EBMgt Course Module 6: Searching for Scientific Evidence

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Evidence-based management:
Search for the best available scientific evidence

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The 5 steps of EBP
1. Formulate a focused question (Ask)
2. Search for the best available evidence (Acquire)
3. Critically appraise the evidence (Appraise)
4. Integrate the evidence with your professional
expertise and apply (Apply)
5. Monitor the outcome (Assess)

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4 sources of evidence

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4 sources of evidence
Where & how to get scientific evidence?
?

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Searching evidence
Where do we search?

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Articles in peer reviewed journals

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The way of the past …

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The way of the present …

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Online research databases
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 ABI/INFORM
 Business Source Elite
 PsycINFO
 Web of Knowledge
 ERIC
 Google Scholar

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Comparing databases
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Searching evidence
How do we search?
Search Strategy

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Two types of search strategies
Search strategy
Building blocks methodSnowball method

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3. Building blocks2. Snowball1. Shotgun
Three types of search strategies
Search strategy

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1. Shotgun method
 Do a generic search on the Internet with the most
important keywords from your PICOC (Intervention
or Outcome).
 Try to find out which related terms / words /
subjects are being used and look for references.
 The output of your search will be input for
the snowball and building blocks method.

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2. Snowball method
Starting from one book or article, you search for
other literature on the same topic.
 Snowballing backward to older publications by finding out
which publications were used by the author (see
bibliography of book or article).
 Snowballing forward to more recent publications by
finding out how often that book or article has been
cited by other authors (see Web of
Knowledge or Google Scholar).

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Relevant PICOC terms
Input for forward
snowballing

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Synonyms or
related terms
• ….
• ….
• ….
• ….
Synonyms or
related terms
• ….
• ….
• ….
• ….
Synonyms or
related terms
• ….
• ….
• ….
• ….
PICOC term 1 PICOC term 2 PICOC term 3
AND AND
OR OR
3. Building blocks method

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P = back office employees
I = merger, integration, back office
C = status quo
O = economy of scale
C = healthcare, different organizational culture, unequal
1. Underline the keywords
2. Number the order of importance from 1-4
3. Building blocks: an example

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P = back office employees
I = 1. merger, 3. integration, back office
C = status quo
O = 4. economy of scale
C = 5. healthcare, different 2. organizational culture, unequal
1. Underline the keywords
2. Number the order of importance
3. Building blocks: an example

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Search terms
Operationalise your Pico elements!
O = long term profitability?

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Search with these combinations
1. Thesaurus (su) OR Title (ti)
When there is no thesaurus term available search with
2. Title (ti) OR Abstract (ab)
1. su(“pay for performance") OR ti("pay for performance”)
2. ti(”360 degree feedback”) OR ab(”360 degree feedback”)

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The advantages of ‘subjects’ or
‘thesaurus terms’
 One single term for variations in spelling or synonyms
(organization, organization, company, corporation)
 The term is relevant (therefore, so is the article)
 Automatic “Explode” function (narrower terms are
automatically included)
 Extra search options (subheadings, major topics, etc.)
3. Building blocks: thesaurus

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The disadvantages of ‘subjects’ or
‘thesaurus terms’
 Recent articles not yet indexed
 “Index errors”
 Sometimes there are no suitable subjects or thesaurus
terms (new concept, specific term)
3. Building blocks: thesaurus

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corporate culture: organizational character, corporate identity
self steering teams: autonomous teams, self managed teams
360 degree feedback: multisource feedback, upward feedback,
Using the keywords from your PICOC may be
sufficient, but always consider to do an additional
search with:
 synonyms
 alternate spelling, translations
 related terms / words / subjects
 narrower or broader terms
3. Building blocks: additional search

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1. Search with #1 PICOC term (incl. alternative
terms, synonyms, alternate spellings, truncations, etc.) in
the thesaurus OR title or title OR abstract
2. Search with #2 PICOC term (incl. synonyms, etc.)
3. Combine the results of step 1 and 2 with AND using the
search history
3. Building blocks: search query

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3. Building blocks: Boolean operators
 AND = both terms (apples AND oranges)
 OR = either one of these terms (apples OR oranges)
 NOT = without this term (fruit NOT oranges)
 NEAR = near this term (apples NEAR oranges)
 * = replaces 0,1 or more characters (apple*=
apple, apples, applejack, applejuice, applepie, etc.)
 ?= replaces 1 character (organi?ation=
organisation, organization)

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orangesapples
apples AND oranges apples OR oranges
orangesapples
3. Building blocks: Boolean operators

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3. Building blocks: an example

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• Merger
• Fusion
• Combination
• Take over
• Acquisition
• Unification
• …
1. Merger
• Healthcare
organization
• Non profit
• Not for profit
3. Health care
Intervention Context
•Corporate culture
•Organizational
behavior
•Organizational
character
•Corporate
identity
•Core beliefs
•Shared values
2. Culture
Comparison
AND
OR
Define keywords & related terms
OR
AND

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Start up

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Always search for thesaurus terms

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Always search for thesaurus terms

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Use the history function to combine results
Combining results

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Use the history function to combine results
Combining results

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Narrow your results

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Narrow your results

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Save your results

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3. Building blocks: summary
1. Formulate a focused question and break it down into keywords (PICOC),
2. Underline the 2 to 4 most relevant keywords,
3. Start with the most relevant keyword: is it listed in the thesaurus? If not: search
with (title OR abstract).
4. Repeat your search with alternative terms, synonyms or alternate spellings.
5. Combine the outcome: (thesaurus OR title) + (title OR abstract) + (alternative
terms) with OR (use the history function!)
6. Repeat above steps for keyword 2
7. Combine the outcome of your search with keyword 1 and 2 with AND (use the
history function!)
8. Filter the articles with “studies” (subject > studies)
9. Read the titles and abstracts of your results, select the relevant articles and safe
them.
TIP: No full text available in ABI/Inform or BS Premier? Try Google Advanced.

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Learning through play !
 Try all buttons
 Make lots of mistakes
 Have fun !