A researcher is looking for studies from sub-saharan Africa and uses the 2 search lines below in Medline (Ovid).
This appears to follow best practice but has a number of commonly seen errors that can reduce the value of a search strategy.
Line | Terms |
1 |
sub-saharan africa or east* africa or west* africa or southern africa or central africa |
2 | Angola* or Benin or Botswana* or Burkina Faso or Burundi* or Cameroon* or Cape Verde* or Central African Republic or Chad* or Comoro* or Democratic Republic of the Congo or Congo* or Cote d'Ivoire or Djibouti or Equatorial Guinea* or Guinea-Bissau or Eritrea* or Ethiopia* or Gabon* or Gambia* or Ghana* or Guinea* or Kenya* or Lesotho or Liberia* or Madagascar or Malagasy or Malawi* or Mali* or Mauritania* or Mauritius or Mozambi* or Namibia* or Niger* or Nigeria* or Rwanda* or Sao Tome and Principe or Senegal* or Seychelles* or Sierra Leone* or Somalia* or South Africa* or Swaziland* or Sudan* or Tanzania* or Western Sahara or Togo* or Uganda* or Zambia* or Zimbabwe* |
3 | 1 or 2 |
This search has 6 common search errors
See below for the solutions to each of these.
Problem:
((Angola* or Benin or Botswana* or Burkina Faso or Burundi* or Cameroon* or Cape Verde* or Central African Republic or Chad* or Comoro* or Democratic Republic of the Congo or Congo* or Cote d'Ivoire or Djibouti or Equatorial Guinea* or Guinea-Bissau or Eritrea* or Ethiopia* or Gabon* or Gambia* or Ghana* or Guinea* or Kenya* or Lesotho or Liberia* or Madagascar or Malagasy or Malawi* or Mali* or Mauritania* or Mauritius or Mozambi* or Namibia* or Niger* or Nigeria* or Rwanda* or Sao Tome) and Principe) or Senegal* or Seychelles* or Sierra Leone* or Somalia* or South Africa* or Swaziland* or Sudan* or Tanzania* or Western Sahara or Togo* or Uganda* or Zambia* or Zimbabwe* |
Solution:
This is the most problematic error as it is does not return all of the search terms in a group, so is therefore hard to identify.
Avoid this error first!
Problem:
Solution:
Line | Terms |
1 |
Mali* |
2 | Mali or Malis or Malian |
3 | 1 not 2 |
These errors can introduce thousands of irrelevant results to the final result and cause extra weeks or months screening unnecessary items.
Problem:
Solution:
These errors can introduce significant numbers of irrelevant items to final results. If you see lots of unrelated items in your final result set check for this issue
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Solution:
Here is an improved version for Sub-Saharan Africa for Medline (Ovid). Searches in other databases would need an appropriate subject search in line 2.
Line | Search Terms |
1 | "sub-sahara*" or "sub sahara*" or subsahara* or ((east* or west or central or southern) adj2 africa) |
2 | exp "Africa South of the Sahara"/ |
3 | Angola* or Benin or Botswana* or "Burkina Faso" or Burundi* or Cameroon* or "Cape Verde*" or "Central African Republic" or Chad* or Comoro* or Congo* or "Cote d'Ivoire" or Djibouti or Eritrea* or Ethiopia* or Gabon* or Gambia* or Ghana* or Kenya* or Lesotho or Liberia* or Madagascar or Malagasy or Malawi* or Mauritania* or Mauritius or Mozambi* or Namibia* or Niger* or Rwanda* or "Sao Tome and Principe" or Senegal* or Seychelles* or "Sierra Leone*" or Somalia* or "South Africa*" or Swaziland* or Sudan* or Tanzania* or "Western Sahara" or Togo* or Uganda* or Zambia* or Zimbabwe* |
4 | Mali or Malis or Malian |
5 | Guinea* not ("papua new guinea*" or "guinea pig" or "guinea pigs") |
6 | 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 |