Plan a systematic review search by defining your sources and a reproducible strategy before you run anything, then log each database, search date, and result count so the methods section and PRISMA flow diagram can be completed from your own records. The Cochrane Handbook treats planning searches, selecting sources, developing strategies, searching reference lists, documenting searches, and managing records as connected steps of one search process.
Build the plan in order
- Define the review question and the concepts that must appear in a record, then list the databases and other sources you will search. The Cochrane Handbook covers selecting sources and searching reference lists and other sources as part of search planning.
- Develop the search strategy for each source, translating the concept terms into that database's syntax. In PubMed, field tags and filters let you target specific fields and narrow results; Advanced Search supports building and combining these queries.
- Run the searches and record the database, full strategy, date run, and number of records retrieved. These counts feed the PRISMA 2020 flow diagram, which reports what studies were found and included.
- Search reference lists and other sources named in your plan, and add those records to the same log.
- Manage the records: deduplicate, screen, and track decisions so the final included set matches the counts in your documentation.
What to document
Keep one log with the source name, the exact strategy as executed, the date, and the raw count. PRISMA 2020 provides a checklist and flow diagrams for transparent reporting of why the review was done, what methods were used, and what studies were found and included, so your log should map directly onto those items.
Refining before you finalize
PubMed supports phrase searching, filters, citation matching, similar-article links, and saved searches for locating and refining biomedical records. Use saved searches to re-run a strategy later and record the updated count with its date. If a strategy returns an unmanageable volume, adjust the concept terms or filters and log the revised version alongside the original so the reported method matches what you ran.