How to Combine Search Terms for Research paper publication? 

May 8, 2023
Guidance on Developing Search Strategies for Systematic Reviews 
Guidance on Developing Search Strategies for Systematic Reviews 
May 5, 2023
How to develop a search strategy
How to Develop a search strategy for a systematic review
May 12, 2023
Guidance on Developing Search Strategies for Systematic Reviews 
Guidance on Developing Search Strategies for Systematic Reviews 
May 5, 2023
How to develop a search strategy
How to Develop a search strategy for a systematic review
May 12, 2023

In brief  

Quick searches with only one search term sometimes provide a significant number of useless search results, especially in large multi-disciplinary databases. Use Boolean operators and parentheses to combine search phrases into a search string to make more effective and exact searches for Research paper publication

A search string is made up of search phrases for online journal publications that describe the primary topics. For example, while looking for student well-being, the search phrase may look something like this: 

student* 
AND 
“well-being” OR well-being OR coping 

Introduction 

To combine search terms, you can use Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT). Here are some examples: 

  1. AND: Use “AND” to combine two or more search terms, which narrows the search and retrieves only articles that contain all the specified terms. For example, “physical activity AND breast cancer” would retrieve articles that contain both the terms “physical activity” and “breast cancer.” 
  1. OR: Use “OR” to combine similar or related search terms, which broadens the search and retrieves articles containing any specified terms. For example, “physical activity OR exercise” would retrieve articles that contain either the term “physical activity” or the term “exercise.” 
  1. NOT: Use “NOT” to exclude specific search terms from the results. For example, “physical activity AND breast cancer NOT animal studies” would retrieve articles that contain the terms “physical activity” and “breast cancer” but exclude any articles that involve animal studies. 
What is a Good Research Question for Prospective Studies 

It is important to use parentheses to group terms together when using multiple Boolean operators. For example, “(physical activity OR exercise) AND breast cancer” would retrieve articles that contain either the term “physical activity” or the term “exercise” and also contains the term “breast cancer.” 

It is also important to use truncation or wildcards to capture different search term forms for journal research paper writing services. For example, “physical activity*” would retrieve articles that contain the terms “physical activity,” “physical activities,” or “physically active.” 

Search using the Advanced Search Builder query box: 

To ensure your search is as complete as possible and that you get the best results, utilize Advanced Search to combine your MeSH searches with text word searches, i.e. terms anywhere in the record, such as the title or abstract.  

Textword and MeSH searches can be entered directly into the Add words to query box. Make sure the Add words to query box is set to All Fields for text word searches. If you know the MeSH Terms you need, you may use the query box to look for MeSH Terms and type in the name of the general MeSH term. You may search for MeSH Terms in the MeSH database to see whether they exist. 

An example of a search using both MeSH and text word terms is: 

Search #1            heart attack (all terms) 

Search #2            myocardial infarction (all terms) 

Search #3            STEMI (all terms) 

Search #4            myocardial infarction (MeSH terms) 

Search #5            combine 1-4 with OR 

Search #6            aspirin (all terms) 

Search #7            aspirin (MeSH terms) 

Search #8            combine 6-7 with OR 

Search #9            combines 5 and 8 with AND 

The Pubrica manually performed Starting your literature review includes a page dedicated to arranging your search. It discusses determining your issue’s major aspects/concepts, building a list of search words, employing various search approaches, and creating the search query. 

About Pubrica 

Teams at Pubrica’s research and writing departments produce scientific and medical research articles that may be useful resources for practitioners and authors. Pubrica medical writers assist you in writing and rewriting the introduction by informing the reader about the gaps in the selected research subject. Our experts comprehend the sequence in which the broad topic, issue, and background are followed by the specialized subject in which the hypothesis is provided.  

Reference 

Krupski, Tracey L., et al. “How to perform a literature search.” The Journal of urology 179.4 (2008): 1264-1270. 

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