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IACUC and Animal Welfare Resources: Step 6: Managing the Search

Recording the Search Strategy: Electronic Lab Notebook

When conducting a literature search, it is important to save your search strategies. Saving your search strategy allows you to track all of the searches done, including successful and non-successful searches. 

Researchers should document searches in an Electronic Lab Notebook (ELN). Mount Sinai licenses LabArchives as the ELN of choice. To learn more about how to acquire and use LabArchives, please visit the Electronic Lab Notebook (ELN) page: 

Recording the Search Strategy: Databases

Researchers also have the option to save their search strategy from databases themselves. Some benefits to saving a search strategy in a database include: 

  • Tracking all search strategies including results 
  • Being able to re-run the search at a later date to track new publications. 
  • Setting up "alerts" notifying you of new publications related to your search 

Below you will find information on how to save your search strategy across most frequently used databases: 

Reference Management Tools: What Are They?

Reference management tools are softwares that allow you to collect, store and organize your citations including books, journals and multimedia. Reference managers are a great way to organize the resources you have amassed thus far in your research.

While there are a lots of reference managers out there, the library supports two: Zotero and Endnote. For more information on how to use a reference management tool, please consult our Reference Management guide linked below.