PsyD Systematic Reviews

Identify Search Concepts and Terms

Generally speaking, when literature searching, you are not searching the full-text article. Instead, you are searching certain citation data fields, like title, abstract, keyword, controlled vocabulary terms, and more. When developing a literature search, a good place to start is to identify searchable concepts of the research question, and then expand by adding other terms to describe those concepts.

1. Start by identifying the main concepts of your research question (remember to use PICO, SPIDER, or SPICE!)
2. Use synonyms and other terms commonly used to describe your main concepts. Using terms that you've already seen and read in your preliminary research can be helpful. 
   1. While the goal is to be comprehensive, try not to create an overwhelming list of terms. This will only increase the amount of irrelevant articles to screen through. It is expected that you will have to test and re-write your search many times in order to strike the perfect balance. 
   2. Run your search on your primary database (PsycInfo) and examine the first 50 results to determine their relevance. If the articles are not specific enough, or your first search results in 1,000 articles or more, you will need to adjust your strategy. Try and identify major sources of irrelevant records and adjust the search strategy accordingly.  
   3. Words that have multiple meanings are especially prone to creating havoc with the search strategies and will often need to be searched with other terms to get the correct context of the term. 
   4. Be careful to test any acronyms that are being searched for.  It is often not appreciated that acronyms will have many meanings in different subject fields and may often be the names of gene fragments or biochemical compounds as well as your chosen meaning.  If you see very irrelevant items appearing after using acronyms then it may be necessary to search for the acronym together with other terms that will improve the context of the results.
3. Authors often write about the same topic in varied ways and it is important to add these terms to your search in order to capture most of the literature. 
   1. Concepts described inconsistently (quality of life vs. satisfaction)
   2. Broad versus specific terms (vaccination vs. influenza vaccination)
   3. Terms with similar meaning (flu vs. influenza)
   4. Well-known acronyms 
   5. Terms that have different spelling (American vs. British spelling; hyphenated terms)

Using a Controlled Vocabulary

Controlled vocabulary is a set of terminology assigned to citations to describe the content of each reference. Searching with controlled vocabulary can improve the relevancy of search results. Many databases assign controlled vocabulary terms to citations, but their naming schema is often specific to each database. For example, the controlled vocabulary system searchable via PubMed is MeSH, or Medical Subject Headings. PsycInfo uses what is called the APA Thesaurus. A controlled vocabulary will also be referred to as the Thesaurus, Subject Headings, or Subject Terms. 

Using a controlled vocabulary is vital for a systematic review. It expands your search so you find all possible articles on your topic. 

Search Tip: Check the methods sections or supplementary materials of published systematic reviews for search strategies to see what terminology they used. This can help inform your search strategy by using MeSH terms or keywords you may not have thought of. However, be aware that search strategies will differ in their comprehensiveness.

Overall Search Process

• Identify search concepts and terms for each of them
  • Use controlled vocabulary, if applicable
  • Include synonyms/keyword terms
• Choose databases, websites, and/or registries to search
• Construct search strategy
  • Use nesting, Boolean operators, and field tags
  • Translate to other databases
  • Search using other methods (e.g. hand searching)
• Validate and peer review the search
• Document the search

Systematic reviews commonly require three to four databases. 

1. One to two databases need to be broad and interdisciplinary in scope (Scopus, PubMed, CINAHL). 
2. One database needs to be subject specific– for PsyD students, this is PsycInfo. 
3. One database should be slightly more niche to your subject area or topic (ERIC, Sociological Abstracts, PILOTS)

Choosing multiple databases lowers your risk of bias. 

The following databases are commonly used by PsyD students for systematic reviews:

A librarian can help you develop your protocol, search strategy, and recommend databases. It is highly recommended that you meet with a librarian when starting the search process, as developing a proper systematic search requires database expertise. 

Cantrell, Sarah. LibGuides: Systematic Reviews: 2. Develop a Research Question. https://guides.mclibrary.duke.edu/sysreview/question. Accessed 7 Aug. 2025.

Condron, Patrick. Library Guides: Systematic Reviews for STEMM: The Research Question. https://unimelb.libguides.com/sysrev/research-question. Accessed 7 Aug. 2025.

Condron, Patrick. Library Guides: Systematic Reviews for STEMM: Searching the Literature. https://unimelb.libguides.com/sysrev/search-strategies. Accessed 8 Aug. 2025.

Jones, Emily. LibGuides: Systematic Reviews: Step 3: Conduct Literature Searches. https://guides.lib.unc.edu/systematic-reviews/search. Accessed 7 Aug. 2025.