Skip to Main Content

HLTC28: Pick your Poison: Toxicology and Risk Assessment

Dr. Elyse Caron-Beaudoin

Using a Framework in your Search

There are many frameworks used in the health sciences to develop and structure research questions in academic and clinical settings. The frameworks are made up of acronyms representing the key components for different types of research questions. 

What are the benefits of using a framework?
  • Develop a focused, answerable research question
  • Identify the main concepts within the research question
  • Generate key terms for each main concept to use in a literature search

The PEO or PECO frameworks are good for formulating questions to explore the association of environmental and other exposures with health outcomes. 

PEO Framework: 

  • Population: Who are you interested in researching? Where are they located?​

  • Exposure: What is happening to the population? Why?​

  • Outcome: What is the effect of the exposure?​

You may also have a comparison or control (PECO): 

  • Population: Who are you interested in researching? Where are they located?​

  • Exposure: What is happening to the population? Why?​

  • Comparators

  • Outcome: What is the effect of the exposure?​

Writing Effective Search Strategies

Before you begin, read your research question/assignment. If you have any questions, be sure to ask your instructor or TA before you begin your research.

  Why? How? Example
Step 1: Identify key concepts Key concepts from your research question are the most effective search terms to quickly locate relevant sources.

Underline key nouns from your research question.

Consider using the PECO or PEO Framework:

  • P: patient, population, or problem
  • E: exposure
  • C: comparison or control
  • O: outcome
  • P: patient, population, or problem
  • E: exposure
  • O: outcome
 How does occupational exposure to pesticides affect the pregnancy outcomes of farmers?
Step 2: Identify alternative search terms To find everything relevant to your topic in a database. Brainstorm alternatives (synonyms, alternative spelling) for your key concepts.

Key concept 1: Farmers

  • Farmer(s)
  • Agriculture
  • Agriculturalist(s)
  • Agricultural worker(s)

Key concept 2: Occupational exposure to pesticides

Synonyms for occupational exposure:

  • Occupational exposure
  • Environmental exposure
  • Chemical exposure
  • Maternal exposure
  • Prenatal exposure

Synonyms for pesticides:

  • Pesticide(s)
  • Fungicide(s)
  • Insecticide(s)

Key concept 3: Pregnancy outcomes

  • Pregnancy
  • Pregnant
  • Birth outcome(s)
  • Reproductive outcome(s)
  • Live birth(s)
  • Stillbirth(s)
  • Miscarriage
  • Preterm delivery
  • Premature labor
  • Birth weight
  • Congenital malformations
Step 3: Consider using limiters (available in a library database) In order to focus on articles that are appropriate for your assignment. Choose limiters in a library database that are relevant to your research needs.
  • Scholarly or peer reviewed
  • Format: e.g. newspaper, magazine, scholarly journal
  • Publication date
  • Language
Step 4: Combine your search terms In order to get more focused results, use Boolean operators (and, or) as well as the wildcard* to combine key concepts.

And: Combines key concepts together to find articles that contain both concepts.

Or: Combines alternative search terms to find articles that contain either/any term.

Wildcard*: Finds variations in spelling, prefixes, and suffixes (pregnan* will find pregnant, pregnancy)

Quotation marks: searches for word or phrase as a unit (e.g. "birth outcome")

(farmer* OR "agricultural worker*")

AND

(exposure)

AND

pesticide*

AND

(pregnan* OR "birth outcome*" OR "reproductive outcome*" OR stillbirth OR miscarriage OR preterm OR premature OR "birth weight" OR "congenital malformation*")
Step 5: Review your search results Check if articles are appropriate for your assignment to ensure you find the right information to write a high quality paper.

Check if you articles are:

  • Relevant to your topic and discipline
  • Popular or scholarly (depending on whether you're working on the first or second annotation assignment)
  • Current enough (publication year)
  
Step 6: Adjust your strategy If you don't find relevant articles, change your search strategy.

Too few articles? Try...

  • Adding more synonyms or related terms (combine with OR)
  • Deleting the least relevant term from your search
  • Using the wildcard*

Too many articles? Try...

  • Focusing on a specific component of the topic
  • Adding more keywords (combine with AND)

Too few articles? Try...

  • Expanding the population, group, or phenomena in your research question
  • Adding related terms to your search, which may have a broader or narrower meaning

Example: expanding the search beyond farmers to include people who live nearby to farms

Too many articles? Try...

  • Limiting the search to a specific population, group, or phenomena
  • Looking at your topic in a specific location or region

Example: narrowing your search to focus specifically on occupational exposure to pesticides among pregnant women and congenital malformations

Adapted from The University of Manchester Library: Making Your Search Work (Cheat Sheet)

Search Strategy Tutorials

Choosing Keywords

Transcript (PDF)

Boolean Operators

Transcript (PDF)

Boolean Modifiers

Transcript (PDF)

chat loading...