Systematic searching: 4. Searching for database-specific subject headings

Searching for database-specific subject headings

Once you have come up with a comprehensive list of keywords, the next step is to check the database-specific subject headings or controlled vocabularies related to your topic. Since publications are often described with database-specific subject headings when they are saved in the database, you should also include these subject heading terms in your own searches. Since the subject headings are database-specific, you need to check each controlled vocabulary terms for each database separately. Therefore, you should have at least a preliminary idea at this stage of the databases you are going to perform your searches in. The subject headings are copied from the databases with all their characters, exactly as they appear in the vocabulary.

Not all databases have their own database-specific vocabulary. In such databases, you can therefore perform your search using only keywords.

Database-specific vocabularies include:

• Medical Subject Headings MeSH in Medline and Cochrane Library
• CINAHL Subject Headings in CINAHL