Preferred terms

used within the National Searching Guidance.

Throughout this document the following preferred terms are used, following consensus from the working group, and feedback from colleagues:

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Refers to generative artificial intelligence, large language models and other machine learning technologies.

Bibliographic databases

Used instead of “primary research databases” to refer to the databases available via Ovid, EBSCOhost, and ProQuest: AMED, BNI, CINAHL, Embase, Emcare, HMIC, Medline, and PsycINFO etc. PubMed and subject-specific databases are included under this umbrella term.

Clinical decision support tool

Used instead of “point-of-care tool” (used in the first and second editions of the LKSS Regional Searching Guidance) or “clinical reference tool”. See Clinical decision support (CDS) tool in glossary.

Deduplication

"Deduplicate” and “deduplication” are used instead of “remove duplicates” and “the removal of duplicates” respectively.

Evidence search

Used instead of “literature search”.

Filter

Used instead of “hedge”. See Filter in glossary.

High tier evidence

Used instead of “secondary evidence”. See High tier evidence in glossary.

The KL Hub

Used after every first instance of “The NHS Knowledge and Library Hub” within entries, for brevity, replacing “National Discovery Tool/Service” used in the second edition of the LKSS Regional Searching Guidance.

NHSE KLS (NHS England Knowledge and Library Services)

Used instead of HEE or NHS Digital following their mergers, except where the new moniker would make the provenance of resources unclear.

Provider interface

Used instead of “native interface” to refer to EBSCOhost, Ovid, ProQuest and ProQuest Dialog.

Scoping search

Used instead of “pilot search”, or “quick and dirty search”. See Scoping search in glossary.

Subject heading

Used in favour of “descriptor” or “thesaurus term” or “controlled language term” or “controlled vocabulary term”. See Subject heading in the glossary.