[Search strategies for nephrology knowledge and evidence]

The informatic techniques for searching biomedical literature have been one of the fundamental advantages of the era of information explosion. In this review, we focus on some methodologies for searching biomedical literature with particular focus on nephrology and describe the use of PubMed and the techniques for understanding and using the Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) to search Medline and other databases. Search strategies take advantages of simple search engines which generate informatic algorithms to find relevant articles; alternatively, a set of rules is to be known and represents a more powerful means for identification of selected publications. The latter technique is more useful for researchers seeking relevant information in the literature to prepare systematic reviews. Informatic techniques for searching biomedical literature have represented a fundamental advantage in science. Additional advantage will derive from the use of structured formats in research reporting, with better and quicker readability of retrieved published information, and from the effort of researchers in synthetizing the available published literature.