1. Medical informatics – 3rd year bachelor thesis - 2014
Joost Daams, MA
Medical information specialist, Medical Library AMC
j.g.daams@amc.uva.nl
Joost Daams – Medical Library AMC – 31 January 2014
Enhancing and explaining search
strategies, citing references

2. Programme
5 steps to enhance your search strategy
2.Explore eligable sources of information
3.Expand your search by applying various retrieval techniques
4.Analyse and then improve your search results (GOPubMed, Carrot2, etc.)
5.Validate your search results
Explain your search strategy
-Document your search for reporting
How to cite results
-Use reference management software (Endnote, Refworks, etc.)
Joost Daams – Medical Library AMC – 31 January 2014
1.Ask a searchable question (conceptualize, a.o. PICO(S))

3. Enhance searching
1. Ask a searchable question (slide 1):
• foreground question – PICO(S)
P – independent living persons aged 65 and over
I – lifelogging
C – second generation healthcare technologies
O – assisting/optimizing (i)adl
S – prevention (therapy)
… operationalization is required (see next slide)
Joost Daams – Medical Library AMC – 31 January 2014
Does lifelogging prove to be more effective then second generation
healthcare technologies for assisting/optimizing (i)adl at independent
living persons aged 65 and over?

4. Enhance searching
1. Ask a searchable question (slide 2):
• background question – concepts
Concepts (and operationalization!):
• (third) generation healthcare technologies
ambulatory monitoring / monitoring technology / monitoring system / Self Help Device / Assistive Technology / Assistive Technologies / Assistive Device /
outpatient monitoring / computer communication network / mobile health / telemetries / smart home / smart environment / Sensing technology / Activity
monitoring[tiab] / sensor monitoring / sensor network / automatic recognizing / telemonitoring / lifelogging
• (most effective for assisting/optimizing) (i)adl
Daily Living Activity / daily activity / ADL / iadl / Self Care / activity of daily living / living indepently / living alone / AMC linear disability score (ALDS) / ADL
Katz / Katz-15 /Assessment of Motor and Process Skills (AMPS) /questionnaire on impact on participation and autonomy (IPA) /mini-mental state
examination (MMSE) /RAND-36 / sf-36 / short form 36 / shortform 36
• independent living persons aged 65 and over
Joost Daams – Medical Library AMC – 31 January 2014
Which (third) generation healthcare technologies are most effective for
assisting/optimizing (i)adl at independent living persons aged 65 and over?

5. Enhance searching
1. Ask a searchable question (slide 3):
• Determine eligability
(co-) interventions, exposures, population strata, outcome measures, limits
(language, period, etc.)
Joost Daams – Medical Library AMC – 31 January 2014
• Formulate in-/exclusion criteria, i.e.:

6. Enhance searching
2. Explore eligable sources of information (slide 1)
Background question:
-Textbooks
-Point of Care tools (i.e.UpToDate)
-Guidelines
-Google Scholar, Wikipedia, etc.
Joost Daams – Medical Library AMC – 31 January 2014
Foreground question:
Sources of aggregated evidence

7. Enhance searching
2. Explore eligable sources of information (slide 2)
Google (Scholar): using it is OK, but what about:
• integrity
• transparency
• reproducibillity / validity? (i.e. PageRank)
??
?
? ??
And what about:
• content (first 1000 results limit)
• … and (level of) evidence?
Joost Daams – Medical Library AMC – 31 January 2014
So, what if your topic isn’t (exclusively) (bio)medical?

8. Enhance searching
2. Explore eligable sources of information (slide 3)
- Browsing lists of available databases by provider
(e.g. OVIDSP, Ebscohost, library system: AMC-Literatuur)
- Using a discovery tool like PRIMO
(http://lib.uva.nl )
- Looking up indexing of journals in unknown/other
bibliographic databases (Ulrich’s serials directory:
http://ulrichsweb.serialssolutions.com/ )
- Searching meta-registers of (Open Access) repositories
(e.g. BASE: http://www.base-search.net/ )
Joost Daams – Medical Library AMC – 31 January 2014
Discover new sources apart from Google Scholar by:

9. Enhance searching
3. Expand your search by applying various retrieval
techniques
Joost Daams – Medical Library AMC – 31 January 2014
Non systematic search strategies:
• Quick and dirty
• Best match
Systematic search strategies:
• Conceptual
most unique concept first
successive fractions
• Operational
Building blocks
Citation pearl growing
• Snowballing
Reference checking
Reverse snowballing
Reverse snowballing by citation analysis
(in a.o. Google Scholar / PubMed /
OVIDSP databases / Web of Science)

