systematic and scoping reviews

why search subject-specific databases like those listed below?

• focus on a single subject or on a related discipline
• highly relevant and peer reviewed content
• include non-journal content including books, dissertations, theses, reviews, etc.
• include thesauri or controlled vocabulary 
• allow proximity and adjacency searching
• provide limiters or filters to narrow your search
• include related articles and cited reference searching

it is important to search two or more databases to avoid selection bias.

below is a select list of subject-specific databases:

health and medicine

• cinahl
• pubmed
• evidence based medicine (ebm) reviews

psychology

• psycinfo

social sciences

• eric
• sociological abstracts

multidisciplinary

• web of science

advanced search tips:

• use boolean logic - and, or, not
• use thesauri - mesh in pubmed, psycinfo thesaurus etc.
• use a combination of keywords and subject headings
• truncate your search - psych* (psychology, psychological, psychologies)
• use quotation marks for phrase searching - "health inequality"
• use "field searching" to narrow your search and make it more relevant (for example ti - title search, ab - search within the abstract)
• use search translators like sr-accelerator to edit the "syntax" of the different databases.
• use "search hedges" for your search. search hedges are standardized searches that can save you time. (see search hedges box to the left for examples). always remember to check the date as you might need to update the hedge.

consult the help pages for each database to learn more about the advanced search options available.

search hedges

what are they?

search hedges are standardized search strategies that can help you save time. 

how do you find them?

• health sciences search filters (university of alberta library)
• health informatics research unit (mcmaster university)
• indigenous peoples (university of alberta libraries)
• randomized controlled trials (mcgill library)

tip: some search hedges may be older and require updating

hand searching

searching in individual journals                                                                                                   

how can you do this?

• journaltocs - search over 32,000 journal table of contents.
• omni - search within a specific journal

snowballing

searching for references related to a specific article.

reverse or backward snowballing - looking at the references cited in the article.

forward snowballing - looking for articles that have cited a specific article.

how can you do this?

• web of science - use the cited reference search
• omni 
• google scholar
• some databases include selected citations (pubmed, cinahl, psycinfo etc.)

grey (or gray) literature - what is it?

according to a dictionary of public health, grey literature is:

unpublished papers and reports, academic dissertations, etc., that by common agreement are of sufficient quality to be reliable, verifiable, and acceptable sources of original observations for citation purposes.

porta, m., & last, j. m. l. m. (2018). gray literature. in j. m. last (ed.), a dictionary of public health. oxford university press. http://ezproxy.lakeheadu.ca/login?url=http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191844386.001.0001/acref-9780191844386-e-1796

where can you find grey literature in the library?

• astis - research reports
• canada commons - canadian public policy
• canadian electronic library - canadian public health policy
• census data - census information
• ebsco open dissertations
• knowledge commons - 阿根廷vs墨西哥竞猜 theses and dissertations
• proquest™ dissertations & theses citation index
• statistics canada
• web of science (conference search)

guides to finding grey literature:

• searching the gray literature - carnegie mellon university
• grey literature - university of toronto library