If you aren't happy with the list of articles your search brings back, here are some ways you might think about changing your search.
1. Too many articles / Articles aren't on topic
- Make your topic more specific. Add words to describe the
- population
- setting
- treatment or intervention
- outcome
- Make your terms more specific. For example
- "women" becomes "women over 50"
- "analgesic" becomes "opioid"
- "recovery" becomes "length of stay"
2. Too few articles
- Make your topic less specific
- focus on the core ideas (remove unnecessary details)
- choose less specific terms ("exercise therapy" becomes "exercise")
- Look for different search words
- synonyms - brainstorm synonyms (e.g. "length of stay" = "hospital stay") or different forms of a word (e.g. therapy, therapies, therapeutic)
- scan abstracts and subject headings to find out which words authors and databases are using to describe your topic.
Photo by Anant Nath Sharma, used with permission under a Creative Commons license