10. Enhance searching
4.Analyse your search results (GOPubMed, Carrot2, etc.)
- Screening your search results directly
- Using analysing tools, like
@ Carrot2: http://search.carrot2.org/stable/search
@ PubMed PubReMiner: http://hgserver2.amc.nl/cgi-bin/miner/miner2.cgi
@ gopubmed: http://gopubmed.org/web/gopubmed/
@ knalij.com: http://knalij.com/
Joost Daams – Medical Library AMC – 31 January 2014
Discover key (networks of) authors, - journals, -(controlled) vocabulary
and unidentified concepts by:

11. Enhance searching
5. Validate your search results
2. Check whether these references are among your search
results
3. If not, adjust your query
When to stop searching?
-When all references of your validation set are retrieved by your search strategy
-Choice: continue searching (and possibly loosing relevant records) or start
screening
-Take into account: left (searching) time
Joost Daams – Medical Library AMC – 31 January 2014
1. Create a validation set of preferably 10-20 ‘spot on’
references, acquired outside your systematic search

12. Explain your search strategy
•
As part of the methods section
•
… and as part of an appendix for reasons of transparency and reproducability
Database
Pubmed
Date of search
Initial search 18th January 2012, updated 13 th September 2012
Search strategy
("Impulse Control Disorders"[Mesh] OR alcohol dependence[tiab] OR substance dependence[tiab] OR
alcohol abuse[tiab] OR substance abuse[tiab] OR "Behavior, Addictive"[Mesh] OR craving[tiab] OR
"Substance-Related Disorders"[Mesh] OR alcoholism[tiab] OR alcoholic*[tiab] OR alcohol[tiab] OR
marijuana[tiab] OR cannabis[tiab] OR pot[tiab] OR hashish[tiab] OR marihuana[tiab] OR heroin[tiab]
OR narcotic*[tiab] OR opioid*[tiab] OR smoking[tiab] OR tobacco[tiab] OR nicotine[tiab] OR "Eating
Disorders"[Mesh] OR eating disorder*[tiab] OR appetite[tiab] OR binge eating[tiab] OR
"Bulimia"[Mesh] OR bulimia[tiab] OR "overweight"[Mesh] OR overweight[tiab]) AND ("Transcranial
Magnetic Stimulation"[Mesh] OR transcranial magnetic stimulation[tiab] OR tms[tiab] OR rtms[tiab]
OR repetitive tms[tiab] OR "electroconvulsive therapy"[Mesh] OR electroconvulsive therapy[tiab] OR
direct current stimulation[tiab] OR tdcs[tiab] OR transcranial dc stimulation[tiab] OR "Electric
Stimulation Therapy"[Mesh] OR electric stimulation therapy[tiab])
Not included in search strategy (no additional relevant records, only noise):
Commentary
electric stimulation, Prefrontal cortex , cerebral cortex, dlpfc (dorso-lateral prefrontal cortex)
Joost Daams – Medical Library AMC – 31 January 2014
2.2. Search strategy
Based on both reputation and content coverage, we identified Pubmed, Embase, PsycINFO and relevant sections of The Cochrane Library as the key bibliographic
databases for our query. Our enquiry was constructed following to the PICO-method.1 Key elements that we used in our search were the ‘P’ (addicts/addiction
to drugs, food, alcohol and nicotine or individuals experiencing strong craving for food), the ‘I’ (rTMS or tDCS stimulation), the ‘C’ (Active and Sham
stimulation) and the ‘O’ (craving levels). To minimize the risk of bias, no limits were applied. For reasons of transparency and reproducibility, the complete
documentation of the search is included in Appendix 1 of this article.

13. How to cite results
Seems complicated:
quality of life. [Polish]. Dermatologia Kliniczna, 13(3): 2011
(9)
. [Academy Management]
Tyc-Zdrojewska E, Trznadel-Grodzka E, Kaszuba A. The impact of chronic skin diseases on patients' quality of life.
[Polish] Dermatologia Kliniczna 2011;13(3):2011
. [Vancouver]
Therefore use Endnote (or Refworks etc.)
… BUT: Reference Manager alone provides 1394 outputstyles to choose from…
If you don’t know, choose the MLA7 or Vancouver output style
Joost Daams – Medical Library AMC – 31 January 2014
Tyc-Zdrojewska, E., Trznadel-Grodzka, E., & Kaszuba, A. 2011. The impact of chronic skin diseases on patients’

14. Recap
5 steps to enhance your search strategy
2.Explore eligable sources of information
3.Expand your search by applying various retrieval techniques
4.Analyse and then improve your search results (GOPubMed, Carrot2, etc.)
5.Validate your search results
Explain your search strategy
-Document your search for reporting
How to cite results
-Use reference management software (Endnote, Refworks, etc.)
Joost Daams – Medical Library AMC – 31 January 2014
1.Ask a searchable question (conceptualize, a.o. PICO(S))