NS 1150 Online Module 3: Develop an Effective Search Strategy: Go from PICO to Search String

With PICO you've identified your key concepts, but how do you combine them? Combining your key concepts with Boolean Operators helps you find results that are more focused than they would be if you simply write the whole question into the “search” field.

1. Do energy drinks in crease production of ATP in the body?
2. Population: n/a; Intervention: Energy drinks; Comparison: n/a; Outcome: Increased production of ATP
3. Energy drinks AND ATP
4. ("ebergy drink*" OR Gatorade OR "sports drink*") AND (ATP OR "Adenosine Triphosphate")

AND will narrow the search to include only records with both terms. OR will broaden the search to include records with either term. NOT will narrow the search to exclude records with one of the terms.

Truncation: You can use an * at the end of a word stem to include related terms. For example, to search for child, children or childhood use the search term child*

Putting quotes "" around words allows you to search for an entire phrase.  Searching "energy drink*", with quotes, only find records with the full phrase.