Norris Medical Library - Ovid Brief Guide

BRIEF GUIDE TO OVID SEARCHING

Ovid is a search engine and interface for the following databases: MEDLINE, MEDLINE In-Progress, OLDMEDLINE, CINAHL, HealthSTAR, International Pharmaceutical Abstracts (IPA), Health and Psychosocial Instruments (HAPI), BIOSIS Previews, Books@Ovid (textbooks), and the EBM Reviews-ACP Journal Club, Cochrane DSR, CCTR, and DARE databases.

Ovid databases include links to the library's full-text electronic journals.

Connecting to Ovid

Go to http://www.usc.edu/ovid
Click on the appropriate START OVID button

Subject Searching

Identify the main concepts in your search.

Sample topic: Can allergies cause headaches?

Main concepts:

allergies

headaches

Enter one of your main concepts in the Enter Keyword or Phrase box.

To take advantage of Ovid features, you must search each concept separately and then combine them.

Make sure that Map Term to Subject Heading is checked. Click on the Search button.

Your keyword will map to a Subject Heading in the databases where this function is available. If mapping is not available, your term will be searched as a keyword.

Select the best Subject Heading for your concept. To read the definition of a Subject Heading, click on the "i" icon to see the scope note. If your search did not map to a desirable Subject Heading, select the box in front of Search as Keyword.
Click on the Subject Heading to view terms that are more general (left) and more specific (right).

Select the Explode box if you wish to retrieve citations for the selected term and all of its more specific terms.
Select the Focus box if you wish to limit your search to those documents in which your subject heading represents the major focus of the article.
You can select both Explode and Focus if you want your term or one of its narrower terms to be the major point of the citations.

Subheadings

Click in the box in front of Include All Subheadings, or to find particular aspects of a topic, select the subheadings you want from the list.

Combining Terms with Boolean Operators

Repeat the previous steps for your remaining search concepts. After searching each aspect of your topic separately, combine them using the Boolean operators AND, OR, or NOT.

Examples:

1 AND 2

The articles discuss BOTH CONCEPTS of headache and hypersensitivity.

1 OR 2

The articles discuss EITHER headache or hypersensitivity.

1 NOT 2

The articles discuss hypersensitivity but do NOT MENTION headache.

Limit Set

To restrict the results of a search to one or more specific limits, such as human, local holdings, English, or review articles, use the checkboxes under Limits. To see additional limit options, such as age groups and publications types, click on More Limits.

Printing, E-Mailing, and Downloading Records

To select records, use the checkboxes in the front of the citations. Scroll to the bottom of the page to the Results Manager and select the desired options.

To print, first select Print Preview from the Actions column. Wait until the entire display is completed. If you don't wait, you may receive a partial printout or an error message. Next, select Print from the browser software.

To email records, select Email from the Actions column. Input your email address.
To download records, select Save from the Actions column. This will invoke your browser's save utility. Make the desired selection and be sure to indicate the appropriate drive or location on the computer.

Author Searching

Click on the Author tab. The command line will prompt you to enter a last name, followed by the first initial (if known). From the resulting Index Display, choose all applicable author names. If you don't know the first initial of the author, type "lastname $.au." on the Enter Keyword or Phrase line on the Main Search Screen. (Note there is a space after the author's last name.)

brown rj$.au.	finds articles by RJ Brown, Jr., Sr., III, etc.
brown r$.au.	finds articles by R Brown, regardless of the middle initial
brown $.au.	finds articles by Brown, regardless of the first or middle initials

Journal Searching

Click on the Journal tab to search for documents that appear in a particular journal. You will be prompted to enter the first few letters of the journal name, without abbreviations. From the Index Display, choose the journal name that matches your query.

Logging Out

ALWAYS Logoff at the top of the page when you are finished with your search session. If you don't, you and other users may be locked out of Ovid for a time.