Skip to Main Content

Library Guide Medical Sciences: Literature search

All services and resources provided by the Medical Library

  Individual consultation

The information specialists of the Medical Library offer advice and guidance with:

  • Literature searches for
    • CAT
    • PICO
    • Research internship
    • Reviews
    • Systematic Review or Scoping Review
    • Thesis
  • Creating an RSS or email alert
  • Reporting search strategies
  • Updating search strategies
  • Handling references using EndNote

This service is intended for students and staff of the Radboudumc and the Radboud University.

If you would like to make an (online) appointment, you can contact us via Ask Your Librarian or you can fill in one of the forms below and email us at medischebibliotheek@radboudumc.nl.

  Tools

Manuals and modules on databases such as PubMed and Embase are available via the page E-learning and manuals.

This page offers some tools that can help you in your literature search:

Preparation

MeSH

Search strategy

Requesting articles

The Medical Library also offers help with requesting articles from other libraries (Interlibrary loan).
   See our page on Borrowing

Search Builder

Search Strategy Builder for PubMed

The Search Strategy Builder is a tool designed to teach you how to create a search string using Boolean logic. While it is not a database and is not designed to input a search, you should be able to cut and paste the results into most databases’ search boxes.

  Concept 1 AND Concept 2 AND Concept 3
Name your core concepts here    
Search terms Search terms Search terms

List alternate terms for each concept.

Try to find suitable Mesh Terms [Mesh] and Title/Abstract[tiab] words for each concept. Note: The [tiab]-words can be the same as the [Mesh]-term, synonyms, or they can be specific examples of the concept, such as drugnames.

 You can use single words, or phrases, or truncated words with the asteriks *

OR

OR

OR

OR

OR

OR

OR

OR

OR

Now copy and paste the above Search Strategy into the PubMed Query Box in Advanced.

The Search Strategy Builder was developed by the University of Arizona Libraries(CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 US).