Clinical Interventions: Finding Films and Videos

There are seven basic steps in the search process:

1. Identifying the key words and phrases that reflect the key concepts of your research topic.
2. Formatting these key words and phrases using techniques such as phrase searching and truncation that make the most of them.
3. Turning these key words and phrases into effective searches using a few easy to master techniques.
4. Using the filters and limits in databases to optimize your searches.
5. Reviewing/evaluating your search results.
6. Making the most of your search results – by using the information in database records and article reference lists to find other resources.
7. Search again – Searching is not a linear process. And it is not enough to do just one search. You will need separate searches for each aspect of your topic. You will also need to repeat your searches in multiple databases. As you continue to search and read the literature related to your topic, you will find that you need to modify your searches to include the other keywords you come across, or other aspects of the topic you need to investigate.

Before you begin searching, you will need to identify key concepts and terms related to your topic. These key concepts and terms are often referred to as "keywords." Creating a list of keywords related to your research question will help you find resources efficiently and effectively.

Below is an example of a table for your keyword search.

Now that you've created your list of keywords you can begin the process of building your search. Use Limiters to narrow the focus of your search so that the information retrieved from the databases you search is limited according to the values you select. You can use more than one limiter if more than one is available.

Use filters and limits in databases to refine your search.

Most databases provide a range of options which enable you to refine your search results by manipulating specific elements of your search. Each database has it's own options for refining the search, the following are common to most databases:

Basic limits
There are basic limits that usually just require you to tick a checkbox, or select/enter dates. These are usually near the top of the menu and include:

• Publication Date
• Peer-reviewed content
• Type of Publication

Article type

Some databases allow you to limit your search to a specific type of document, e.g:

• Academic journal articles
• Case studies
• Conference papers
• Review articles

Specific fields of the database record

Each item in a database has a record that contains information about it, e.g. who the author's are, which year it was published in, the title etc. All of this information is put into specific fields. You can use theses fields to build much more accurate searches. If you go to the Advanced Search you'll find a dropdown list of available fields next to each search box. Enter your words into the box and select the field you want to search for them in. Examples of searchable fields include:

• Author
• Title – this is the article title
• Subject
• Abstract – this is the summary of the article.
• Publication Name – this is the journal title

Subject Terms

Subject Terms, also known as subject headings, are set terms used to group documents by topic in databases. You can use these in addition to you keywords to refine your search, because multiple keywords will come under the same subject heading. You might find them:

• in the item record, (usually hyperlinked so you can click on them to get a list of titles grouped under that heading),
• as fields to search from a menu beside the search box,
• or in the side menu of search limiters in the results list.