Macros for translation of search strategies in bibliographic databases

Erasmus MC information specialists have developed macros to translate search strategies between different databases and interfaces.

Installing the macros into you MS Word

Go to this location and copy the contents.
In MS Word, go to View > Macros > View Macros > Create
Scroll to the end of the edit screen, and press Ctrl-V
Press Save and close this program (Visual Basic)

Using the macros

Copy the source query into a blank Word document
Press Ctrl-Home on your keyboard to move the cursor to the top left position
Select View > Macros > View Macros
Select the Macro for the desired translation and click Run
Copy the new query, go back to you original word document and paste

Editing the syntaxes to correct the macros

For database translations where different thesaurusses are used, you have to manually change the thesaurus terms after allying the macros.
Additionally, not every syntax change can be solved with a macro. Some syntaxes have to be edited after the macros were used. See the table below for manual edits

Embase.com -> Medline Ovid Explosion of narrower MeSH terms: add exp before the MeSH term.
Major MeSH terms: add an asterisk (*) before the MeSH term.
Embase.com -> Cochrane Macros are not necessary. Remove the emtree terms from the Embase syntax

Cochrane -> Google Scholar All truncation should be written out in full. Quotes for phrases should be thoroughly checked. You can use an OR (|) in a quotes phrase.
"bacterial|viral infection|infections"
Medline Ovid -> CINAHL (EBSCOhost) Make sure each MeSH term is preceded by MH.
For each element: copy the free text terms and paste them within the same element. Once place the field TI before the parentheses, and once the field AB.

Medline Ovid -> PubMed Add the field [tiab] after each non truncated free text term.

Editing the macros

The macros are designed for the database sequences that are used by Erasmus MC in Rotterdam. This method starts in embase.com, and uses Medline via Ovid. The Cochrane library search is generated from the embase.com search, by removing emtree terms. From the Cochrane search Web of Science and Google Scholar macros are available.

If you want to use another database sequence you can alter the macros or create your own.

The macros perform a sequence of Find and Replace options. Each option is given in the code between
With Selection.Find
and
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
That sequence contains a code:
.Text = "..."
.Replacement.Text = "..."

If you want to adapt an existing macro alter the texts given in these code lines to match your preferred syntax alterations.
If you want to add a replacement, copy on if the code sections between the lines above and alter the code replacement lines.

If you want to create a new macro you can copy and paste one of the existing macros, between the lines:
Sub Change...()
and
End Sub
to give it a different name, and change the syntax replacements, as described above.

Embase.com -> Medline Ovid	Explosion of narrower MeSH terms: add exp before the MeSH term. Major MeSH terms: add an asterisk (*) before the MeSH term.
Embase.com -> Cochrane	Macros are not necessary. Remove the emtree terms from the Embase syntax
Cochrane -> Google Scholar	All truncation should be written out in full. Quotes for phrases should be thoroughly checked. You can use an OR (\|) in a quotes phrase. "bacterial\|viral infection\|infections"
Medline Ovid -> CINAHL (EBSCOhost)	Make sure each MeSH term is preceded by MH. For each element: copy the free text terms and paste them within the same element. Once place the field TI before the parentheses, and once the field AB.
Medline Ovid -> PubMed	Add the field [tiab] after each non truncated free text term.