1. Literature search

1.3 Literature search strategy

The first step is to identify the keywords for the search by inputting the terms (or descriptors) contained in the English-language terminology thesaurus of MeSH(available through the MeSH browser of PubMed ).

The search integrator « HONselectoperated by the Swiss foundation, Health On the Net (HON), allows users to quickly find the French-language equivalent of MeSH terms.

A query must be entered with exact Boolean expressions:

  • AND (ET)
  • OR (OU)
  • NOT (SAUF)

Searching with PubMed requires training and may initially seem bewildering. URFISTbased in Paris has a good user training manual that includes demonstrations and exercises with answers.

Articles are first filtered online by title, then by abstract. A good quality abstract generally corresponds to a good quality article, and should thus allow the user to judge whether the article merits closer attention for his research. The user should peruse the article, keeping the purpose, the quality, and the results of the article in mind. The article can be printed if it is deemed to be relevant , since a paper version is best for more detailed reading.