Searching & Managing Information for Systematic Reviews/Evidence Syntheses

Use your question framework (e.g. PICO) to help you identify the main concepts to be included in your search. 

• You want your search to be broad enough to capture ALL relevant studies. If it’s too narrow you risk not finding important and relevant studies. This means you will find relevant studies/papers but also some irrelevant ones. That’s okay and to be expected to ensure you conduct an exhaustive search.  
• It’s usually recommended you search a small number of concepts (not all). The most useful PICO elements would typically be the P (population) and I (intervention).
• Including all your concepts may mean that your result set is too narrow and could potentially exclude relevant studies. 
• Run your search with two or three of your concepts and consider the results set with your team or a librarian. Add or remove concepts as necessary.

Wide search

+ Finds a significant part of the relevant literature

- Will most likely produce a large amount of relevant hits

Narrow search

+ Does often have a greater accuracy

- Loss of relevant literature

Image developed by library staff at the Karolinska Institute and shared under a creative commons licence.

Quantitative example: How effective are telehealth interventions for managing diabetes?

Qualitative example: How do patients perceive telehealth interventions for managing diabetes?

For this example, our main concepts would be P (diabetes) and I (telehealth).

If there are an excessive number of results you would consider adding in another concept. For the qualitative example you might consider including perceptions as a concept. Adapt your search and try out different combinations of concepts to find the best results set.