P.I.C.O.
Identify the major concepts of your question, using the PICO mnemonic, then find synonyms for each concept. Doing this before you start searching helps identify the key ideas of your topic, so you know what terms to use in your search.
Sometimes, depending on your question, you may use PICOT, which may stand for Type of Study or the Timeframe.
Example Question
What effect does palliative care have on quality of life for women with breast cancer?
Breaking up the question into its core concepts is the next step:
The key to a comprehensive search strategy is identifying synonyms. Think about terms that may have different spellings (behavior OR behaviour) or often use acronyms (AIDS OR acquired immunodeficiency syndrome).
Find synonyms to represent each major concept.
Practice Question
Test out your PICO skills using the following question below.
Are vitamin C supplements effective in reducing the length of a cold in adult females?
Break down the question using PICO, then compare your answer to the one provided in the answer tab.
Are vitamin C supplements effective in reducing the length of a cold in adult females?
When doing literature searches, it's important to research synonyms as well. In this example, Vitamin C is also called "ascorbic acid", so you would want to use both terms in your search.