How to Search The Cochrane Library Information Services & Systems August

Health Technology Assessment Database (HTA)
Abstracts of assessments on health care technology including
prevention, rehabilitation, vaccines, pharmaceuticals, medical
and surgical procedures etc.
How to Search
The Cochrane Library
Information Services & Systems
www.kcl.ac.uk/iss
Opening screen
August
2003
Go to http://www.nelh.nhs.uk/cochrane.asp or follow the link
from MetaLib or the ISS Databases web page. Click on the
name of the database, no password is needed.
The Cochrane Library (Clib) is made up of 8 databases:
Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR) Full
text of regularly updated systematic reviews of the effects of
health care, prepared by the Cochrane Collaboration, plus
protocols for reviews currently being prepared.
Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (DARE)
Abstracts of systematic reviews published elsewhere in the
medical literature that are judged to be of good quality, plus
references to other published systematic reviews, which have
not been quality assessed.
Cochrane Controlled Trials Register (CENTRAL
/CCTR) References to randomised controlled trials that have
been identified through the searching of databases and by
hand searching of journals. This maybe over-inclusive and
contain references to studies that prove to be non-randomised.
Cochrane Database of Methodology Reviews includes full
text of systematic reviews of empirical methodology studies.
Cochrane Methodology Register (CMR) References to
material on methods used in reviews, randomised controlled
trials, systematic reviews and meta-analyses.
NHS Economic Evaluation Database (NHS EED)
Abstracts of the economic evaluations of health care
interventions.
Click on one of the database sections that have hits showing in
the right hand column of the Database Table
Table; for example
Complete reviews.
reviews
This will display the Records Screen listing all the titles
of documents that match your search terms. The first 20 are
listed. To view the next or the previous 20 records click on
the forward or backward arrows.
To view a document, click on the blue title.
To start a new search, click in the Search box and type
your term.
Combining searches
Log on
Overview
Displaying your results
Each screen has a Toolbar at the top. Click on the icons to
move to different functions.
Below the toolbar is the Search phrase box where the
search terms are entered. You may conduct a search from any
screen that contains this box.
Below the search box is the Database Table.
Table This lists
each database that makes up Cochrane Library and lists the
number of records within each database.
Subject searching
Simple Search
Enter a term in the Search phrase box and click on the Go
button. All databases within the Cochrane Library are
searched. The results appear in the Database Table below the
Search phrase box with the number of hits appearing next to
the database.
Phrase searching
Each word entered within the Search phrase box is searched
individually.
For example, the search primary care would retrieve records
containing the word primary and the word care but not
necessarily in that order or together.
To search for primary care as a phrase enclose the terms
within quotation marks.
For example: "primary
primary care".
care
Words can be combined using AND, OR, NOT, NEXT, and
NEAR
And - searches for items which contain all of your selected
search terms. This will reduce the number of hits, but those
found should be more relevant.
For example: fracture and elderly
Or - searches for items that contain any one or more of
your selected search terms. It is best used for synonyms.
For example: geriatric or elderly.
Not is used to exclude certain search terms.
For example: "anorexia nervosa" not bulimia
NB: The Not operator should be used carefully because it can
also eliminate useful records.
Next links words or phrases together in the same way as
using quotation marks except the word order is not specified.
For example: primary next care
Near retrieves records where the search terms are within
6 words of each other.
For example: community near care would retrieve:
Community care
Care in the community
Community mental health teams provide care etc
Wildcards
To retrieve variations of a search term such as all the possible
different endings of a word use the wildcard symbol *
For example arter* would retrieve artery, arteries arterial
etc.
Advanced searching
Allows the construction of more complicated searches,
including searching by Medical Subject Headings (MeSH).
Not all records on Cochrane Library are indexed using
MeSH. In order to ensure that the maximum number of
records are retrieved, a combination of MeSH and keyword
searching should be used.
Click on MeSH.
MeSH Enter a single word in the Enter MeSH
box,
box for example colonic.
colonic
Click on Go.
Go
All headings including the word ‘colonic’ are listed. Click
on the appropriate term for your search.
This opens up the MeSH tree
tree. Your chosen term will be
displayed in red.
The MeSH tree displays your heading in a hierarchical
context showing broader and more specific terms. The list
directly which appears below your term contains the narrower,
more specific headings.
Clicking on another term either above or below the
currently selected one will cause the tree display to be
redrawn with the newly selected term now shown in red.
Click on single term,
term if you want to search only the
heading shown in red.
Clicking on exploded term will search the term in red
plus any narrower terms listed beneath it.
Refining your search
Beneath the Search phrase click on Refine your search.
You can then modify your search strategy by
Date range (year of publication)
Other options (document status)
Word restriction (restricting by presence in the title, abstract
or keywords, or by author name)
When you have selected your options required click Go.
Printing and saving records
Only bibliographic records, from the CCTR or CMR, can be
saved. Select the ones you want by clicking in the check boxes.
Then click on Save underneath the Search Phrase box. This
will open a new window containing the selected documents in
a "tagged text" format. To save these records to a file, click
File then Save as from the menu at the top of this window, and
save the file as type text file
Full-text records cannot be saved. To output these use
the print icon on the toolbar.
Clearing a search
Click on the Clear button on the toolbar to clear previous
search results.
Metaview
Odds-ratio diagrams associated with Cochrane Reviews can be
viewed and printed on PAWS machines. To view graphs using
MetaView: select Outline on the menu bar, then scroll down
to Links and then click on Metaview graphs. To save the data
to floppy disk select the Save to disk option. Click on OK.
OK
Select the floppy A drive and type in a file name. Click OK.
OK
To access this information from your own PC you are
required to download a plugin. This is available from the
Cochrane Library login page by clicking on Metaview.
Metaview
Log off
Search history
Following each search, the search number and term will be
stored in History.
History Searches are stored cumulatively until the
Clear button is used. To re-run a previous search, simply click
on History and click on the search you wish to run again.
To combine previous searches enter the # number of the
searches combining them with AND OR NOT etc.
For example:
#12 "bone loss"
#13 fractures
Combine the above like this:
#12 and #13
www.kcl.ac.uk/iss
Click on Clear at the bottom of the History page to wipe
the present search history.
August 2003
Click on the Exit icon to log out of the database.