| Course | PHLT 8062 Dissertation Seminar II |
|---|---|
| Week | Week 2 |
| Paper type | Search strategy |
| Length | About 910 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Walden University |
| Program | PhD in Public Health |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for PHLT 8062 Week 2
Search Strategy for a Review of Hepatitis B Birth Dose Coverage and Hospital Policy: Four Concept Blocks, Subject Headings Paired With Text Words, and Enough Detail That an Outside Librarian Would Retrieve the Same Records
Student Name
Walden University
PHLT 8062: Dissertation Seminar II
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Search Strategy for a Review of Hepatitis B Birth Dose Coverage and Hospital Policy: Four Concept Blocks, Subject Headings Paired With Text Words, and Enough Detail That an Outside Librarian Would Retrieve the Same Records
The Standard
A literature search for a dissertation review succeeds when someone else can repeat it and retrieve the same records. That standard governs every choice below. The review asks what is known about hepatitis B birth dose coverage in United States hospitals, the hospital systems associated with it and the effects of changes in how hospitals obtain newborn vaccine, framed by current national guidance on the dose (Schillie et al., 2018). The strategy breaks that question into four concept blocks, pairs controlled vocabulary with free-text terms in each, combines the blocks with Boolean operators and records every database, date and limit. It follows the elements that the PRISMA extension for reporting literature searches asks reviewers to document (Rethlefsen et al., 2021) and will be peer reviewed by a health sciences librarian using the PRESS checklist before it is run for the final review (McGowan et al., 2016).
The Concept Blocks
The question contains four concepts that every relevant record must touch: the hepatitis B vaccine, the newborn period, the hospital setting and coverage or administration. A fifth concept, financing or supply, matters for the review's third claim but would exclude useful studies of coverage and hospital systems if required of every record, so it is searched separately and combined only for that claim.
Each block pairs subject headings, which capture records indexed by concept regardless of wording, with text words, which capture recent records not yet indexed and articles that use terms differently. Truncation, marked with an asterisk, retrieves word endings such as vaccine, vaccines and vaccination. Phrases are quoted to keep words together.
Table 1
Concept Blocks With Subject Headings and Text Words, PubMed Version
| Block | Subject headings (MeSH) | Text words (title and abstract) | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Vaccine | Hepatitis B Vaccines | "hepatitis B vaccin*", "HepB", "HBV vaccin*" | |
| 2 Newborn | Infant, Newborn | newborn*, neonat*, "birth dose", "at birth", perinatal | |
| 3 Setting | Hospitals; Delivery Rooms; Nurseries, Hospital | hospital*, "birthing facilit*", "birth hospital*", nursery | |
| 4 Coverage | Vaccination Coverage; Immunization Programs; Guideline Adherence | coverage, administ*, uptake, receipt, "standing order*", "order set*" | |
| 5 Financing (claim 3 only) | Financing, Government; Health Policy | purchas*, financ*, supply, "universal purchase", "Vaccines for Children" | |
Note. Blocks 1 to 4 are combined with AND; terms within a block are combined with OR. Block 5 is added with AND for the claim 3 search.
Databases and Translation
The strategy will run in PubMed, CINAHL and Scopus. PubMed covers biomedical and public health journals; CINAHL adds nursing literature, where many hospital improvement reports appear; Scopus adds broader coverage and citation tracking. Subject headings differ across databases, so each block is translated rather than copied: in CINAHL, for example, "Hepatitis B Vaccine" and "Infant, Newborn" are mapped to CINAHL headings, and Scopus, which lacks a comparable thesaurus, relies on text words searched in titles, abstracts and keywords. The full search string for each database, with its run date and the number of records retrieved, will appear in an appendix.
Limits and Their Reasons
Table 2
Limits Applied and the Reason for Each
| Limit | Setting | Reason | |
|---|---|---|
| Dates | 2005 to the present | National guidance on the birth dose was revised in 2005, so earlier practice differs | |
| Language | English | Review concerns United States hospitals; translation resources unavailable | |
| Geography | United States, applied at screening rather than in the search | Database geography filters miss records, so location is judged by reading | |
| Publication type | None in the search | Excluding types in the search risks losing relevant reports; types are judged at screening | |
Note. Limits applied at screening rather than in the search are recorded so that screening decisions can be audited.
What the Pilot Run Showed
A pilot run in PubMed in September retrieved 287 records for blocks 1 to 4. A check against eight known relevant articles, chosen from the annotation log before searching, found that seven were retrieved. The missed article described birth dose practices at a single hospital and was indexed under "Hepatitis B" rather than "Hepatitis B Vaccines," with "immunization" rather than "vaccination" in the abstract. Adding the text word "immuniz*" to block 1 and the subject heading "Immunization" retrieved it, at a cost of 41 additional records to screen. Testing a strategy against known items in this way is a practical check on sensitivity before the full search (McGowan et al., 2016).
How the Strategy Will Be Documented
For each database, the appendix will record the platform, the date searched, the full search string, the limits used and the number of records retrieved. Records will be exported to a reference manager, duplicates removed with a stated method, and the counts carried into a flow diagram. The PRISMA-S checklist asks for exactly these items so that a reader can judge and repeat the search (Rethlefsen et al., 2021). Searches will be rerun within six months of the dissertation defense to capture new publications, and the update will be documented the same way.
