A 5-step guide to structuring a search:

Remember: For a structured search strategy, you should:

Include relevant subject terms if there are any.
Search for text words in the title/summary (abstract) and in the author’s own keywords if they are provided, in addition to subject terms.
Use search techniques like phrase searching and truncation.
Truncation: use * to include all endings for text words you search for. Example: child* = child, children, childhood, childcare etc. Read more about truncation on page 3.4. Search techniques: Truncation and phrase searching.
Use OR and AND (Boolean operators NB: links to new page) to link your search. Use OR to search for all the synonyms and AND to connect together different search components.

Step 1: Divide your research question/problem into search components

Find search terms, both text words and subject terms (if the database has subject terms) for each search component.

Example: Based on the research question/problem How adolescents with ADHD experience school, we have created three search components. We have used a search in the Psycinfo database as an example. Be aware that different databases often have different interfaces and search syntaxes. Read the database’s help pages or contact the library if you need help searching effectively in a database.

Search components:	Search components with search terms
Adolescents with ADHD	Search component 1 about ADHD Text words Subject terms
Adolescents with ADHD	Search component 2 about adolescents Text words Subject terms
School	Search component 3 about school Text words Subject terms

Step 2: Text words – combine with OR and search

To combine search terms within each search component, we use the Boolean operator OR. When you use OR, you search for several terms at once. This means that you will get hits for at least one of the terms amongst your search results.

You start with the first search component, in this case ADHD, and search in the database Psycinfo (Ovid). There, you combine the text words you have selected with OR. In the Ovid interface, we search with the designation TW in free text. TW is short for Textword (text word) and means that we are searching for words in the title and abstract.

Like this: (search string for text words).tw.

Search for:

ADHD OR Hyperactivity OR "Attention Deficit Disorder*" OR ADD OR "Minimal Brain Disorder*"

Your search should look like this:

1	(ADHD OR Hyperactivity OR "Attention Deficit Disorder" OR "ADD" OR "Minimal Brain Disorder").tw.

Step 3: Subject terms – combine with OR and search

In the next step, you combine the subject terms with ADHD that you have selected in the database with OR. To search for subject terms, it is easiest to go via the subject term list (thesaurus) in the database. In Psycinfo, it’s important to remember to check for “Map Term to Subject Heading” in the search field, in order to find the subject terms in the subject term list.

Searching via the subject terms list:

Search for attention deficit disorder. You will find two options to use, “Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity” and “Attention Deficit Disorder”. Check both and continue.

Your search should look like this:

2	attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity/ OR attention deficit disorder/

Step 4: Combine text word search and subject term searches

Combine your text word search and subject term search about ADHD with OR. Go to the database’s search history (above the search field). Select the search with the free text words for ADHD (result number 1) with the subject term search for ADHD (result number 2) and combine them with OR.

Combining via search history:

1 OR 2 = 3

Now we have searched for both text words and subject terms in combination. Below, you can see what we have searched for:

3	(ADHD OR Hyperactivity OR "Attention Deficit Disorder" OR "ADD" OR "Minimal Brain Disorder").tw. OR attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity/ OR attention deficit disorder/

Now you have put together your first search component (ADHD) (result number 3). Continue in the same way for the other search components.

Search component 2 about adolescents:

Combine all text words for adolescents with OR = result number 4
Combine all subject terms for adolescents with OR = result number 5

Combine via search history:

4 OR 5 = 6

Now we have searched for both text words and subject terms in combination. Below, you can see what we have searched for:

6	(Adolescen* OR Youth* OR "Young person*").tw. OR Adolescent Development/ OR Early Adolescence/

Search component 3 about school:

Combine all text words related to school with OR = result number 7
Combine all subject terms related to school with OR = result number 8

Combining via search history:

7 OR 8 = 9

Now we have searched for both text words and subject terms in combination. Below, you can see what we have searched for:

9	(school* OR classroom* OR "High school").tw. OR High School Education/ OR School Environment/

Step 5: Combining the three search components with AND

In order to get a result that contains all the themes of your research question/problem, you will now combine your search components with the Boolean operator AND. The search operator AND entails that at least one search term from each search component will elicit a hit. Select the three finished search blocks in your search history and combine them with AND.

Combining via search history:

3 AND 6 AND 9 = 10

Now we have searched for both text words and subject terms in combination, and we have combined our three search components with AND. Below, you can see what we have searched for:

10

(ADHD OR Hyperactivity OR "Attention Deficit Disorder*" OR "ADD" OR "Minimal Brain Disorder*").tw. OR attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity/ OR attention deficit disorder/
AND
(Adolescen* OR Youth* OR "Young person*").tw. OR Adolescent Development/ OR Early Adolescence/
AND
(school* OR classroom* OR "High school").tw. OR High School Education/ OR School Environment/

Does the database only have one search field? Use parentheses. If you choose to do a basic search, you will usually only have one search field (and some databases only have one search field). In these cases, you must often add parentheses manually to organize your search terms and the search components in the order you wish.
Do you only want to search in the title, abstract, and subject terms? Choose a search field by limiting your search to certain fields, for instance title, abstract, author’s keywords or subject terms. By doing this, you avoid searching through the entire article reference entry, which can reduce the number of results you get. In advanced searches in databases, you are able to select search fields, which makes your search more precise.