Ovid users: some tips for searching the Basic Search mode:
There are three types of searches that work best:
- Group of terms: a concise expression of a concept
- Full query: a question or phrase stated in plain, everyday English (free text)
- Copy and paste a title: a variation of one or both of the above query types
Using "Include Related Terms"
When you select "Include Related Terms", OvidSP will expand upon the entered search criteria by including synonyms, acronyms, and variants of the original term(s).
State queries concisely
For example, 'noise' words in the following detract from the concept: "really big ekg changes in highly advanced hypokalemia". Instead, keep it simple: "ekg changes in hypokalemia".
Use nouns more than verbs
Nouns are the natural home for concepts. They are easy to identify and have less ambiguity. Research findings support the idea that search quality is high when the strategy extracts noun phrases from queries. OvidSP has adopted that approach.
Do not force phrasing
Imposing quotation marks, parenthesis, or hyphens within a query causes OvidSP to not consider possible expansions. For example in the search "weather related migraine", if you force a hyphen in the phrase "weather-related", you lose all expansions on the word "weather" because OvidSP perceives the hyphenated phrase as a single term that has no possible expansions.
Select the spell check option
Use the Basic Search spell checker to avoid common spelling errors. In addition, the Basic Search tab provides a spell checking option that checks your spelling against all terms in the lexicon and the database.
Questions or comments? kornref@louisville.edu or 852 8532