|
LIMITING
LIMITING is the next step in the search process. Before we begin to LIMIT, let's revisit our search question:
What are the risks
of heart diseases in
postmenopausal
women receiving
estrogen
replacement
therapy?
As you recall, our search combines the MeSH terms "*estrogen replacement therapy" AND "exp *heart diseases".
 But what about the concepts of postmenopausal women? Why haven't we include these concepts in our search?
 First, not every concept is a search term or a MeSH term. Concepts such as gender, age groups, human VS. animal studies, English VS. other languages, publication types, publication years, etc. are known as LIMIT OPTIONS, LIMITERS, or CHECK TAGS. We apply these limit options to our search after we have searched for the basic concepts and combined them together.
Second, think about what is known about our search example, estrogen replacement therapy...
We know that estrogen replacement therapy is commonly received by postmenopausal women. Other groups -- men, children, teenage girls, etc. rarely or never receive estrogen replacement therapy. Therefore, the concepts of "postmenopausal" and "female" are assumed, or concepts that we do not necessarily need to specify in our search strategy.
|
