1. Learn home
  2. Knowledge, Information and Data (KIND) learning site
  3. Specialist professional skills
  4. Evidence search and summary

Evidence search and summary

Add to favourites

Resources to support evidence searching for the Knowledge, Information and Data (KIND) workforce.

Topics on this page:

You will find more information about searching on the Finding information page.

Defining the problem

Hints and tips for the reference interview:

Developing your search question

Developing effective search questions is a fundamental skill. Generating a well-formed search question will make it easier to identify and combine appropriate terms to produce an effective literature search.

Different sources are used to answer different types of questions eg.:

Sources

For all types of question:

  • You should have clarity on the purpose
     
  • Your question should be clear and focused

Clinical questions can usually be defined as prediction, exploration, intervention type queries relating to diagnosis, aetiology or prognosis questions.

There are frameworks for different types of questions to help you develop your search:

  • PICO = Population / Intervention / Comparator / Outcomes
     
  • SPICE = Setting / Population / Intervention or Improvement / Comparison / Evaluation
     
  • ECLIPSE = Expectation / Client group / Location / Impact or Improvement / Professionals / SErvice
     
  • COPES = Client Orientated Practical Evidence Search

More information on these frameworks:

It is useful to use a table to identify synonyms and alternative terms for each element of the framework you have selected for your question.

Translating Knowledge into Action or getting evidence used in practice is a challenge and librarians can support practitioners to consider different aspects of a problem ie. using Know What + Know Where + Know Who = Know How.

Evidence summaries

Evidence summary services use rigorous, well-defined methodologies to summarise information that has been integrated and critically appraised from multiple primary research articles and existing international guidelines. They are considered very high-quality sources of information. All clinical related searches should begin by checking DynaMed and BMJ Best Practice.

You may also hear them called 'point of care resources' as they are designed to support decision making and help ensure care is based on the best evidence available.

Literature searching: introduction

Getting started if you are new to searching for health and social care research.

There is a series of eLearning modules on literature searching. They are designed to support end users but include some useful pointers for librarians unfamiliar with the medical databases.

Module 1

Basic searching but if new to health may be useful reminder

Module 2

Useful if you are new to health sector

Module 3

How to develop a search strategy - again if new to health introduces PICO framework

Include NES PDF of frameworks PICO etc

Module 4

How to narrow your search - a bit basic for librarians and not specific to health databases, maybe useful for end users rather than librarians

Module 5

Broaden your results includes use of truncation a bit basic for librarians and not specific to health databases, maybe useful for end users rather than librarians

Module 6

Searching with subject headings - useful for librarians new to health as covers MeSH etc

 

Modules:

To view the list of NHS Education for Scotland database subscriptions see the Knowledge Network.

NHSS librarians have shared examples of protocols for systematic searching of sources. Here is an example from Healthcare Improvement Scotland.

Literature searching: advanced

 

Advanced searching techniques on OVID:

 

 

 

Download Transcript

Translating search strategies - this presentation provides hints on how to run searches across multiple databases:

PubMeds vs OVID

This image shows a useful comparison of OVID Medline and PubMed:

Note:

Embase includes Medline records, only the full ones – ie. not the epubs/in process. The consensus is that you need to search both Embase and Medline as the differences in indexing mean that you often find something in one that you miss in the other. Embase records are not in PubMed.

Grey literature and other sources

Frequently you need to supplement your database searches with additional sources

Grey literature has been described as "that which is produced on all levels of government, academics, business and industry… but which is not controlled by commercial publishers." (NY Academy of Medicine)

More hints to help you find relevant results:

Some additional information and links:

  • Expert searching mailing list - Join.
     
  • New PubMed - Info, help and presentations.
     
  • Ways for small groups to share the results of a search:
    • Shared Refworks account: Use Healthboard Group Code to set up a stand alone account with a username and password that can be shared with the whole group. Advantages are that everyone has access to the full functionality of the account to add/move/export refs
    • F1000 Workspace: Free version allows users to set up one project and share it with other users. Advantages are that everyone can access the references and also make notes, add tags
    • Covidence: Trial version allows you to create a single review and import up to 500 references. Advantages are that everyone can take part in screening

Critical appraisal is vital for grey literature and checklists can help:

The AACODS checklist is designed to enable evaluation and critical appraisal of grey literature.

Sources for specific types of questions

Sources for health protection information

List of useful sources:

Sources for Management and leadership questions

Here is a list of useful sources for management and leadership questions:

Checklists

Examples of checklists for searching grey literature from Healthcare Improvement Scotland:

Managing results

NHS Education for Scotland provides access to a reference management tool, RefWorks, for all health and social care staff in Scotland. This service allows you to save your results from a range of sources to produce reference lists and bibliographies.

Critical Appraisal Skills

Critical appraisal is the process of carefully and systematically assessing the outcome of scientific research (evidence) to judge its trustworthiness, value and relevance in a particular context: CEBMA.

Depending on the purpose there are a range of techniques you can use.

Critical appraisal summary fact sheet

More information on critical appraisal, including how to teach critical appraisal.

Systematic Reviews

Systematic reviews are widely considered to be the highest quality of evidence in healthcare and take many months to produce.  

The Cochrane Library and the Campbell Collaboration are useful sources of systematic reviews for healthcare.

Producing Systematic reviews:

Other useful resources for systematic reviewing:

Articles

  • Sutton, A., Clowes, M., Preston, L. and Booth, A. (2019), Meeting the review family: exploring review types and associated information retrieval requirements. Health Info Libr J, 36: 202-222. doi:10.1111/hir.12276

Books

  • Gough, Oliver, Thomas, Gough, David, Oliver, Sandy, and Thomas, James. An Introduction to Systematic Reviews. Second ed. 2017. Print.
     
  • Foster, Margaret J., Sarah T. Jewell, and Medical Library Association, Sponsoring Body. Assembling the Pieces of a Systematic Review : Guide for Librarians. 2017. Print. Medical Library Association Books.

Other useful resources

Producing summaries and digests

Producing a summary of your searches is an ideal way to make your work usable and actionable for your readers. 

The topic, purpose and the time you have will have dictated your sources to find the evidence. The important point is to be transparent, so the reader is aware of possible limitations or bias. 

This important resource provides useful hints and tips for writing and producing summaries or digests of you searching.

 1. Identify what you need to know 

 Spend time with relevant stakeholders refining what the problem is and what question or issue needs   to be addresses.

 2. Identify existing knowledge 

 Search for existing knowledge by identifying relevant synthesised knowledge or primary research from   the literature. 

 3. Look for data 

 This can be published by Public Health Scotland and other official sources or could be local data.    

 4. Capture tacit knowledge 

 Use techniques identified in the Translational Skills section of this site.  

 5. Evaluate the evidence 

 Use standard and well-defined ways of evaluating systematised evidence.

 6. Combine, organise and summarise knowledge 

 Organise and summarise knowledge where appropriate using data visualisation and other tools. See the Actionable Knowledge and Intelligence section for some tools.  

To explore this topic further you could use this workbook. Please note some of the urls are out of data but the content is current.

Additional reading

Selected literature searching bibliography:

Acknowledgements

Presentations provided by: 

Healthcare Improvement Scotland

Charis Miller

Public Health Scotland  

Alison Bogle

Grant Donaghy 

James Wilson 

Seona Hamilton

NHS Education for Scotland 

Alan Gillies