- Go to the Library homepage at: http://usd.edu/lhsl.
- Click on the Cochrane Collection link under QuickLinks.
From home or off the USD network:
- Type your USD email address andpassword and click on "Log In".
| New Search Options in OvidSP |
In February 2008, Ovid changed from the Ovid Gateway search interface to the OvidSP search interface. Advanced Search has now been renamed Advanced Ovid Search . Users who are familiar with searching Ovid Gateway using Advanced Search are encouraged to use the Advanced Ovid Search. The Advanced Ovid Search contains MeSH term mapping, MeSH subheadings and all of the other functionality you grew familiar with when using the Ovid Gateway. The search examples outlined below illustrate how to search using Advanced Ovid Search.
Notice that there are now five different search options in OvidSP.
- Basic Search uses Ovid's new natural language searching algorithm. If you use this natural language search, it's a good idea to check the boxes labeled Check Spelling and Include Related Terms to be sure that spelling variants and synonyms are included in your search. If you want more control and accuracy, you should use the Advanced Ovid Search tab.
- With Find Citation you can enter information about a specific reference (e.g. author name, journal title, etc.) to retrieve that reference. You'll find this similar in functionality to PubMed Single Citation Manager.
- Search Tools provides a number of tools to help you create better searches.
- Search Fields provides you with the option to search within specific fields of a database record (e.g. author name, institution name, gene symbol, grant number, etc.) .
- Advanced Ovid Search is the new name for what you may recognize as the advanced search. The Advanced Ovid Search allows you to construct more precise searches. The functionality available to you in the former advanced search are still available via the Advanced Ovid Search. The remainder of this guide discusses searching using the Advanced Ovid Search.
Formulating a Subject Search
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- State your information need in the form of a question or a statement, e.g.
How effective is heparin in reducing complications from heart attacks in patients over 65 years of age?
- Break your question into individual parts:
heart attack, heparin, age over 65
- Perform a search on each of the individual topics (leave the age topic until you apply limits).
- Combine the topics together; apply limits, if necessary.
- Evaluate the results to see if they answer your original question.
| Performing a Subject Search |
- Be sure to use the Advanced Ovid Search tab.
- Enter a single topic on the Enter keyword or phrase line.
- Click Search.
- Repeat the search process above for all of your search terms.
- To combine search statements, check the terms you'd like to combine and click Combine selections with 'And' or 'OR'. Alternatively, you can type the set numbers separated with 'AND' or 'OR', e.g. 1 and 2 - this will retrieve articles containing both the results from sets 1 and 2.
- Click the limits toggle to quickly limit your search retrieval to articles in English, published within specific years, etc.
- Click
to restrict the results of a search to specific limits such as language, publication type or age groups of study subjects.
There are several new options available for displaying references within OvidSP.
- To view the abstract for a specific reference, click on the View Abstract toggle at the bottom of the reference.
- To view abstracts for every reference in your results list, check the box at the top of your result set.
- Use the pull-down menu on the upper right side of the screen to change the number of results displayed.
- Click on Complete Reference to see the entire record, including MeSH terms.
- Where Full Text links are available, you can display and print full articles.
retrieves citations that have cited the chosen article within the Journals@Ovid collection. Note: For a more thorough citation analysis try a cited reference search in Web of Science/Web of Knowledge.
Click to see subsequent records in your list.
It is advisable to use the navigation buttons within Ovid to move between pages. Using the back button of your browser may result in expired pages and you will lose your work!
| Printing, Saving, E-mailing Citations |
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The most effective way to print, save or e-mail your records is to look through the list of records first and display them at the end. Select the articles you want by placing a checkmark in the box in front of the record.
When you have located a suffiient number of records, use the Results Manager,which now appears on the left-hand side of the screen, to print, save or e-mail the records.
In the Results Manager, you have a number of options:
- Results: choose Selected Results if you have selected any records, All on this page, or All in this set.
- Fields: choose Citation, Citation + Abstract, Citation + Abstract + Subject Headings, or Complete Reference (Complete Reference does not include full-text. To print full-text, choose the Full-text link next to the citation in the results list, where available).
- Result Format: either the Ovid or Brief (Titles) Display formats work best for printing and saving. You will need to choose a different format if you are transferring your results to EndNote (see below).
- Check the box for Include Search History to save the terms you are searching.
- You can choose to sort the records using various Sort Keys such as first author, journal name, or publication date.
To print the records, click on the Display button, then click on the print button in your browser.
To save the records, click on the Save button and use the save function of your browser.
To e-mail the records, click on the E-mail button and follow the prompts.
To transfer the records to EndNote or another citation management software, do one of the following:
- If you are searching Ovid on the same computer that has your EndNote software on it, select Direct Export in the Results Format column, click on the Save button, and follow the prompts.
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It is also possible to save searches to the Ovid server. You will then be able to re-run those searches at another time.
Regardless of whether you have a personal Ovid account or not, the procedure for saving searches is the same. Beneath the Enter keyword or phrase box, you will see links related to searches.
At the bottom of your search history is a Save Search History button. It will not appear until you have performed at least one search in Ovid.
When you save a search history, you will have a number of choices:
- Save temporarily (168 hours): the search will be deleted after that time.
- Save permanently: the search will not be deleted unless you return and remove it.
- Save as an AutoAlert (SDI) Service: the search will be run automatically each time the Ovid database is updated (approximately weekly). Search results will be e-mailed to you automatically. Note: This feature is only available to personal Ovid account holders.
- Save as an RSS feed. New results will be sent to your RSS reader as they become available. Note: This feature is only available to personal Ovid account holders.
Located in the upper right corner, this link allows you to access searches you have previously saved.
All of the help links for OvidSP are located in the upper right corner of the screen.
- The Database Field Guide contains a description of the database you are currently searching.
- Display Knowledge Base connects you to the online Ovid support center.
- The Help link displays context-sensitive help. For instance, if you are searching within the Advanced Ovid Search tab and click on help, the resulting screen will explain how to search using the Advanced Ovid Search.
