4 Seminar Three
In the lecture this week we discussed how to formulate an effective search strategy. We introduced you to the Staffordshire University Library page and the following academic databases:
We then discussed the importance of consolidating the research question/assessment brief and identifying the concrete terms.
4.1 Task 1
Using the research question you selected last week to perform a literature review for, identify the concrete terms. Using excel, tablute your findings. For example;
| Term | Population | Intervention | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| Concrete | Healthy, recreational athletes | Blood flow restriction training | Muscle strength and Muscle power |
We acknowledged that not all researchers will have used the same terminology, and that for many words there are spelling variations globally. In order to capture all of the relevant studies on a topic, we need to consider what these might be.
4.2 Task 2
Using the same research question, identify the alternate terms. This might require you to do some reading and novel searches around the topic area. Using excel, tabulate your findings. For example;
| Term | Population | Intervention | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| Concrete Terms | Healthy, recreational athletes | Blood flow restriction training | Muscle strength and Muscle power |
| Alternate Terms | Athletes | Blood flow occlusion exercise | Strength |
| Athletic | Blood flow occlusion training | Power | |
| Blood flow occlusion | One repetition maximum | ||
| Blood flow restriction | Force | ||
| BFR | One repetition max |
Once the concrete terms and alternate terms have been identified it is time to run your search.
4.3 Task 3
Within your seminar group assign people to one of the four academic databases listed above. In order to capture as many relevant articles as possible we need to perform a search in each one. Using the advance search feature develop your search strategy using the boolean logic parameters (AND, OR, NOT).
For each step in the search tabulate the number of retrievals in excel. For example;
| Step | Search term | Retrievals |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Blood flow restriction training | 294 |
| 2 | Blood flow restriction exercise | 186 |
| 3 | Blood flow occlusion training | 10 |
| 4 | Blood flow occlusion exercise | 21 |
| 5 | Blood flow occlusion | 414 |
| 6 | Blood flow restriction | 544 |
| 7 | BFR | 392 |
| 8 | S1 OR S2 OR S3 OR S4 OR S5 OR S6 OR S7 | 1041 |
| etc | etc | etc |