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Ovid Fact Sheet

How do I Search Ovid?

General Information about:

How do Search Ovid?

To begin your Ovid search, enter your login name and password (since Ovid is not free, access to Ovid is open only to participants in the Evidence-based Medicine Resource Center), and press the "start" button. Ovid will then give you a list of databases available through our subscription. Begin your search by selecting Medline 1997 to November 2000 Week 1 (be aware that this recent file will change names as information is added to the database). If, before you search, you would like more information on a particular database, click on the "i" beside the database name.

Beginning Your Medline Search

At first appearance, the search screen may be a little intimidating, but the features you will find here are very useful for making sure your search is on target.

Begin by typing a keyword. Ovid defaults to searching for an appropriate MeSH heading, to help you make your search more precise. Then press, "Perform Search". Ovid will display a list of MeSH headings it believes relate to your keyword. Just check the one (or ones) that are most appropriate, and decide if you want to:

  • Explode the term (take in all the terms under that MeSH tree structure. For example, exploding OSTEOPOROSIS would search both OSTEOPOROSIS and OSTEOPOROSIS, POSTMENOPAUSAL).
  • Restrict to focus (make sure that the term you selected is the most important aspect of the article.)

Then press the "continue" button.

Ovid will next display the subheading you can use to limit your search. Check off as many (or as few) as you wish, or don't check off any at all; press "continue".

The "Search History" box will tell you how many hits have been found. Put in your next key word, and follow the same procedure. Once you have entered the terms you will be combining, use the Boolean operators AND or OR to combine the statement number to the left in the "Search History" box. Then press the "Perform Search" button.

Limiting Your Medline Search

Once you have finished your basic search, there are a number of ways to limit. Human subject and English language are the most commonly used. Just check of the box of either, or both, and "Perform Search".

Ovid's EBM Reviews offers the additional feature of limiting your search to "EBM Reviews" articles. By checking that box, and hitting the "Perform Search" button, you will see only those articles (in Medline) that have been reviewed in either Best Evidence or The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. This is probably the fastest and most effective way of doing an evidence-based search, because, if your search results are too low, you can always return to your earlier search and begin to use evidence-based filters to limit your search. When they are available, Ovid will allow you to link to:

  • The full text of the Best Evidence article (select Article Review)
  • The full text of the Cochrane article (select Topic Review)
  • The full text of the actual article (select Full Text)

Searching Evidence-based Medicine Reviews (EBM Reviews)

Ovid's EBM Reviews is divided into two segments. If you decide that you don't want to search through Medline, you'll need to search each of the two segments separately.

Searching Best Evidence

Unlike Medline, Best Evidence does not allow you to map to a subject heading, since the Best Evidence database does not use the MeSH thesaurus (though it does use have author-assigned keywords which MAY be MeSH headings as well). Best Evidence searches the Title, Abstract, Textword, Keyword and Caption Text for any terms you input.

The search screen for Best Evidence is very similar to the Medline search screen; however, the available limitations are different. In Best Evidence you are asked to limit your search to:

  • Therapeutics
  • Diagnosis
  • Prognosis
  • Etiology

Best Evidence will limit your search to those sections of the journals ACP Journal Club and Evidence-based Medicine that relate to the limitation you selected.

When you display the text of the article, you will also be able to access (if it is available) the full-text of the article Best Evidence is reviewing, as well as a link to the Medline citation.

Searching The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR)

Though The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews does use MeSH headings (assigned by the Cochrane Review Committees), CDSR does not have access to the MeSH Thesaurus, and therefore does not have the same flexibility of searching as Medline. You are able to search a particular MeSH heading, but you will not be able to explode it, for example.

CDSR defaults to searching the Title, Abstract, Textword, Keyword (Subject Heading) and Caption Text of the reviews, and allows you to limit your search to:

  • Systematic Reviews - completed reviews
  • Protocols - reviews currently being prepared
  • New Reviews - to see the lastest information in the database
  • Recently Updated Reviews - to see changes in previously reviewed items

As with Best Evidence, CDSR prOvides the full-text of the review, and will prOvide links back to Medline and to available full-text of an article

Searching DARE

Unlike Medline, DARE does not allow you to map to a subject heading, since it does not use the MeSH thesaurus. DARE searches the Title, Abstract, and Textwords for any terms you input.

The search screen for DARE is very similar to the Medline search screen; however, the available limitations are different. In DARE you are asked to limit your search to:

  • Diagnosis
  • Prevention
  • Treatment
  • New Reviews
  • Recently Updated Reviews

DARE will limit your search to reviews that relate to the limitation you selected.

Searching Clinical Evidence

Searchers have the option of searching all fields in the database (title, authors, figure captions, text, tables, references), or searching them selectively. Searches can also be limited to words in the same document, or within the same paragraph. Using connectors like ADJ (for adjacency), phrases can be locked so that words must appear together (and in a particular order).

For more information on the contents of Evidence-based Medicine Reviews, see the Fact Sheet What is Ovid?

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