Differences in Search Strategies Across Various Scientific Databases: A Case Study on Hormonal and Cancer Therapy with Red Clover Extracts

Abstract

Introduction: Finding complex and relevant information in the specialty literature is a very important aspect for researchers, this representing the first step in designing and starting a new research. Aim: This study aimed to test four different search strategies within three databases to get a higher number of valid and reliable articles able to reflect the state of the art. Methods: We performed a literature search on 25 May 2024, in PubMed, Web of Science, and ScienceDirect scientific databases. We used four Boolean search strings (one sort and one long with quotation mark and one short and one long with parentheses) that combined relevant keywords related to hormonal therapy, cancer treatment, and red clover. The article types targeted were open and non-open access articles and also review and research articles. Filters as publishing year, text availability, article type and additionally subject area - for Science Direct, were applied. Results: The 1^st short Boolean search strategy with quotation marks identified 1369 articles, and the 2^nd short search strategy with parentheses identified 2734 potentially relevant articles. The 1^st long Boolean search strategy with quotation marks identified 112 articles, and the 2^nd long search strategy with parentheses identified 185 potentially relevant articles. The highest number of open access articles (106) and the highest number of review articles (253) was retrieved by ScienceDirect. Most of the determined articles classified as irrelevant were retrieved from ScienceDirect for all the 4-search strategy, compared to WoS and PubMed, and were excluded after filtering process, since they did not present related characteristics to the subject of interest. A significant association between article type and the 4 strategies for ScienceDirect had been identified. Conclusions: The short search strategy with parentheses returned a higher number of articles than the short strategy with quotation marks and the long strategies with quotes and parentheses. ScienceDirect returned the largest number of articles, but upon verification, the most irrelevant articles were also observed within this database. Regarding open access and review articles type, the short strategy with parentheses returned the highest number for PubMed and ScienceDirect, and for WoS, the highest number of such articles was obtained following the use of the short strategy with quotation marks.