NHS Ovid App User Guide
- June 12, 2024
- NHS
Table of Contents
Royal United Hospitals Bath
NHS Foundation Trust
Ovid User Guide
A: Accessing Ovid Databases and Creating a Personal Account
Accessing Ovid Databases
- Go to the OpenAthens website: https://openathens.nice.org.uk/Hub/Resources.
- Sign in with your OpenAthens username and password, or click ‘Register’ if you don’t yet have an account.
- You can find more information on how to register with OpenAthens on the Academy Library website here: https://www.ruh.nhs.uk/library/athens/index.asp
- Once you have signed in, select Ovid Technologies, Inc. from the list of Resources
- Click the OpenAthens/Institutional link under the Ovid log in box
- Type Royal United Hospital into the search box, and select from the drop-down list
- Or select from previously used institutions
2. Select the database you want to search, for instance Medline. Then click “OK”. We recommend searching one database at a time:
3. Once you have selected a database, you can begin searching. However, you
will first need to create a personal/research account to save your searches
and results. If you already have a personal account, login to it now.
Click on “My Account” – this will take you to the login/registration screen.
B: Searching for Terms
4. From here, either sign into your existing Personal Account, or select “Create Account”:
To get back to the Ovid search page, click on the “Search” icon on the top left:
5. To start a search, click on “Search Fields”:
6. You can now start entering your search terms in the search box.
“All fields” is automatically selected. Alternatively, you can select specific
fields to search e.g.
Abstract, and Title.
Once you’ve entered your search term, select “Search”:
7. The results appear under the list of fields – you may find it easier to
click on either “Advanced Search” or “Multi-field Search” as this will mean
less scrolling down the screen.
8. This will show you your search strategy so far.
Only the 4 most recent search lines are displayed automatically. To see the
full search, click “Expand” on the right of the screen:
9. To save your search so far, click “Save All”.
Enter a search name, Select Type as “Permanent”. If you are updating an existing search, ensure that “Ignore Warning” is ticked.
Ovid will automatically time out after about 90 minutes. If you do not save your search regularly, you will lose the most recent work.
10. You can access your saved searches from either the “My Account” or “My Workspace” icons at the top of the screen.
C: Searching for Subject Headings
11. To search for Subject Headings, select “Advanced Search” from the menu bar.
12. Type in what subject headings you want to search for. Ensure that “Map to subject heading” is ticked and click “Search”. Do not use truncation when searching for subject headings.
13. You can explode or focus the subject heading to get wider or narrower results. The scope note shows what is covered by the subject heading you have entered, including the alternative terms. Searching as a keyword as well as a subject heading will give the widest range of results.
Select to “Combine with OR” and click “Continue”.
Head back to your full search (by clicking the expand icon – see Step 8) to combine your search terms.
D: Combining Search Terms and Subject Headings
14. Combine your terms and subject headings by selecting the search lines you want to combine.
15. Once you have searched all your concepts, combine them using “AND”. In the example below, line 7 combines the results for one concept (passive smoking) and line 10 for the second concept (cancer):
E: Filtering and Saving Results
16. On the results screen, you can filter down your results by publication date, subject, journal, author and publication type (e.g. review) on the left- hand side options bar:
17. You can save individual results by ticking their selection box and clicking the “+ My projects” icon at the top of the page:
18. Within your personal folder, you can create subfolders (projects) for specific searches.
Results can be added to an existing project, or you can create a new one.
19. To export results, select the results you would like to export and click
on the “Export icon to see all available formats.
20. You can access your saved searches from either the “My Account” or “My Workspace” icons at the top of the screen.
Need more help?
If you would like to book onto a training session with one of our Librarians,
please contact the Academy Library:
Phone: 01225 824897/8
Email: [email protected]
This guide was produced with help from Salford Royal Hospital Library Northern
Care Alliance NHS Trust