Table 2 Tools and techniques to be used in the online database search
Tool/technique | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
Synonyms keyword search | Search using all known synonyms including both British and US spellings. | Socioeconomic position synonyms: socioeconomic, socio-economic, occupation, education etc. |
Truncation commands | 'root word*': captures alternative word endings | Occupation*: searches for occupation, occupations, occupational etc. |
Proximity operators | Identify words that are within a chosen distance of each other. Operators used will be Adj3 in OvidSP interface and N3 in EBSCO interface. | Occupation* adj3 class*: locates articles where occupation* and class* are within three words of each other. |
Boolean logic operators | Two commands will be used | Â |
1. ‘OR’ to locate results with at least one of the search terms present. | 1. (Occupation* OR education*): returns results with occupation* or education*. | |
2. ‘AND’ will be used near end of search to combine results of different search concepts. | 2. Concept 1 (e.g. childhood SEP) AND concept 2 (e.g. adult LTPA): returns results that include concepts 1 and 2. |