Biomedical database searching tutorial

PICO

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

Q: How effective is the combination use of ICS and LTRA in managing symptoms of suspected asthma in under 5s?

Patient/Population	Under 5s Infants Pre-school Children Asthma Asthma diagnosis
Intervention	Inhaled Corticosteroid ICA
Control/Comparison	Leukotriene Receptor Antagonist LTRA
Outcome	Symptom management Maintenance therapy Symptom monitoring Medication adherence Controlled symptoms Uncontrolled symptoms

Biomedical database guides

Ovid databases
by Kate Brunskill Last Updated Nov 22, 2021 7677 views this year
PubMed
by Sophie Pattison Last Updated Nov 22, 2021 8999 views this year
Scopus
by Andrew Gray Last Updated Nov 22, 2021 5018 views this year
Web of Science
by Andrew Gray Last Updated Nov 22, 2021 13905 views this year

Need more help?

Struggling to get it right or can’t find a solution? Contact us.

We can resolve simple queries over email and arrange virtual individual or group tutorials to troubleshoot problems or run through the finer details of specific databases.

For help and to make an appointment, email the SoP Library team - please include your project worksheet and as much detail about your needs as possible.