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Searching Ovid Databases

A guide to searching the Ovid platform.

Your Search Results

Once you have run a search scroll down or select display to see the results. 

In the grey bar at the top of the list of results, there are a few different options for how much detail you see, and how many results are displayed per page:

Results bar image

Once you have run your search you can apply limits to increase the relevancy of your search results. You can filter your search results using the grey bar on the left side of the screen. For example, you can limit by date or publication type.

Filter by options

Top Tip: Apply limits one at a time, this allows you to see the effect each limit has on the number of results.

To expand your results, click Find Similar alongside any record to carry out a new search for records covering similar topics. You can also view the cited references, click Find Citing Articles to retrieve a list of papers that have cited it. 

Find similar imagine

These are ways to broaden a search for relevant articles, however, note these options only capture results within the Ovid databases not all citations received. 

Each reference will have a check for this at Exeter button, click on the link to see if the full text is available (not everything is!).

A new window will open to check if full text is available and provide a link if access is available. You may need to click on the document link (some browser pop-ups prevent automatic opening) to be directed to the full text.

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