Ovid Tutorial 2.0
 University of South Alabama Biomedical Library

Textwords:

In this approach, you are searching for the exact words that the author has used in the title and/or abstract. The word or phrase simply appears in the title or abstract; it does NOT necessarily indicate that the word or phrase is the topic of the article.

Textwords are useful in finding information on a topic for which there are no good MeSH headings. Examples are:  topics that might be very new to the literature, or topics that has a very specific name, such as the GUSTO Trials. Textwords are also useful for retrieving information on a specific drug name, that might be combined with the appropriate MeSH heading.

Truncating textwords:

Textwords can be truncated to pick up variant forms of a word. For example if you are looking for citations that use the word empirical, you might also want to consider using the word empiric. By truncating the root empiric with a "$" (empiric$), you will pick up all words beginning with empiric.

Exercise:

  1. View the sample screen

    2.  
  2. Type in "betaseron" in the box labeled  "Enter Keyword or phrase"

    3.  
  3. Click on PERFORM SEARCH button

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Web address:     http://southmed.usouthal.edu/library/ref/ovid/text.htm
Last Update:    2/14/02
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