The formatted MeSH terms you generated from the MeSH Database in Step 3 contain as part of their formatting the [Mesh] field tag. PubMed's field tags specify where terms will be searched in PubMed records. For instance, any term with a [Mesh] field tag will only be searched for in the part of the PubMed record that lists MeSH terms.
Use one of the following field tags for keywords:
[tiab] - searches the title and abstract
[tw] - searches the title, abstract, and author supplied keywords
Note: Leaving off a field tag will default to search [all fields] of the citation. This includes journal name, author names and author affiliations and addresses. These fields may increase the retrieval of "false hits."
Apply truncation to keywords in order to add word variants to your search. Do this by adding an asterisk (*) to the common root of the variants. For example: vaccin* will add the variants vaccine, vaccines, vaccination, vaccinations, etc. to your search.
Add quotation marks to keep specific terms together as a phrase.
Note: You can now use truncation with quotation marks in PubMed. For example: "vaccine sched*"[tiab] will find "vaccine schedule," "vaccine schedules," and "vaccine scheduled."
Proximity searching can be used to search for multiple keyword terms appearing in any order within a specified distance of one another in either the title ([ti]) or title/abstract ([tiab]) fields.
When performing proximity searching, use the format: "search terms"[field:~N], where search terms can be two or more words, field is either [ti] or [tiab], and N is the maximum number of words appearing between your search terms.
For example,"rationing healthcare"[tiab:~2] may give results that include: rationing healthcare, healthcare rationing, rationing of healthcare, rationing in healthcare, rationing universal healthcare, rationing strategies in healthcare, rationing limited healthcare, etc.
Use the Boolean OR operator to connect formatted MeSH terms and keywords for each of your search concepts.
Use the following example as a guide.
"Intensive Care Units, Neonatal"[Mesh] OR NICU[tw] OR "neonatal intensive care unit"[tw] OR "Neonatal ICU"[tw] OR "Newborn ICU"[tw]
"Hand Disinfection"[Mesh] OR "handwashing"[tw] OR "hand washing"[tw] OR "hand sanitization"[tw] OR "hand disinfection"[tw]
See below for more details about the RCT concept, or filter.
The following concepts/filters for finding RCTs were created and validated by the Cochrane Collaboration.
Note: It's important to only use validated filters with documentation that shows how they have been tested for reliability and accuracy.
When documenting these filters, use the following citation: Lefebvre C, Glanville J, Briscoe S, Littlewood A, Marshall C, Metzendorf M-I, Noel-Storr A, Rader T, Shokraneh F, Thomas J, Wieland LS. Technical Supplement to Chapter 4: Searching for and selecting studies. In: Higgins JPT, Thomas J, Chandler J, Cumpston MS, Li T, Page MJ, Welch VA (eds). Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions Version 6.1 (updated September 2020). Cochrane, 2020. Available from: https://training.cochrane.org/handbook/current/chapter-04-technical-supplement-searching-and-selecting-studies.
(randomized controlled trial[pt] OR controlled clinical trial[pt] OR randomized[tiab] OR placebo[tiab] OR drug therapy[sh] OR randomly[tiab] OR trial[tiab] OR groups[tiab] NOT (animals [mh] NOT humans [mh]))
Link to this filter in PubMed.
(randomized controlled trial[pt] OR controlled clinical trial[pt] OR randomized[tiab] OR placebo[tiab] OR clinical trials as topic[mesh:noexp] OR randomly[tiab] OR trial[ti] NOT (animals[mh] NOT humans [mh]))
Use the Advanced Search Builder in PubMed to combine your search concepts. It's good practice to run each search concept individually in the Advanced Search as a way to check for errors, including result sets that are much larger or smaller than expected. It's also good practice to use the search builder to insert the Boolean AND to connect search concepts.
The following screenshot shows the three concepts of our example search (NICU, hand washing, and RCT filter) connected with the Boolean AND.
The individual concepts were run separately and then added to the search builder from the search history. The search history lies below the search builder and contains a list of searches completed during each a searching session. It includes the search line number, the search terms, and the number of results.
Watch this section of the PubMed: Building a Search video for step-by-step instructions on assembling a search in PubMed.
