Decide on the “aboutness” of your topic and select related databases
Example
Does stretching before exercise prevent injuries?
This question is primarily about exercise. The following database will be explored:
The question is also about injury prevention so the following database will also be explored:
Analyze the parts of your question. What different aspects does it have?
Clinical and social science questions often have these aspects:
If the PICO model does not seem to fit your question, still try to identify the distinct parts of your question, perhaps the Who, What, Why.
Example
Does stretching before exercise prevent injuries?
Consider synonyms to add to the words used in the question.
Example
Does stretching before exercise prevent injuries?
One way to identify synonyms is to pay attention to the database's subject headings. In SportDiscus, subject index terms are listed in the Thesaurus. In PubMed, these are known as MeSH (for Medical Subject Headings) terms.
Enter your search to fit the way the database works.
Example
Does stretching before exercise prevent injuries?
Stretching AND Injuries
(Stretching OR Stretch) AND (Injuries OR Injury) AND (warmup OR warm up)
Note: Use parentheses to hold words joined by OR together.
(Stretching OR Stretch) AND (Injuries OR Injury) AND (warmup OR warm up) AND (prevent OR prevention)
(Stretching OR Stretch) AND (Injuries OR Injury) AND (warmup OR warm up) AND (prevent OR prevention) AND (athlete Or athletes OR exercise OR exercising OR sport OR sports)
Zotero and Mendeley are a web-based citation management and formatting programs.
Export selected references to Zotero or Mendeley so you can: