Search concept tools

Be - Behaviour of interest

H - Health context (the service, policy, programme or intervention)

E - Exclusions (for reviewers to exclude non theories)

MoTh - Models or Theories

Booth, A. and Carroll, C. (2015), Systematic searching for theory to inform systematic reviews: is it feasible? Is it desirable?. Health Info Libr J, 32: 220–235. doi:10.1111/hir.12108

C - Client (at whom is the service aimed?)

L - Location (where is the service sited?)

I - Improvement (what do you want to find out?)

P - Professional (who is involved in providing/improving the service?)

C - Context

I - Intervention

M - Mechanism

O - Outcome

Wong G, Greenhalgh T, Westhorp G, Buckingham J, Pawson R. RAMESES publication standards: realist syntheses. BMC medicine. 2013 Jan 29;11(1):21.

Co - Condition

Co - Context

Pop - Population

Munn Z, Moola S, Lisy K, Riitano D, Tufanaru C. Methodological guidance for systematic reviews of observational epidemiological studies reporting prevalence and cumulative incidence data. Int J Evid Based Healthc. 2015;13(3):147-53.

E - Expectation (what does the search requester want the information for (the original ‘I’s)?)

C - Client Group

L - Location

I - Impact (what is the change in the service, if any, which is being looked for? What would constitute success? How is this being measured)

P - Professionals

S - Service (for which service are you looking for information? For example, outpatient services, nurse-led clinics, intermediate care.)

Wildrige V & Bell L. How CLIP became ECLIPSE: a mnemonic to assist in searching for health policy/management information; HILJ 2002;19(2)113-5 

M - Methodology  (e.g. in-depth interviews or questionnaires)

I - Issues (e.g. Healthcare Rationing or  end-of-life decision-making)

P - Participants (e.g. physicians or patients)

Strech D, Synofzik M, Marckmann G. Systematic reviews of empirical bioethics. J Med Ethics 2008;34:472-477  

P - Population

C - Concept

C - Context

Peters M, Godfrey C, McInerney P, Munn Z, Tricco A, Khalil H. Chapter 11: Scoping Reviews (2020
Version). 2017

Peters, M. D. J., Marnie, C., Tricco, A. C., Pollock, D., Munn, Z., Alexander, L., McInerney, P., Godfrey, C. M., & Khalil, H. (2020). Updated methodological guidance for the conduct of scoping reviews. JBI evidence synthesis, 18(10), 2119–2126. https://doi.org/10.11124/JBIES-20-00167

P - Population

E - Exposure

O - Outcome

McArthur A, Klugarova J, Yan H, Florescu S. Innovations in the systematic review of text and opinion. Int J Evid Based Healthc. 2015;13(3):188–95.

P - Population

F - Prognostic Factors (or models of interest)

O - Outcome

Dretzke J, Ensor J, Bayliss S, et al. Methodological issues and recommendations for systematic reviews of prognostic studies: an example from cardiovascular disease. Systematic reviews. 2014;3(1):1.

Hayden JA, van der Windt DA, Cartwright JL, CÃ P, Bombardier C. Assessing bias in studies of prognostic factors. Ann Intern Med. 2013;158(4):280–6.

The Cochrane Collaboration. Cochrane Methods Prognosis. 2016 [cited 7th December 2016]; Available from: http://methods.cochrane.org/prognosis/scope-our-work.

Rector TS, Taylor BC, Wilt TJ. Chapter 12: systematic review of prognostic tests. J Gen Intern Med. 2012;27(Suppl 1):S94–101.

Per - Perspective

S - Setting

P - Phenomenon of interest/problem

E  - Environment

(C) - (optional comparison)

Ti - Time/Timings

F - Findings

Booth A, Noyes J, Flemming K, Moore G, Tuncalp O, Shakibazadeh E. Formulating questions to explore complex interventions within qualitative evidence synthesis. BMJ Glob Health. 2019;4(Suppl 1):e001107.

P - Patient or population

I - Intervention

C - Comparator

O - Outcomes

Richardson W S, Wilson M C, Nishikawa J, & Hayward R S A.The well-built clinical question: A key to evidence-based decisions. ACP Journal Club 1995;123 A12-13.

Nb add ‘S’ on end if study type is significant, a ‘C’ if context is significant or 'T' for timeframe

P - Population

I - Index test

R - Reference test

D - Diagnosis of interest.

Campbell JM, Klugar M, Ding S, et al. Diagnostic test accuracy: methods for systematic review and meta-analysis. Int J Evid Based Healthc. 2015;13(3):154–62.

P - Place of residence

R - Race/ethnicity

O - Occupation

G - Gender

R - Religion

E - Education

S - Socio-economic status

S - Social capital

Prady, S.L., Uphoff, E.P., Power, M. et al. Development and validation of a search filter to identify equity-focused studies: reducing the number needed to screen. BMC Med Res Methodol 18, 106 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-018-0567-x 

S - (type of) Study

D - (type of) Data

M - (type of) Method

O -Outcomes

Clarke M, Oxman AD, Paulsen E, Higgins JP, Green S, Appendix A: Guide to the contents of a Cochrane Methodology protocol and review. In: Higgins JP, Green S, eds. Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions. Version 5.1.0 ed: The Cochrane Collaboration 2011.

(designed for librarian research questions)

S - Setting (Where? In what context?)

P - Perspective (For who?)

I - Intervention (Phenomenon of Interest) (What?)

C - Comparison – (What else?)

E - Evaluation (How well? What result?)

Booth A. Clear and present questions: Formulating questions for evidence based practice. Library Hi Tech. 2006; 24(3), 355-68.

S - Sample

PI - Phenomenon of Interest

D - Design

E - Evaluation

R - Research type

Cooke A; Smith D;  Booth A; Beyond PICO : The SPIDER Tool for Qualitative Evidence Synthesis – Qual Health Res. 2012; 22(10) 1435-1443