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Searching the OVID's EBM DATABASES
When searching the ALL EBM Review Database you are unable to search using the powerful controlled vocabulary of Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) and therefore must think of synonyms for your search terms. For example, to locate cancer information it would be appropriate to search not only cancer, but also neoplasm, carcinoma, and tumor. Below is a list of operators, in addition to synonyms, that you can employ to ensure that you retrieve all pertinent results.
| Syntax | Example | Results | |
| OR | OR | vitamin c or ascorbic acid | Retrieves records that contain either term or both terms. |
| AND | AND | vitamin c and ascorbic acid | Retrieves records that contain both terms. |
| NOT | NOT | vitamin c not ascorbic acid | Retrieves records that contain the first term but not the second term. |
| ADJ | ADJ | Austism Aspergers | Retrieves records that contain both terms, in order, and adjacent in the same sentence. |
| ADJn | autism adj3 | Retrieves records that contain both terms, in either order, with no more than n number of words between. The example will retrieve records containing the phrase, "adults with autistic and Asperger's disorders". | |
| FREQ | x.fd./FREQ=n | cancer.ab./freq=5 | Retrieves records that contain n occurrences of the term in the specified field. The example will retrieve records containing the word "cancer," at least five times in the Abstract (ab) field. |
| $ | x$ | Myocardial infarct$ | The unlimited truncation symbol, $, retrieves records that contain the search term and all possible suffix variations of a root word. The example will retrieve records containing words such as infarct, infarction, infarction, etc. |
| x$n | dog$1 | The limited truncation symbol, $n, Retrieves records that contain the search term and all possible suffix variations of a root word with the maximum number of characters that may follow the root word or phrase, specified by n.The example will retrieve records containing words such as dog and dogs, but not dogma. | |
| # | # | wom#n | The mandated wildcard symbol, #, retrieves records that contain the search term with substituted character(s) in the specified locations. The example will retrieve records containing woman and women. |
| ? | ? | tumo?r | The optional wildcard symbol, ?, retrieves records that contain the search term with either no characters substituted, or with substituted character(s) in the specified locations. The example will retrieve records containing tumor and tumour. |