Limits of the Strategy
Database searching will miss state program evaluations and hospital reports that were never published in journals, which may be the main evidence for the review's third claim. A separate gray literature sweep addresses that gap. The strategy also depends on how indexers assigned subject headings, which is why every block carries text words as well.
References
McGowan, J., Sampson, M., Salzwedel, D. M., Cogo, E., Foerster, V., & Lefebvre, C. (2016). PRESS peer review of electronic search strategies: 2015 guideline statement. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 75, 40-46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2016.01.021
Rethlefsen, M. L., Kirtley, S., Waffenschmidt, S., Ayala, A. P., Moher, D., Page, M. J., Koffel, J. B., & PRISMA-S Group. (2021). PRISMA-S: An extension to the PRISMA statement for reporting literature searches in systematic reviews. Systematic Reviews, 10, Article 39. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-020-01542-z
Schillie, S., Vellozzi, C., Reingold, A., Harris, A., Haber, P., Ward, J. W., & Nelson, N. P. (2018). Prevention of hepatitis B virus infection in the United States: Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. MMWR Recommendations and Reports, 67(1), 1-31. https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.rr6701a1
What the PHLT 8062 Week 2 instructions ask for
The second assignment usually asks for a documented search strategy for the student's dissertation review. Faculty expect the question broken into concept blocks, each combining subject headings with free-text terms, and the blocks combined with Boolean logic. Databases should be chosen for stated reasons, headings translated rather than copied between databases, and every limit justified by the question. Strong strategies test themselves against a set of known relevant articles and report what the test changed. Documentation should follow a reporting standard such as PRISMA-S, recording platforms, dates, full strings and counts, and peer review by a librarian using the PRESS checklist strengthens the strategy. The aim is that someone else could run the search and get the same results. Tables of blocks and limits are common.
How this PHLT 8062 Week 2 example is built
The paper opens with the reproducibility standard and the two checklists it follows. A section identifies four required concepts and a fifth searched separately for the supply claim, and a table lists subject headings and text words for each block in PubMed. A section explains why each database was chosen and how headings were translated. A second table lists limits, dates, language, geography and publication type, with reasons, noting which are applied at screening rather than in the search. A section reports the pilot run, the check against eight known articles and the added terms that recovered a missed one at the cost of extra records. Final sections describe documentation and the strategy's limits.
PHLT 8062 Week 2 rubric: what earns full marks
Graders reward a strategy another person could repeat. Strategies that list keywords without structure, or limits without reasons, earn less. Credit goes to concept blocks that pair controlled vocabulary with text words, to database choices and translations explained, and to limits tied to the question rather than convenience. Testing against known articles, and reporting the change it prompted, demonstrates rigor that many strategies lack. Documentation should match a recognized reporting standard. Accurate description of the PRISMA-S and PRESS tools is checked. Acknowledging what database searching will miss, here unpublished program evaluations, shows awareness that motivates the gray literature work to come. Clear tables make the strategy easy for a librarian to review.
Common PHLT 8062 Week 2 mistakes, and how to avoid them
Search strategies fail the reproducibility test when they read like a list of keywords. Break your question into concepts, pair subject headings with text words in each, and combine them explicitly. Explain each database and translate headings for each one. Justify every limit. Test the search against articles you already know belong and fix what it misses. Record platforms, dates, strings and counts. Ask a librarian to review it. Strategies for other review questions benefit from the same structure. Keep a dated log of every run, because the committee may ask how the final counts were reached months after the first search. A strategy that survives a librarian's review usually survives the committee's questions too.
Get a PHLT 8062 Week 2 example written to your instructions
Share your review question, any searches already run, and the Week 2 assignment wording with its rubric. The strategy splits your question into concept blocks, translates them for each database and logs each line with date and yield. Nothing is charged for the first one, back within 24 to 48 hours. Its ordinances and strings belong to a made-up review.
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PHLT 8062 Week 2 questions, answered
What does the Cochrane Handbook say about searching?
Its searching chapter sets out principles that apply well beyond Cochrane reviews: search several sources, combine controlled vocabulary with free-text terms for each concept, look beyond bibliographic databases, and document the search fully enough to be reproduced. The example borrows those principles and makes no claim to be a Cochrane review. A dissertation search can follow the same logic without the scale, and your committee will likely recognize it.
Do I need a librarian to review my search?
It is not always required, but it is one of the cheapest ways to strengthen a strategy. A librarian often spots missing synonyms or a subject heading applied too narrowly. The example records the review and the two terms it added. If your university offers a subject librarian for public health, the consultation also gives you a sentence in the methods that committees tend to respect.
Should the search have a language or date limit?
Only with a reason belonging to the question. The example sets one date limit, tied to when the first mandate took effect, because no evaluation could precede the policy. It sets no language limit, since the only reason would be convenience. Limits applied without a reason look like a way to shrink the pile, and readers will ask what was left out.
Where can I find a free PHLT 8062 Week 2 sample paper?
This page reproduces the complete Week 2 search strategy for a review of newborn hepatitis B vaccination, with concept blocks, limits, a pilot test and documentation plans.
Why test the search against known articles?
Checking whether the strategy retrieves articles already known to be relevant is a practical test of sensitivity; the sample found one missing article and added terms that recovered it.