Medline And Embase Flashcards
What does Embase cover?
Biomedical and pharmaceutical
What is free text and which box has to be unticked?
Free text = text that can appear in any part of the record (title, abstract, subject terms…)
For free text searches untick the “map term to subject heading” box.
What is truncation?
Shortening the word and ending it in an asterisk to increase the number of terms it could mean e.g diabet* instead of diabetes (search for varying versions of the same root word)
What are the 4 Boolean operators?
1) And - both words must appear in the record
2) Or - either word appears, records with only one of the terms are retrieved
3) Adj - both words are in the sentence and you can specify how close the words are
4) Not - records including the second term are excluded
What are parentheses?
Brackets used to clarify words and search set relationships.
What is MeSH?
Medical Subject Headings - when map to subject heading box is ticked
What’s a Scope Note?
Gives subject heading limits and definitions of a term as used in this particular database.
What does Explode mean?
Include all the more specific Subject Headings indented beneath a Subject Heading term.
What does Focus mean?
Retrieves articles only where the subject heading is the primary focus of the article.
How do you see a Subject Heading’s tree (related terms that are more general and more specific)?
Click on the term itself
How do you get the Scope Note?
Click on the little i icon in the tree
What is the difference between sensitivity and specificity?
Sensitivity is expanding your search to include as many relevant records as possible, specificity is creating a more focused collection of results relevant to the original question.
How can you narrow your search to select a publication type or year or language etc?
Use limits, and then click search to apply it to your last search.
If you were looking to find a particular article by a particular author, which search would you use?
Find citation.
How do you get to search Embase as well as Medline?
In the advance search, click “Change” next to where it says “1 resource selected”
