Term Finder

Term Finder gives you access to controlled vocabulary, definitions and pronunciations from Stedman's Medical Dictionary, and related terms from the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS). You can use MeSH, APA or Emtree headings, the MeSH or APA tree or Emtree, scope notes, subheadings (for Ovid MEDLINE or Embase only) and external sources all in one place.

If you're conducting an Advanced Search on Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid Embase or APA PsycInfo, you'll see the Term Finder button. If you want to use Term Finder, you can't search more than one of Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid Embase and APA PsycInfo at the same time.

Click Term Finder to open the Term Finder dialog.

To use Term Finder, enter any term and select Enter.

You can add these items directly from Term Finder to the search box, or copy them to the clipboard:

Selected terms with Boolean operators
Results from the MeSH Permuted Index (Ovid MEDLINE only) or Emtree Permuted Index (Embase only)
Related terms from UMLS.

To do this, check the box(es) you want and click Add to Search Options. You can also choose to explode or focus MeSH, Emtree or APA headings.

To view the:

MeSH or APA tree or Emtree
Used for terms (Ovid MEDLINE or Embase only)
Scope notes
Subheadings (Ovid MEDLINE or Embase only)

for each result, click the respective link in the Mapped MeSH Results, Mapped Emtree Results or Mapped APA Results section. You can add terms from the MeSH or APA tree or Emtree, Used for terms (Ovid MEDLINE or Embase only) and subheadings (Ovid MEDLINE or Embase only) to your search.

Here's an explanation of how the Add to Search Options buttons work:

Add to Search - this adds the selected terms to the Ovid search box, with OR operators in between terms if you selected multiple terms. If you selected a single term, it will just add that term to the search box (no operators). It doesn't add any operator in front of the list of terms, even if there is currently one or more terms in the Ovid search box.
AND with Search - this adds the AND operator before the selected term(s) and adds the OR operator in between selected terms if you selected multiple terms. If the Ovid search box is currently empty, this results in an extra operator at the start of the search string.
OR with Search - this adds the OR operator before the selected term(s) and adds the OR operator in between selected terms if you selected multiple terms. If the Ovid search box is currently empty, this results in an extra operator at the start of the search string.
Copy to Clipboard - this copies the selected terms to your clipboard, with OR operators in between terms if you selected multiple terms. If you selected a single term, it will just copy that term to the clipboard. It doesn't add any operator in front of the selected term/terms.

To view results from the MeSH Permuted Index (Ovid MEDLINE only), Emtree Permuted Index (Ovid Embase only) or related terms from UMLS, and add them to your search, click View in the Results from MeSH Permuted Index, Results from Emtree Permuted Index or Related Terms from UMLS sections.

The Term Finder button doesn't display if you're searching another database with Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid Embase or APA PsycInfo; however, you can search across multiple Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid Embase or APA PsycInfo segments and still use Term Finder.

For more support information and training content, please visit the
Ovid Tools & Resources Portal.

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