Introduction and credits

Introduction to the National Searching Guidance.

This guidance is intended for Knowledge and Library Services (KLS) staff tasked with searching the evidence on behalf of NHS staff.

The authors acknowledge that searching is a professional skill and this guidance does not replace an expert searcher: it is meant for professionals to refer to in an advisory capacity when performing a search, to supplement their institutional/local practice.

The suggested time to allocate to this search figures offered at the top of each entry are intended as rough suggestions to help plan time only, and encompass all the stages of the search including the compiling of a search report, with any summarising and synthesising that might be undertaken.

The lower figure will apply more to simpler search topics and/or to searchers experienced with that type of search, while the upper figures will apply more to trickier search topics and/or to searchers less experienced with that type of search.

Every individual search will vary greatly depending on its complexity and yield though.

This version of this guidance is now considered the default version.  A pdf version is hosted on the KLS Search and Training Forums (London, South East and South West) workspace on FutureNHS and on The Searching and Training Forums Wiki.  All these sites will be updated with the latest edition of the guidance simultaneously after the Working Group’s quarterly review.

The proliferation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its uptake in searching and healthcare more broadly is a recent development that the Working Group has incorporated into this edition of the guidance, though colleagues are still directed towards the Current and Emerging Technology in Knowledge and Library Services Community of Practice’s workspace on FutureNHS to keep up with this quickly evolving field.

A less quickly evolving situation is the British Library’s following the cyber-attack in October 2023 – readers are advised that the library’s services and resources have still not fully returned. The AMED database is now being updated again, but not at the rate it was before the attack, for example.

With your assistance, we aim to improve and update this guidance continuously. Though this edition is published well behind our planned quarterly review/update schedule, we aim to keep the schedule nonetheless.

The next review date is: May 2025.

To provide feedback or to submit an example search report for inclusion in the supplement, or to report broken links, contact Adam Tocock on [email protected] or use this anonymous form.

Thank you to everyone that provided feedback on the previous edition, and to our reviewers and extra contributors for their help and expertise:

  • Helen Swales, Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust
  • Kristi Smith, Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
  • Rosalind McNally, Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust
  • Tom Kelly, University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust
  • Natasha Howard, North East London NHS Foundation Trust
  • Kirsten Elliott, Imperial College London
  • Affra Al Shamsi, North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust
  • Holly Case-Wyatt, Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust
  • Sarah Mathieson, Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
  • John Barbrook, University of Lancaster
  • Lucy Reid, NHS England Knowledge and Library Services
  • Susan Prosser, Swansea Bay University Health Board (who, with Sarah Rudd of North Bristol NHS Trust, first suggested the LKSS Regional Searching Guidance could “go national”)
  • Tracy Dixon, Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
  • Rhys Whelan, Swansea Bay University health Board
  • Morag Evans, Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
  • Karen Stringer, Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust
  • James Hurst, North East London NHS Foundation Trust
  • Liz Bridge, Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust
  • Karen Skinner, Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust
  • Andra Fry, LSE Library
  • Gavin Moore, South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust
  • Sarah Rudd, North Bristol NHS Trust
  • Helen Elwell, formerly of the British Medical Association
  • Susan Smith, Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
  • Hannah Wood, NHS England
  • Derick Yates, Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust
  • Lindsay Snell, University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust

I would like to thank The National Searching Guidance Working Group for all their hard work creating this guidance:

  • Igor Brbre, NHS Healthcare Improvement Scotland
  • Hayley Clarke, East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust
  • Anne Cleves, Velindre University NHS Trust and Cardiff University
  • Naila Dracup, University of Warwick
  • Sophie Easey, North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust
  • Tom Kelly, University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust
  • Gill Foster, NHS England
  • Assad Lahlou, Barts Health
  • Louise Levitt, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
  • Alison McLaren, Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust
  • Heather Steele, Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
  • Lucy Wells, University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust

And a special thanks to our dearly missed colleague Lynne Mackie, whose influence runs right through this.

Adam Tocock, The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

This is version 1.4 released in February 2025.