Back to: Search and Screen Your Studies

If these complex chain of terms seem daunting, you can split your search into pieces. Run a search of just your population terms, then just your intervention terms, then your study types. Then you can link the searches with AND in the Advanced Search screen in most databases.

As we’ve mentioned before, you’ll need to consult with a librarian to construct the best possible chain of boolean logic.

Why are we bothering with all of these search terms? When you’re conducting a systematic review, you want to start by erring on the side of finding too much evidence. We’ll talk about that on the next page.