Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact, Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Centre for Journalology, Clinical Epidemiology Program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada.
BMC Complement Med Ther. 2022 Jul 27;22(1):200. doi: 10.1186/s12906-022-03683-1.
Determining which therapies fall under the umbrella of complementary, alternative, and/or integrative medicine (CAIM) is difficult for several reasons. An operational definition is dynamic, and changes depending on both historical time period and geographical location, with many countries integrating or considering their traditional system(s) of medicine as conventional care. We have previously reported the first operational definition of CAIM informed by a systematic search. In the present study, we have developed a comprehensive search string informed by an operational definition of CAIM for systematic bibliographic database search strategies.
We developed a single search string for the most common bibliographic databases, including those searchable on the OVID platform (e.g., MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, AMED), the EBSCO platform (e.g., ERIC, CINAHL), Scopus, and Web of Science, using the finalised operational definition of CAIM's 604 therapies. We searched the Therapeutic Research Center's "Natural Medicines" database for all 604 therapies, and each item's scientific name and/or synonym was included as a keyword or phrase in the search string.
This developed search string provides a standardised list of CAIM terms (i.e., keywords and phrases) that may be searched on bibliographic databases including those found on the OVID platform (e.g., MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, AMED), the EBSCO platform (e.g., ERIC, CINAHL), Scopus, and Web of Science.
Researchers can select relevant terms for their CAIM study and insert the keywords/phrases into these databases to receive all accessible data. This search technique can simply be copied and pasted into the search bar of each database to identify research by keywords, which is the most inclusive, or by words in the article title, which is more selective. Given its versatility across multiple commonly used academic platforms/databases, it is expected that this search string will be of great value to those conducting research on CAIM topics involving systematic search strategies.
由于多种原因，确定哪些疗法属于补充医学、替代医学和/或整合医学（CAIM）的范畴具有一定难度。操作性定义是动态的，会随着时间和地理位置的变化而变化，许多国家将其传统医学体系纳入常规医疗体系或正在考虑将其纳入。我们之前根据系统检索报告了首个 CAIM 操作性定义。在本研究中，我们根据 CAIM 的操作性定义开发了一个全面的检索字符串，用于系统文献数据库检索策略。
我们为最常见的文献数据库开发了一个单一的检索字符串，包括可在 OVID 平台（如 MEDLINE、EMBASE、PsycINFO、AMED）、EBSCO 平台（如 ERIC、CINAHL）、Scopus 和 Web of Science 上搜索的数据库，使用 CAIM 的 604 种疗法的最终操作性定义。我们还在治疗研究中心的“天然药物”数据库中搜索了所有 604 种疗法，并且将每种疗法的学名和/或同义词作为关键词或短语纳入检索字符串。
这个开发的检索字符串提供了一个 CAIM 术语的标准列表（即关键词和短语），可以在文献数据库中搜索，包括可在 OVID 平台（如 MEDLINE、EMBASE、PsycINFO、AMED）、EBSCO 平台（如 ERIC、CINAHL）、Scopus 和 Web of Science 上搜索的数据库。
研究人员可以为他们的 CAIM 研究选择相关术语，并将关键词/短语插入这些数据库中，以获取所有可获得的数据。该检索技术可以简单地复制并粘贴到每个数据库的搜索栏中，通过关键词进行搜索，这是最全面的方法，也可以通过文章标题中的单词进行搜索，这是更具选择性的方法。由于它在多个常用的学术平台/数据库中具有通用性，预计该检索字符串对于进行涉及系统检索策略的 CAIM 主题研究的人员将具有很高的价值。
