Methodology Oriented Locaters for Evidence Searching (MOLES) are a collection of words that function as search filters in your database searching. Use MOLES to help filter your search results to experimental or quasi-experimental evidence. 

Important note: MOLES search string formats vary from one database to another. We have pasted the MOLES words for the key databases below.

Copy and paste the string below into ProQuest searches:

(RCT OR (trial* NEAR/3 (control* OR clinical)) OR (random* NEAR/3 (allocat* OR assign*)) OR ((treat* OR comparison OR intervention OR control) NEAR/2 group*) OR (control* NEAR/2 (condition* OR clinic* OR intervention* OR treat*)) OR (waitlist* OR wait* PRE/0 list*) OR (quasiexperiment* OR quasi PRE/1 experiment*) OR placebo)

Copy and paste the string below into EBSCO searches:

(RCT OR (trial* N3 (control* OR clinical)) OR (random* N3 (allocat* OR assign*)) OR ((treat* OR comparison OR intervention OR control) N2 group*) OR (control* N2 (condition* OR clinic* OR intervention* OR treat*)) OR (waitlist* OR (wait* W0 list*)) OR (quasiexperiment* OR (quasi W0 experiment*)) OR placebo)

Copy and paste the string below into MEDLINE searches:

RCT or randomi* or control* trial* or control* clinical or clinical trial* or random* assign* or random* allocat* or control* group* or comparison group* or treat* group* or wait* list* or control* condition* or quasi-experiment* or quasiexperiment* or (control* adj3 intervention) or (control* adj3 treat*) or placebo

PubMed does not require MOLES as it has its own search filter called PubMed Clinical Queries:

These MOLES adapted from: Gibbs, L. (2003). Evidence-based practice for the helping professions, Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Thomson Learning. They have been adapted by professors Esme Fuller-Thomson and Ted McNeill at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto.