Clinical Guides: Literature Searching: Searching in Ovid databases

Ovid is a powerful search platform that can be used to build and run complex literature searches across a range of citation databases. At Monash Health, the following databases open in the Ovid search platform:

Visit the Medline User Guide for a quick overview of basic Ovid features.

What about other databases? Remember to consult our 1-page overview of health databases to help you choose one or more databases.

Health Databases Overview

Tip: If you see a database referred to as "Ovid Medline", for example, it simply means that Ovid was used to search the Medline database.

Incorporating these shortcuts into your keywords can help you to search efficiently for spelling variations and differences in phrasing.

	Phrase Searching	Truncation (*)	Adjacency (ADJn-1)	Wildcard (?)
Purpose	Most databases use double quotation marks for phrase searching; e.g. "diabetes mellitus" or "skin cancer" Note: Ovid databases do not need quotation marks for phrases. For example: effect of treatment -- finds papers with this exact phrase but will not find papers with the phrase treatment effects	To find alternative endings for a keyword. For example: cancer* -- finds 'cancer', 'cancers', 'cancerous' & more therap* -- finds 'therapy', 'therapies', 'therapeutic', 'therapist' & more	To find keywords in close proximity to one another. In ADJ(n-1), the n = the number of other words that you will accept between the keywords. For example: stroke ADJ3 aspirin -- will look for the words 'stroke' and 'aspirin' with up to 2 words between them, in either direction. E.g. "Aspirin helps prevent stroke". cancer ADJ4 therapy -- will look for 'cancer' and 'therapy' within 3 words of each other in either direction. E.g. "Patients who had undergone therapy for metastatic breast cancer reported..."	To substitute one letter in a word for any other letter or character, or none. For example: p?ediatric -- finds 'pediatric' as well as 'paediatric' M?cDonald -- finds both 'McDonald' and 'MacDonald'
Example search term	NA	(cancer* OR neoplasm) AND (therap OR treat*)	((cancer* OR neoplasm) ADJ3 (treat or therap* or chemotherap*))	(p?ediatric* ADJ3 (cancer* or neoplasm*))
Tips	Phrase searching can be used to narrow and broaden results. Use carefully and consider synonyms so that your don't miss relevant papers.	Think twice before truncating shorter words -- act* will find 'action', 'acting', as well as 'actually' and 'actuary'.	The 'n' in 'ADJn' can be any number you like: ADJ5, ADJ6, and so on. Think about common ways of expressing similar ideas or topics and how close or far apart the keywords can be.	Use a hashtag (#) instead if you only want to substitute one letter or character, e.g. 'wom#n' will find 'women' and 'woman'.

Phrase Searching

Truncation (*)

Adjacency (ADJn-1)

Wildcard (?)

Purpose

Most databases use double quotation marks for phrase searching; e.g. "diabetes mellitus" or "skin cancer"

Note: Ovid databases do not need quotation marks for phrases.

For example:

effect of treatment -- finds papers with this exact phrase but will not find papers with the phrase treatment effects

To find alternative endings for a keyword.

For example:

cancer* -- finds 'cancer', 'cancers', 'cancerous' & more
therap* -- finds 'therapy', 'therapies', 'therapeutic', 'therapist' & more

To find keywords in close proximity to one another. In ADJ(n-1), the n = the number of other words that you will accept between the keywords.

For example:

stroke ADJ3 aspirin -- will look for the words 'stroke' and 'aspirin' with up to 2 words between them, in either direction. E.g. "Aspirin helps prevent stroke".
cancer ADJ4 therapy -- will look for 'cancer' and 'therapy' within 3 words of each other in either direction. E.g. "Patients who had undergone therapy for metastatic breast cancer reported..."

To substitute one letter in a word for any other letter or character, or none.

For example:

p?ediatric -- finds 'pediatric' as well as 'paediatric'
M?cDonald -- finds both 'McDonald' and 'MacDonald'

Example search term

(cancer* OR neoplasm*) AND (therap* OR treat*)

((cancer* OR neoplasm*) ADJ3 (treat* or therap* or chemotherap*))

(p?ediatric* ADJ3 (cancer* or neoplasm*))

Tips

Phrase searching can be used to narrow and broaden results. Use carefully and consider synonyms so that your don't miss relevant papers.

Think twice before truncating shorter words -- act* will find 'action', 'acting', as well as 'actually' and 'actuary'.

The 'n' in 'ADJn' can be any number you like: ADJ5, ADJ6, and so on. Think about common ways of expressing similar ideas or topics and how close or far apart the keywords can be.

Use a hashtag (#) instead if you only want to substitute one letter or character, e.g. 'wom#n' will find 'women' and 'woman'.

Note: These 'shortcuts' are known as search operators or syntax. They are, in effect, a language that we can use to 'talk' to search platforms and citation databases. Different search platforms and databases speak in slightly different languages. See the Quick reference syntax table for more information.

Medline is a premier citation database for peer reviewed literature on biomedicine and life sciences topics available via Ovid. Created by the US National Library of Medicine, Medline comprises over 26 million articles from quality, peer-reviewed journals.

Medline is the recommended bibliographic database for health researchers and clinical queries.

Key features:

Suited to complex search queries
Built in search function to explore MeSH headings, scope notes and ‘use for’ terms
Boolean operators AND / OR and natural language/keywords are supported.

View the advanced user guide for detailed, step by step, instructions and guidance on using the Medline database.. It covers:

MeSH subject heading and keyword searching
Use of field codes for keyword searching: .ti, .ab, .tw, .mp etc.
When to use shortcuts such as # or * or ? or ADJ or ()
How to create a free personal account
Editing, saving and creating alerts
Exporting results
Changing from Medline to Embase, Emcare or PsycInfo

Medline Advanced User Guide

20min video showing search functions in Ovid Medline and translation to Embase