Systematic Reviews

Searching the PubMed, Embase, Ovid MEDLINE. and CINAHL databases is a little different than many other databases.

Follow these tips:

• Search for one term at a time
• Map terms to subject headings (for Ovid MEDLINE, Embase, and CINAHL)
• Read the Scope Notes
• Look at the Subject Headings Tree
• When in doubt, Explode but do not Focus
• Use Keywords when necessary
• Combine terms with Boolean Operators
• Limit/filter results as required

When searching for a systematic review it is important that you search across a range of databases, as no one database covers all the health-related literature. The decision regarding which databases to search depends largely upon the topic of the review.

For a complete list of University of California Davis databases search by subject or title with our Databases search function.