Secondary Sources - Search Engines

Most people use single search engines. These are improving in sophistication. ‘Knowledge Finder’ uses fuzzy logic, concept mapping and simple limits to make it easy for the average user to get some good ‘hits’ with a simple question. Meta search web sites (SavvySearch, Profusion) submit an enquiry to several search engines at once. Other search engines prompt you for exact terminology in your search and rank the returns according to the EBM hierarchy. The better the searcher, the better the returns.

See the introduction to SEARCH for details on search strategies etc. Get training if you can!

For practitioners living in or near Britain, the BMA runs searching courses. Enquire at the ‘Course information’ part of the library area of the BMA web site.