Build the search string for your systematic review and get the query ready for each database

What this solves

Writing a search string by hand means keeping fourteen different syntaxes straight: [tiab] in PubMed, TITLE-ABS-KEY in Scopus, TS= in Web of Science. The Search Strategy Builder asks for your production type, research areas, topic, what is in and out of scope, and the time frame, then returns the conceptual blocks and one query per database, ready to copy.

How it works

1. 1

   Choose your starting path

   The landing page offers two paths. The guided chat is for a topic that is not settled yet: six short questions turn into three research paths with objective, scope and suggested databases, and you pick one to refine. The direct wizard is for a defined topic and known databases.

2. 2

   Answer the five steps of the wizard

   Production type and title, research areas (27 in the catalog, which pre-select the usual databases for each one), topic and institutional context, what you want and what you do not want in the results, and finally the time frame plus the databases.

3. 3

   Copy the query for each database

   The result shows Block A (central concept), Block B (methodological contribution) and Block NOT (exclusions), one query per selected database with its syntax note, screening criteria and an operational checklist. Copy database by database or download the whole strategy as a text file.

Method

What happens to your file, step by step, and where the result stops being a decision made by a model.

What you get

• Fourteen databases, each with its own syntax

  PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science, IEEE Xplore, ACM Digital Library, SciELO, ERIC, dblp, Embase, PsycINFO, CINAHL, Cochrane Library, JSTOR and LILACS. Each query uses that database's field operators, such as [tiab], TITLE-ABS-KEY and TS=, plus its year filter.

• Blocks A, B and NOT kept separate

  The central concept, the methodological contribution and the exclusions come as separate term lists, so you can adjust one block without rewriting the whole string.

• Two starting points

  If the topic is still open, six guided questions return three deliberately different research paths with objective, scope and suggested databases. If it is already defined, go straight to the wizard.

• Screening criteria and checklist

  Beyond the queries, the file brings methodological notes, a screening criteria table with decision and rationale, and an operational checklist. It downloads as a text file and stays in your history for later.

Changelog

Every line below is a change that actually shipped, dated by the day it went out.

1. August 06, 2026 Latest

   • The guided chat now opens with the subject already filled from the active project's research question. It still asks, nothing is sent automatically, and one keystroke clears it.
   • Leaving the end year blank no longer produces an open range that Web of Science rejects: an absent end year now closes at the current year.
   • The active project stays selected when you move between tools and result pages.

Questions and answers

How to cite this tool

Used it in your research? Here is the reference, already filled in with the version you are looking at and today's access date.

@software{xploredados_search_strategy_builder_2026,
  author  = {Lessa, Patrick Wendell Barbosa},
  title   = {Search Strategy Builder},
  organization = {Xplore Dados},
  version = {2026.08},
  year    = {2026},
  url     = {https://xploredados.com/en/tool/search-strategy-builder},
  urldate = {2026-08-21}
}