There are a number of various tools to finesse a search, but some of the most commonly used tools are:
Truncation:
To search for different forms of a root word, such as vaccin* to find vaccine, vaccines, vaccinate, vaccination, vaccinations, etc.. You can use a wildcard to look for alternate letters within a word, such as wome*n to find woman as well as women. The asterisk * is used in the library catalog and many databases for this.
Use the * thoughtfully. It can result in false hits (gam* will bring gaming and gamer as well as gambling and gambler).
To find a specific phrase, with the words next to each other in order, use double quotation marks around the phrase:
Use the " " thoughtfully. It can eliminate some relevant articles.
To build a search to combine the concepts, use a nested search:
When combining searches, use parentheses ( ) around different parts of the search, as in the example above or the Scopus search below.
( (TITLE ( hypertension OR "high blood pressure" OR "elevated blood pressure" OR htn OR hypertensive ) ) OR ( ABS ( hypertension OR "high blood pressure" OR "elevated blood pressure" OR htn OR hypertensive ) ) ) AND ( ( TITLE ( mhealth OR m-health OR "mobile health" OR ehealth OR e-health OR telehealth OR tele-health OR tele-medicine OR telemedicine OR phone AND app* OR "mobile app*" OR apps OR app OR "health technology" OR "mobile phone*" OR "cell phone*" OR "cellphone*" OR "smartphone*" OR "smart phone*" OR "web based" OR "web-based" OR website OR "web-site" OR "web site" OR "internet-based" OR "internet based" ) ) OR ( ABS ( mhealth OR m-health OR "mobile health" OR ehealth OR e-health OR telehealth OR tele-health OR tele-medicine OR telemedicine OR phone AND app* OR "mobile app*" OR apps OR app OR "health technology" OR "mobile phone*" OR "cell phone*" OR "cellphone*" OR "smartphone*" OR "smart phone*" OR "web based" OR "web-based" OR website OR "web-site" OR "web site" OR "internet-based" OR "internet based" ) ) ) AND ( ( ABS ( "self-care" OR "self care" OR selfcare OR "self-manag*" OR "self manag*" OR "selfmanag*" OR "self-monitor*" OR "self monitor*" OR selfmonitor* OR coach* OR interven* OR "patient educat*" ) ) OR ( TITLE ( "self-care" OR "self care" OR selfcare OR "self-manag*" OR "self manag*" OR "selfmanag*" OR "self-monitor*" OR "self monitor*" OR selfmonitor* OR coach* OR interven* OR "patient educat*" ) ) ) AND ( LIMIT-TO ( PUBYEAR , 2022 ) OR LIMIT-TO ( PUBYEAR , 2021 ) OR LIMIT-TO ( PUBYEAR , 2020 ) OR LIMIT-TO ( PUBYEAR , 2019 ) OR LIMIT-TO ( PUBYEAR , 2018 ) OR LIMIT-TO ( PUBYEAR , 2017 ) ) AND ( LIMIT-TO ( LANGUAGE , "English" ))