Medical Evidence Search: From PICO to Applicable Studies
A focused clinical question rarely fails because there are no papers. It fails because the search, the study designs, and the patient in front of you drift apart. This guide connects those pieces: turning a question into
One Database vs. Multiple Databases for a Literature Review
If you are choosing between one database and several for a literature review, the practical answer is: start with one database to build your search vocabulary and eligibility criteria, then add sources until new searches
Preprint vs. Published Article: Which Version Should You Cite?
Cite the version you actually read, and cite the published version of record when it exists and you have access to it. If you relied on a preprint and a peer-reviewed version has since appeared, cite the published versio
Primary Source Tracing: How to Get from a Claim to the Original Evidence
A claim in a decision memo is only as strong as the path you can draw back to the work that supports it. Primary source tracing is the practice of walking that path deliberately: from a sentence in a report, through the
PubMed Keywords vs. MeSH Terms: When Does Each Find More?
Neither free-text keywords nor MeSH terms wins outright. Free text reaches records that have not yet been indexed and captures phrasing that no heading describes; MeSH reaches records through a controlled, hierarchical v
Research Deadline Rescue: A Complete Evidence-Recovery System
When a course paper, thesis chapter, or first manuscript is due soon, the problem is rarely that you have no sources. It is that you have too many half-checked leads, a rubric you have not reread, and no clear point at w
Review Article vs. Primary Study: Which One Should Support Your Claim?
A review article and a primary study do different jobs, so the right choice depends on the sentence you are trying to support. If your claim is about what a body of work collectively shows, a review is often the efficien
Search Filters vs. Better Query Terms: Which Should You Fix First?
Fix the query before you tighten the filters. When a search returns too few usable studies, the first suspect should be how concepts are expressed and combined, not how many records you have excluded. Metadata filters ac
Search Result Count vs. Evidence Coverage: Which Tells You More?
A large result count tells you how many records a query returned. Evidence coverage tells you whether those records actually represent the populations, methods, debates, and anchor studies your manuscript needs. For a li
Search Strategy Repair: A Complete Guide to Fixing Weak Results
A weak literature search rarely has a single cause. You may find three papers when you need thirty, or three hundred when you need a defensible shortlist. The results may be about the wrong population, or they may be abo