Systematic Review (Searching)
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You have your assignment topic/research question and you need journal articles.
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You know you need to search databases, but how and which ones?
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This short guide will provide you with a methodology that you can apply to most databases
(and many search engines) you will encounter.
1. Find a database
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Some databases have a very narrow focus, while others contain information on many topics.
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Select a database that is appropriate for your topic/subject – see the subject guide page
http://www.tcd.ie/Library/support/subjects/index.php or browse the Library’s complete list of
databases http://www.tcd.ie/Library/collections/databases.php
2. Define your terms
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Translate your enquiry or assignment topic into terms the database can understand.
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Nouns or noun phrases are best.
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Also think of synonyms or alternative terms you could use.
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For example, if your assignment is on the relationship between diet and heart problems, you could use
the following search terms: diet, nutrition or food, and heart, cardiovascular disease, cholesterol or
atherosclerosis.
3. Start searching
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If you want an online database to understand you, you need to speak its language. That's why syntax* the way you put your search terms together - matters.
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Since syntax can vary between databases, you should refer to the database's help or search tips page for
the full story.
David Macnaughton 2013
*Syntax tips
Case sensitivity: Most search engines are not case sensitive: they regard upper case, lower case, and mixed case
as identical. Some have the capability to match exact case.
Connectors (or 'boolean operators'): Connectors determine how multiple search terms are combined in a
search. Three common connectors are and, or and not. Sometimes symbols are used instead of words, i.e. + or .
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And: find documents containing all of your search terms.
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Or: find documents containing at least one of your search terms. You would use or to connect
synonyms or closely related terms.

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Example: dogs and cats will find documents that contain both words.
Example: dogs or puppies will find documents that contain either word.
Not: exclude words from your results. Not should be used with caution as you could inadvertently
exclude relevant results.
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Example: dogs not cats will only locate documents that include the word dogs, but only if the
document does not contain the word cats.
Nesting: The order in which search engines execute your commands is not always obvious. You can use round
brackets to control the search sequence.
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Example: the search term diabetes and (nutrition or food or diet) will find documents that contain one
of the words in brackets - i.e. nutrition or food or diet - but only if they also contain the word 'diabetes'.
Proximity operators: locate terms that are close to one another. One such proximity operator is w/#, which you
can use to find two words that are # number of pages apart.
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Example: diabetes w/3 nutrition will find documents where diabetes and nutrition occur within three
words of one another, in either order.
Phrase searching: Some databases will treat two or more words entered into the search box as a phrase, while
others require you to place a phrase in double quotation marks.
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Example: "diet and diabetics" will only find documents where the whole phrase is present.
Truncation: Most databases allow end of word truncation, using one character, such as an asterisk, to replace
the remaining letters.
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Example: diabet* will find documents containing diabetes, diabetic, and diabetics.
'Wild cards': Wild cards are characters, such as 'a question mark, used to replace replace a single letter in the
middle of a word. They are used to accommodate spelling variations.
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Example: wom?n will find woman and women; organi?ation will retrieve organization and
organisation.
Searching specific fields: Field searching allows you to designate where to search for a specific term.
Sometimes there is a drop-down menu to select the field, at other times a field 'qualifier' is added to the search
term, such as Smith:au or Smith in au.
David Macnaughton 2013