Search hedges are search strategies that have been created using keywords, phrases, and subject terms for concepts that may be the subject matter of your research question or topic; these are usually created for a specific database and may have been validated.
Use caution when adopting a search hedge for your systematic review. Hedges can get out of date, subject terms may change or get updated, and additional terms may be necessary to best suit your review. Use hedges as a starting point and edit or expand upon as needed.
Find search hedges:
Search filters deal with static concepts, like study design, population, language, publication dates, etc. Most library databases provide search filters. See EBSCO database example on this page.
Example: EBSCO databases
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