This presentation was made to researchers in public health and nutrition at the Summer Institute for Systematic Reviews in Nutrition for Global Policy Making, a collaboration of WHO, Cochrane Collaboration and Cornell University's Division of Nutritional Sciences.

1. Developing your SR search strategy
SARAH YOUNG
HEALTH SCIENCE AND POLICY LIBRARIAN

2. Today’s presentation
Access to library resources
Developing your search strategy
Reporting of ongoing unpublished trials
Using library services

3. A guide to library resources
http://guides.library.cornell.edu/WHO

4. Access to resources: The catalog
https://www.library.cornell.edu/

5. Access to full text

6. Access to full text: Don’t give up!

7. Developing your search strategy
Example: Malnutrition
Use both indexing terms and free-text
“Malnutrition"[MeSH] OR “malnutrition” OR
“undernutrition" OR “under-nutrition” OR “nutritional
deficiency” OR “undernourishment”

8. Why use free-text AND indexing terms?
Indexing quality varies by database
Some articles have not yet been indexed
No abstract included
Non-English material

9. Standardized Index Terms

10. Standardized Index Terms
HIV
"human immuno-deficiency virus" n=199
"HIV"[Mesh] n=80480

11. Combine standardized terms with
natural language
HIV
"human immuno-deficiency virus" n=199
"HIV"[Mesh] n=80480
"HIV"[Mesh] OR "human immuno-deficiency virus"
n=80640
We added 160 articles by including the free-text term
in the MeSH term search

12. Search strategy with harvested terms
HIV Infections[MeSH] OR HIV[MeSH] OR hiv[tw] OR
hiv-1[tw] OR hiv-2[tw] OR human immunodeficiency
virus[tw] OR human immunedeficiency virus[tw] OR
human immuno-deficiency virus[tw] OR human
immune-deficiency virus[tw]
n= 315017

13. Term harvesting
Synonyms in standard index entries
Titles and abstracts of key articles
Dictionaries and Thesauri

14. Example: preterm infant

20. Putting together a search strategy
High sensitivity (low precision)
Minimize bias
Reproducible (documentation)

21. Putting together a search strategy
Example:
Micronutrient supplementation in pregnant women with HIV infection
The Cochrane Collaboration
Siegfried N, Irlam JH, Visser ME, and Rollins NN
2012

22. Putting together a search strategy
Objective:
To assess whether micronutrient supplements are
effective and safe in reducing mortality and morbidity in
pregnant women with HIV infection.

23. HIV

24. Type of study: RCT

25. Micronutrients

26. Micronutrients (cont.)

27. Micronutrients (combined)

28. Final (combined)

29. Type of study: RCT

31. Search
tips:
Use the
syntax
appropriate
to the
database

32. Search
tips:
Use the
syntax
appropriate
to the
database

33. Identify text
terms
Term harvest
for synonyms
Control for spelling
variation and use
truncation
Identify indexing
terms
Decide to
explode or focus
indexing terms
Combine all
search terms
logically
Customize syntax
for other
databases
Perform test
searches
Perform test
searches

34. Choosing databases

35. Choosing databases
Searched for reports of maternal mortality and morbidity
across various study designs
MEDLINE, Popline, EMBASE, CINAHL, CAB Abstracts, Econlit,
Sociofile, LILACS, BIOSIS and PAIS International
2580 citations included

36. Choosing databases
62
44
17
12
0
20
40
60
80
100
MEDLINE EMBASE BIOSIS POPLINE
Percent of Total Citations Identified

37. A guide to library resources
http://guides.library.cornell.edu/WHO

38. Outside of the published literature
Publication bias

39. Other sources: Unpublished clinical trials
WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP)
http://www.who.int/ictrp/en/
metaRegister of Controlled Trials (mRCT)
http://www.controlled-trials.com/mrct/

40. Other sources: Grey Literature
“…literature that is not formally published in
sources such as books or journal articles.”
Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions

41. Other sources: Grey Literature
"That which is produced on all levels of
government, academics, business and industry
in print and electronic formats, but which is not
controlled by commercial publishers.“
The Fourth International Conference on Grey Literature, Washington, DC

42. A guide to library resources
http://guides.library.cornell.edu/WHO

43. Finding Mann Library

44. Room to work

45. Available library services
Access to full text
Search strategy development
Using the databases
Citation management
Questions about Research4Life

47. Help with your research
sy493@cornell.edu
Office hours:
2-4 pm (except tomorrow)
Services and Collections offices, 1st floor of Mann

48. References
Betran, A.P. et al. (2005). “Effectiveness of different databases in identifying studies for
systematic reviews: experience from the WHO systematic review of maternal morbidity and
mortality”. BMC Medical Research Methodology, 5:6.
Fowler, S. (2013). “Library Resources for Systematic Reviews”. Presentation available from
http://www.slideshare.net/referencegirl/sys-revs-colditz.
Higgins, J.P.T. and Green, S. (eds.) (2011). Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of
Interventions, Version 5.1.0, available from http://handbook.cochrane.org/.
Siegfried, N. et al. (2012). “Micronutrient supplementation in pregnant women with HIV
infection (Review)”. The Cochrane Library, Issue 3.