Literature search and search strategy services

Every later stage of a systematic review inherits the search. If a strategy is too narrow it misses eligible studies and the conclusions are biased before screening even starts; if it is built without controlled vocabulary it retrieves a wall of irrelevant records that waste reviewer time. The search is the one stage a reader is most likely to want to reproduce, which is why it is judged on whether another information specialist could run it line for line and return the same set. We design to that standard, balancing the sensitivity and precision of a search strategy so you capture the evidence without drowning your screeners.

Getting the structure right means combining concepts deliberately. We map your review question to its component concepts, build a block of synonyms and headings for each, and join them with Boolean operators so the logic is explicit. Where your protocol already defines the scope, the search follows directly from your registration-ready protocol and PROSPERO record.

1. 1

   Concept mapping and term harvesting

   We break the question into concepts and gather subject headings and free-text synonyms for each, including spelling variants and truncation.

2. 2

   Database-specific strategies

   We translate the strategy into the syntax of each database you search, because the same logic runs differently in MEDLINE, Embase, and the others.

3. 3

   Grey literature and supplementary searching

   We search trial registries, theses, conference proceedings, and reference lists so unpublished and hard-to-index studies are not missed.

4. 4

   PRESS peer review and documentation

   We arrange a structured PRESS review of the strategy and hand you the full, dated search records ready for your methods and appendix.

The right set of sources depends on your field, and each one indexes and searches differently. We select and justify the databases that cover your topic rather than running a single generic search across all of them.

You receive the complete, line-numbered search for each database, a record of the databases for systematic reviews chosen and why, the grey literature sources and results, the PRESS peer review checklist, and the numbers you need to populate the PRISMA flow diagram. When the records come back, our data extraction and coding service can take the review straight into screening and extraction.

• The full line-numbered strategy for every database, ready for your appendix
• A justified list of the sources searched and the dates each was run
• Subject-heading and free-text blocks documented concept by concept
• The grey literature sources, terms, and results captured separately
• A completed PRESS peer-review record of the strategy
• Deduplicated results and the counts needed for your PRISMA flow diagram

We quote a fixed fee for the search as a defined deliverable. What shapes it is the number of databases your topic requires, how many concept blocks the question breaks into, how much grey literature searching the review needs, and whether you want a PRESS peer review included. Tell us your review question and your field and we will recommend the source set and return a fixed quote for the documented search.