Common Literature Searching Mistakes

MEDLINE and CINAHL
International Pharmaceutical Abstracts

Common mistakes and tips: MEDLINE and CINAHL

Mistake: not using Subject Headings from the Thesaurus

• Tip: click on the "Thesaurus" or "MeSH" button to identify appropriate subject headings. In most instances, these will be the preferred search terms to use in MEDLINE or CINAHL.

Mistake: not selecting appropriate subheadings

• Tip: after using the "Thesaurus" command to identify a subject heading, click on the "Qualify Heading" tab to see the choices of subheadings. If there are specific subheadings appropriate to your question you should select them now.

Mistake: overusing "Limits"

• Tip: First, complete your search without any limits.
• Add limits only after searching and combining your terms IF you retrieved too many citations.

Mistake: not including all major concepts from the question in the search strategy

• Tip: Include a subject heading/subheadings(s) for each major concept.
• If your search returns a large number of articles, check to make sure you have included all the important concepts in the question.

Mistake: confusing "OR" with "AND" when combining

• Tip: Use OR when you want to find any articles which contain either one concept or the other, but not necessarily both concepts.
  • "Or" is very good to use when you are combining synonyms.
  • For example: "HIV or AIDS" will find any records which mention "HIV" as well as any records which mention "AIDS".
• Use AND when you want to find only articles which contain BOTH concepts.
  • For example: "minoxidil and baldness" will find only those records which mention BOTH minoxidil as well as baldness.
  • Records which mention only one of the terms will NOT be found.

IPA common mistakes and tips

Mistake: not truncating

• Tip: allow for variations in the use of terms by different authors.
• Truncation allows you to substitute an asterisk for any of the various endings a word might have. For example, "neoplas*" will find "neoplastic" or "neoplasm" or "neoplasms".

Mistake: truncating ineffectively

• Tip: be careful about where you truncate a word.
• For example, "neoplasm* will find "neoplasm" or "neoplasms" but NOT "neoplastic".
• Remember, the computer is looking for an exact match of the letters you type in.

Mistake: not including appropriate alternative or synonymous terms

• Tip: Scan the titles and abstracts of the records you find for other possible keywords or synonymns you may not have thought of using.
• For example, a search on the common name "St. John's wort" finds records which include the Latin name "hypericum" and the extract name "hypericin".
• A good revised search strategy would be: "St. John's wort OR hypericum OR hypericin".

Mistake: including unnecessary terms

• Tip: Include only key concepts in your search strategy.
• Do not include minor words which may not be used by every author writing on your topic.
• For example, searching "ethical issues" will retrieve fewer citations than will a search for "ethic*" .
• Avoid common words such as "pharmacy", "pharmaceutical", "drugs" because IPA indexes the pharmacy literature: these words appear in almost every record.

Mistake: confusing "OR" with "AND" when combining

• Tip: Use OR when you want to find any articles which contain either one concept or the other, but not necessarily both concepts.
  • "Or" is very good to use when you are combining synonyms.
  • For example: "HIV or AIDS" will find any records which mention "HIV" as well as any records which mention "AIDS".
• Use AND when you want to find only articles which contain BOTH concepts.
  • For example: "minoxidil and baldness" will find only those records which mention BOTH minoxidil as well as baldness.
  • Records which mention only one of the terms will NOT be found.

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