Many people make the mistake of putting the term “alternatives” in the strategy and expect to find “all” possible alternatives.
Because alternatives is a complex concept involving refinement, reduction and replacement, the use of “alternatives” as a search term is best used only in those areas of study where larger amounts of research have been conducted on alternatives, such as in toxicology or education. In other areas of research the term “alternatives” often retrieves results not related to the 3Rs.
"Search hedges are pre-made, standardized search strings that can be used to identify relevant articles for a specific research topic or population. They can save time and ensure all relevant keywords, related terms, and synonyms are included.
AWIC developed search hedges for various laboratory animal species as well as other 3Rs topics. AWIC plans to post hedges for 3Rs alternatives methods such as environmental enrichments, social housing, abnormal behavior, and other topics in 2024." - AWIC Website
For use in PubMed (MEDLINE) database:
“Cats”[Mesh] OR cat[tiab] OR cats[tiab] OR feline[tiab]
"Dogs"[Mesh] OR dog[tiab] OR dogs[tiab] OR canine[tiab] OR canines[tiab]
"Guinea Pigs"[Mesh] OR guinea pig[tiab] OR guinea pigs[tiab]
"Mice"[Mesh] OR mice[tiab] OR mouse[tiab] OR mus[tiab] OR murine[tiab]
(("Primates"[Mesh] NOT "Humans"[Mesh]) OR "non-human primate"[tiab] OR "non-human primates"[tiab])
“Rabbits”[Mesh] OR rabbit[tiab] OR rabbits[tiab] OR lagomorpha[tiab]
"Rats"[Mesh] OR rat[tiab] OR rats[tiab] OR rodent[tiab] OR rodents[tiab]
"Sheep"[Mesh] OR sheep[tiab] OR ovis[tiab] OR ovine[tiab]
"Swine"[Mesh] OR swine[tiab] OR pig[tiab] OR pigs[tiab] OR porcine[tiab]
Note: The tag [tiab] searches for the term in the title and abstract
For use in Scopus database:
TITLE-ABS-KEY (cat OR cats OR feline)
TITLE-ABS-KEY ( canine OR dog OR dogs )
TITLE-ABS-KEY(guinea pig OR guinea pigs)
TITLE-ABS-KEY(mice OR mouse OR mus OR murine OR rodent OR rodents)
TITLE-ABS-KEY(rabbit OR rabbits OR lagomorpha)
TITLE-ABS-KEY(rat OR rats OR rodent OR rodents)
TITLE-ABS-KEY (rhesus OR macaca OR macaque OR "non?human primate*")
TITLE-ABS-KEY(sheep OR ovis OR ovine)
TITLE-ABS-KEY(swine OR pig OR pigs OR porcine)