How To Find Articles For A Literature Review In Medicine | Search Smart Now

Plan your question

You’ll save time if you shape the review question first. Use PICO to make it sharp and searchable. Write each piece down and stick to it while you search.

• P (Patient/Problem): age range, diagnosis, setting.
• I (Intervention): drug, device, exposure, or policy.
• C (Comparison): placebo, usual care, another drug, or none.
• O (Outcome): pick a primary outcome and a few secondary ones.

Add practical limits now: study designs you will include, languages you can read, years that make sense for the topic, and settings that match your use case. This written plan becomes your compass once the search results start to pile up.

Finding articles for a medical literature review: start strong

Most reviews pull from a small set of trusted sources. Start with these, then branch out as needed. The table below lists what each source is best for and when to use it.

Anchor your first pass in PubMed, borrow phrasing from Cochrane Reviews, then use Scholar to find “Cited by” trails and PDFs. This trio catches both indexed and hard-to-reach items.

Build your search string

Great medical searches mix controlled vocabulary with everyday words. In PubMed that means MeSH terms plus text words in titles and abstracts. Draft both lists for each PICO piece, then combine them.

Use MeSH and keywords together

Write two columns per concept. Column one holds the MeSH term plus close variants; column two holds common spellings, acronyms, and synonyms that may not map to MeSH yet.

• Sample, intervention: Metformin; biguanides; “metformin hydrochloride”.
• Sample, condition: “Polycystic Ovary Syndrome”; PCOS; “Stein-Leventhal”.
• Sample, outcome: ovulation; menses; insulin resistance; BMI.

MeSH gives structure; text words catch new terms and brand names. Use both so you don’t miss fresh studies.

Boolean, phrase, truncation, and fields

Combine synonyms with OR, link concepts with AND, exclude truly off-topic items with a light touch of NOT. Quote multi-word phrases. Use field tags when you must target titles and abstracts.

(\"Polycystic Ovary Syndrome\"[tiab] OR PCOS[tiab] OR \"Polycystic Ovary Syndrome\"[mh])
AND
(metformin[tiab] OR biguanides[mh])
AND
(ovulation[tiab] OR menses[tiab] OR \"Insulin Resistance\"[mh])

PubMed’s official help page explains field tags, MeSH mapping, and the builder workflow; see PubMed Help for details.

Run searches step by step

PubMed quick steps

1. Open the builder page from PubMed and add each concept line to History.
2. Join the lines with #1 AND #2 style syntax in the builder box.
3. Scan “Search details” to confirm how PubMed translated your query.
4. Sort by “Best match,” then switch to “Most recent” when scoping new data.
5. Export the first few pages to a RIS or CSV file for safe keeping.

Cochrane Library quick steps

1. Use the Search Manager to build the same concepts you used in PubMed.
2. Run the string in the Trials database (CENTRAL) and in Reviews.
3. Open a recent Cochrane Review on your topic and copy strong phrases from its strategy into your own notes.
4. Keep a note of filters you try so the search stays reproducible.

If you need a refresher, Cochrane’s own guide is short and clear: Cochrane Library search help.

Google Scholar without noise

• Use quotes for exact phrases and the minus sign to drop obvious mismatches: \"metformin\" PCOS -rodent.
• Click “Cited by” on a strong trial to walk forward in time.
• Flip to the “Since year” filter to surface fresh material.
• Try author: and intitle: for pinpoint checks.

Use filters without losing classics

Filters help you move from hundreds of hits to a focused set. Start with years, humans, age group, and article type. Be careful with language limits; you can still log non-English titles and mark them as “unread” so your flowchart reflects the full picture. If a filter drops landmark trials, remove it and try a narrower concept string instead.

Screen, save, and track

Decide on two screening passes: titles/abstracts first, full texts later. Write short rules for what earns a “keep” at each pass. Use a spreadsheet or a manager to log title, year, PMID or DOI, and a reason when you set a record aside. Always export your first pass before you start trimming so nothing gets lost.

Create a PRISMA-ready trail

Readers expect a clear trail from search to final set. Keep counts for each stage and each source. When you’re done, map the counts into the PRISMA 2020 diagram from the official site: PRISMA 2020 flow diagram. Save the completed chart with your notes.

• Records identified per source.
• Duplicates removed.
• Records screened; records excluded with reason types.
• Reports sought; reports not retrieved and why.
• Studies included in review and, if needed, in meta-analysis.

Extract data that answers your question

Build a sheet that captures design, population, intervention details, outcomes, follow-up, and any numbers you’ll need for synthesis later. Keep field names short so the sheet stays readable.

Judge bias and certainty

While extracting, scan for issues that tilt results. For trials: sequence generation, allocation concealment, blinding, missing data, selective reporting. For observational work: confounding control, exposure and outcome measurement, and selection. Flag small single-center studies, industry-sponsored work without transparency, or outcomes that shift mid-study. These flags guide your narrative and any sensitivity run you choose to add.

Snowball and fill gaps

Backward snowballing: open the reference list of a strong paper and scan for earlier trials you missed. Forward snowballing: in Scholar, hit “Cited by” and sort by date to see who built on that paper. In PubMed, use “Similar articles” and “Cited by” when available. For fast-moving topics, check preprint servers and trial registries one more time before you lock the set.

How to search for articles for a medicine literature review: clean methods

Write down the full string you used in each source and save a copy of the exported results. Include dates searched and any filters. If you tweaked the string, paste both versions into your notes and explain the change in a sentence. Small habits like these make your review easy to repeat and easy to trust.

Speed tricks that save hours

• Start broad, then tighten: begin with two or three concept lines; add more only if noise remains high.
• Use phrase quotes: “acute kidney injury” pulls cleaner sets than single words on their own.
• Prefer title/abstract fields for noisy terms: target [tiab] when a word has many meanings.
• Explode later, not first: if a MeSH term has many children, try the parent alone, then add branches as needed.
• Save alerts: turn on email alerts in PubMed or Scholar while you draft; fresh hits will reach you without extra work.
• Keep a living log: paste strings, dates, and exports into a single document so your flow stays transparent.

Write with credibility

Tell readers who did the searching, how the strings were built, where you searched, and why those sources fit the topic. Link to the PubMed help page when you cite field tags, and include the PRISMA chart so the trail is plain to see. If a step didn’t go as planned, say so and note the impact on the set.

Common pitfalls and quick fixes

• Only one database: add a second biomedical source and run the string again.
• Filters too tight: widen the year range or remove a language limit, then rescreen.
• No MeSH used: add the MeSH term for each core concept and try again.
• Too many duplicates: export RIS from each source, then de-dup by identifier before screening.
• Missed landmark trials: scan guideline bibliographies and Cochrane Reviews to catch them.
• Unclear trail: finish the PRISMA chart and keep your History page screenshots.

Wrap up

A sharp PICO and a tidy, saved string will do half the work for you. The rest is a steady process: search with both MeSH and text words, screen with written rules, extract what you need, and keep a clear trail so anyone can repeat the steps.

Helpful links used in this guide: PubMed Help, Cochrane Library search help, and PRISMA 2020 flow diagram.