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Graduate & Doctoral Nursing Research Guide

About this page

When conducting a search for a systematic review, you will need to be as comprehensive as possible in your searching. The resources on this page will give you helpful information on how to prepare the most comprehensive search of the health sciences literature.

  • Writing a Research Question
  • Creating a Search Term Table
  • Video: Creating a Search Term Table 
  • Video: Locating Controlled Vocabulary
  • Download a Search Term Table Template

Since there are various strategies to developing and formulating a nursing research question, this process should be guided by your program curriculum and conversations with your professors and research mentors. The link below provides some general information on the differences between foreground questions, PICO(T) questions, and background questions. 

As you write your question, please review your course documents or reach out to your professor. 

Creating a Search Term Table

Once you have established your question and are ready to locate evidence, a search term table can be a good way to:

  • understand the relationships between the concepts in your question and
  • organize and expand on your keywords to prepare for a systematic search. 

NOTE: The example below reflects a PICO question format, however, a search term table is still valuable even if your research question does not follow this format. Simply remove those labels from the column headers and use your major concepts. 

 

Search Term Table Template

PICO Question Example: In adult patients with diabetes mellitus type II (P), how do lifestyle modifications (e.g. diet and exercise) combined with anti-hyperglycemic medications (I) compared to anti-hyperglycemic medications alone (C), affect hemoglobin A1c levels (O) within six months (T)?

Column 1: Population (#1)

Diabetes mellitus, type 2 (MeSH, CINAHL) (#3)

type 2 diabetes mellitus (KW) (#2)

Type 2 diabetes (KW)

Column 2: Intervention

*lifestyle modifications

(e.g. diet and exercise)

Diet, Reducing (MeSH, CINAHL)

Reducing diet (KW)

Diet, Healthy (MeSH)

Healthy diet (KW)

Diet, Diabetic (MeSH)

Diabetic diet (CINAHL) KW

Exercise (MeSH) KW

Healthy Lifestyle (MeSH) KW

Column 3: Comparison

Hypoglycemic Agents (MeSH, CINAHL) KW

Antihyperglycemic (KW)

Column 4: Outcome

glycated hemoglobin A (MeSH) KW

Hemoglobin A, Glycosylated (CINAHL)

Glycosylated hemoglobin A (KW)

HbA1c (KW)

hemoglobin A1c (KW)

Note: To learn more about strategies for selecting keywords and controlled vocabulary, see the videos on the Pace Library YouTube channel for more details.

  1. In the first row, add the main concepts for each part of your question. You do NOT have to follow a PICO structure, but you can if it’s helpful.
  2. Add synonyms and similar concepts that will help you collect more relevant articles. Label them as KW for keywords.
  3. Locate the controlled vocabulary that applies to your keywords.
  4. When your search is created, the concepts in the columns are connected by AND so each result includes at least (1) concept from each column. Ex: Diabetes AND diet AND anti-hyperglycemic medications AND hemoglobin A1c levels
  5. When your search is created, the concepts in the rows are connected by OR to expand the options for how your main concepts are expressed in each search result. Ex: glycated hemoglobin A OR Hemoglobin A, Glycosylated OR Glycosylated hemoglobin A OR HbA1c OR hemoglobin A1c

Creating a Search Table

The video below will walk through the process of developing a search term table by reflecting on a research question and the desired outcomes for the research process.

You will also learn a bit about selecting controlled vocabulary terms. For more details, see the controlled vocabulary video below. 

Locating Controlled Vocabulary

Controlled vocabulary is a standardized set of terms - in PubMed it is known as Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) - used for indexing and searching biomedical literature. This system helps ensure consistent and accurate retrieval of information by using predefined terms for topics in health and medicine.

The video below will walk through the process of selecting keywords and controlled vocabulary for a research question.