searchRxiv

Use this open access database to find examples of search formulations for components of your research topic. These are known in the medical research community as "search hedges".

The librarians at UPEI maintain a few simpler examples of this at:

https://library.upei.ca/search-topic-help-common-concepts

But searchRxiv will help you find more complicated ones. 

When using these, be sure to notice if it was written for the EBSCO, Proquest, Ovid, or other search platform, as the syntax is different among those. Ask a librarian for assistance converting the syntax to the platform you want to use.

More description from site:

searchRxiv (pronounced “search archive”) has been established to support researchers to report, store and share their searches consistently and to enable them to review and re-use existing searches.
In any discipline a well-constructed search strategy is at the core of evidence-based research, enabling the comprehensive retrieval of eligible studies to be assessed for relevance, and ensuring that no existing research which may be relevant is missed.

Evidence-based study is a complex process typically involving teams of people to identify a question and formulate the protocols and searches which retrieve the evidence for the study. The resulting searches can be long and complex to handle. Consistency in how searches are reported, shared and stored for possible re-use by other users is key to ensure quality across these activities.


searchRxiv enables researchers to:

Post their searches, ensuring credit for all those involved
Obtain a digital object identifier (DOI) for their search, enabling it to be cited
Link searches to published articles as relevant
Find it easier to follow best practice for structuring their search strategy
Easily find relevant searches in their subject area by searching across search strings as well as metadata describing those search strings
The site is hosted and managed by CABI, an international, inter-governmental, not-for-profit organization that improves people’s lives worldwide by providing information and applying scientific expertise to solve problems in agriculture and the environment.