Systematic Review Search Methods  

Primary goal: Make as reproducible as possible.  

Here are some of the important details you should know:

• The resources/databases you searched
• The years of access of the databases.   For example, PubMed goes back to 1945 or so, whereas Web of Science goes back to 1974. 
• The date you stopped searching. 
• The concepts you searched.  Concepts are not necessarily the same as the specific terms.  For example, you can have the concept of Cancer with search terms, "cancer," "carcinoma," "leukemia" etc.
• Any limits you applied.  For example, did you limit the search to English Only, or to specific years (e.g, last ten years)? Did you exclude conference abstracts, case reports, letters, editorials, and commentaries?
• The full search strategy for one of your databases.  This provides not only the specific terms but the way you combined the terms (AND, OR).  

Also, for resources like Google Scholar or even just Google, it's hard to provide a structured search strategy. Here you can indicate some of the search terms that you used.  For example, "health care legislation,"  "health policy," etc.

Professional Literature Search Service

The library offers a professional literature search service. Click here for more information. 

Systematic Review Overview

Click here for more information on systematic reviews.