University of Derby Library Blog

New! PICO search option in EBSCO databases

A recent addition to some of our EBSCO databases is the option to run a search using the PICO research question framework. PICO stands for:

P   Population / Patient / Problem

I    Intervention

C   Comparison

O   Outcome

You can find this search option as a link underneath the search boxes on both the Basic and Advanced search pages. Clicking on the link will open a dialog box (which overlays part of the standard search screen) with separate rows for each element of the PICO framework. You do need to fill in the population / intervention fields but it's entirely up to you whether you also fill in the comparison & outcome fields. (Sometimes it's better to leave the outcome option blank as, when you read the articles themselves, you'll discover what the outcome was.)

Below you'll see some screenshots of what to expect.

On the basic search screen 

On the advanced search screen 

The dialog box which appears when you click on the link

You can use Boolean operators in the search boxes to look for synonyms so it is possible to use it to conduct an intermediate level search (using the Boolean Operator OR).

Try it out and let us know what you think!