Systematic Searching Crash Course: Session Two

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Session Two

Welcome to Session Two! 

We'll start the session by reviewing the term harvesting you've done, and we'll paste those terms into PubMed to test our search. Once we've done any necessary edits, we'll move forward with the search and translate into two other databases: Scopus and Embase. 

Scopus

Scopus is an abstract and citation database by the academic publisher Elsevier. Scopus indexes four subject areas:  Physical Sciences, Health Sciences, Social Sciences, and Life Sciences.

Steps for taking your PubMed search into Scopus:

1. Once you land on the homepage, go straight to “advanced document search” under the homepage search bar; this is because the homepage search bar has a character count.
2. Any phrases need quotations around them (i.e. healthcare versus “healthcare worker”).
3. Use TITLE-ABS on the advanced search page. Start by typing T into the search bar and it will immediately populate TITLE-ABS as an option. Paste in your search string, then search!

Embase

Embase is a biomedical abstract and citation database by the academic publisher Elsevier. Embase uses a controlled vocabulary called Emtree.

Steps for taking your PubMed search into Embase:

1. Once you land on the homepage, go straight to “Emtree”, an option at the top of the page.
2. Start typing in the MeSH terms you used for your search string in PubMed; Embase will give you options as you type. Select the closest one.
3. After you’ve selected the term, select “Extend Search Using > /de”. Then, select “Add to Query Builder”. This will make a box pop up at the top of the page, similar to the query box on PubMed.
4. Begin searching for the next MeSH term, repeating the above process until all MeSH terms have been added as Emtree terms. You can then copy and paste your keywords for that search string into the query box after the Emtree terms; also make sure all phrases are in single quotations. 

You may try Embase's tool, Query translator,  to convert PubMed search to Embase search query. It's strongly recommended translating the search terms one at a time. 

To-Do Before Session Three

In the Translations tab of your spreadsheet, complete the translations for each piece of our PubMed search. Remember that Scopus has no controlled vocabulary, but Embase does!

Remember that there are examples in the final tab of your spreadsheet!

Please have EndNote installed before Session Three. Here's the link to install!

Translating Your Search

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