Planning your search before starting helps you determine what kind of information you need and what words you will use to search for the information. For the literature search to provide relevant results, it is essential that you really know what you are searching for.
Once you have formulated a search question, the next step is to determine which acronym (examples below) to structure your question around. Perhaps one of them will suit your specific topic.
PICO is useful to frame your topic and your search question. Based on the content in PICO, you can then build your search blocks and get control of your search.
PICO consists of these parts:
Example: Does naproxen offer more efficient pain relief than ibuprofen for patients suffering from knee osteoarthritis?
| Population: | Patients suffering from knee osteoarthritis |
| Intervention: | Efficiency of pain treatment with naproxen |
| Control: | Compared with ibuprofen |
| Outcome: | Improved pain treatment, higher quality of life, less pain |
Usually, you only need to search for terms describing Population, Intervention and perhaps Control since it is recommended to start your search wide in order to not miss out on relevant material.
ECLIPSE is suitable for research questions where policy material is needed or when investigating the outcome of a service.
Example:
How can educational efforts initiated by the municipality increase the educational level among suburban residents without upper secondary education?
| Expectation: | Improve conditions for the municipality to increase the educational level among suburban residents without upper secondary education |
| Client group: | Adult suburb residents with low educational level |
| Location: | Suburb areas surrounding Swedish cities with at least 100 000 inhabitants |
| Impact: | Improved access and efficiency in education among adult suburban residents |
| Professionals: | Education Department |
| Service: | Educational efforts from the Education Department aimed at adults |
SPICE is suitable for qualitative evidence or when investigating an intervention or a project.
Example: Can municipal women’s shelters provide women suffering from abuse-related trauma with better possibilities for permanent housing than private ones?
| Setting: | Women’s shelters, Sweden |
| Perspective: | Women with abuse-related trauma |
| Intervention: | Process from (municipal) women’s shelters to permanent housing |
| Comparison: | Compared with private shelters |
| Evaluation: | Increased possibilities of permanent housing |
SPIDER is suitable for qualitative and mixed methods focusing on study design and focus groups rather than populations.
Example: How do parents and children experience kindergarten introduction?
| Sample: | Children and parents introduced to kindergarten |
| Phenomenon of Interest: | Kindergarten introduction |
| Design: | Case studies and interviews |
| Evaluation: | Experience |
| Research type: | Qualitative |