Introduction to Search Strategies for Systematic Reviews of Interventions (Location: GOS ICH)

Participants will learn how to create a basic search to gauge the scope of existing research on their topic and then develop this into a search strategy appropriate for a systematic review. The session will focus on the Ovid SP interface to the Medline database, showing how to use appropriate terminology and notation. Other databases such as PubMed, the Cochrane Library and Web of Science will also be included and participants will learn how to translate search terms to reproduce their search strategy in different databases.

The session also considers additional methods for identifying appropriate papers for a systematic review; how to evaluate a search strategy; and how to document the search.

You will be able to:

•  Conduct a preliminary scoping search to gauge the range and depth of existing research on your research idea
• Create a list of appropriate keywords and terms to use in developing a comprehensive search
• Carry out a complex, systematic, reproducible search in the Medline database using thesauri and keyword searching, search filters, and other features
• Understand how to translate a Medline search strategy in order to replicate a search in other databases
•  Evaluate your search strategy

Who should attend?

Postgraduate research students interested in learning how to develop appropriate search strategies for conducting systematic reviews of interventions, GOSH staff and UCL staff. 

This session is also part of the Doctoral School Skills Development Programme. Postgraduate research students at UCL should book a place by logging in via the programme website.