Planning a structured search in health (Open Learning)

Research Topic/Question:

Before you start to do any research it is important to think about your topic. This could be a question or it could be a research area. Then, you need to think about how this question or topic will fit into a search strategy and this involves thinking about the main keywords you are interested in.

It is best to identify specific keywords and short phrases rather than using complete sentences or full questions. When you are identifying the main keywords, make sure to ignore any stop words such as the, a, an, in etc.

Here is an example research question:

Does handwashing among healthcare workers reduce rates of hospital acquired infection? 

The main keywords have been highlighted in bold - they are the important aspects which need to come back in any search results. 

It can help keep things clear and organised if you split the key concepts into separate columns:

'Does', 'among' and 'rates of' are all connecting words and therefore not essential to our research.

'Reduce' is an important part of the research topic, as you want to know if handwashing does reduce the rate of hospital acquired infections. However, we would not really want to add that specific keyword onto the search as it could lead to bias. Adding the word 'reduce' onto your search will make sure your search results contain articles which mention a reduction in rates but it would not find ones which discuss an increase in rates or if rates have stayed the same. Ideally you want to see all of the research on a topic to look for yourself if there has been a reduction in rates or not. Therefore we would suggest you don't include the keyword reduce in your search.

Keywords and Synonyms (alternative keywords):

The next step is to think about those main keywords in more detail. Think ... are there other ways to say them (synonyms)? For the best results you need to identify as many synonyms for each concept. There might be lots of other ways to say your keywords or there may only be one way. Don't forget about alternative spellings (UK/US) and abbreviations.

Here is an example table with the main keywords from the example question along with some synonyms:

Sometimes it can be difficult to think of alternative keywords for your topic. If you struggle to identify additional keywords for your search terms you could:

	Use a textbook to get an overview of your subject.
	Consult a medical dictionary or encyclopaedia for a definition of your key concept.
	Check any references which you already have - what terms have they used to describe your topic?
	Look online. For example, The Developing Keywords guide and The University of Suffolk's thesaurus for nursing and health sciences.
	Describe your topic aloud to someone
	Carry out some scoping searches (for example, basic searches in Discovery) - this can help you find out which keywords bring back the best results.

Finding the most effective keywords for your search usually involves some trial and error. However, you can continue to add to your list of keywords as you find out more about your topic.