Additional file 2: Web Search Engine Search Strategy
Record of systematic web search engine searches
Initials of searcher, date and website searched are given below followed by search strings and number of returned results. Any comments by the searcher to explain changes to search strings or other activity are given in square brackets.
- Google Scholar ( 13.05.2013
[Cannot use complex Boolean algebra. Will not accept wildcards. Limited character length permitted. Intervention terms alone searched in two sets; abandon* and destock*.]
a)allintitle: abandonment grassland OR farm OR cropland OR agriculture OR land OR pasture
[416 hits. First 260 screened at title-level and relevant titles exported to End Note Library (Google Scholar Library.enl). No further screening possible, since Google prevented proceeding beyond page 26 of results (claiming “your computer or network may be sending automated queries.” 172 relevant titles saved.]
NRH 10.06.13
b)allintitle: abandoned grassland OR farm OR cropland OR agriculture OR land OR pasture
[1260 hits. First 260 screened at title-level and relevant titles exported to End Note library (Google Scholar Library.enl). 26 relevant titles saved.]
c)allintitle: destock grassland OR farm OR cropland OR agriculture OR land OR pasture
[0 hits]
d)allintitle: destocking grassland OR farm OR cropland OR agriculture OR land OR pasture
[4 hits. Relevant titles exported to End Note library (Google Scholar Library.enl). 1 relevant title saved.]
197 Results exported to EndNote Library (GoogleScholar Library.enl). Google Scholar results imported into Library of accepted titles after merged database results screened. 39 duplicates removed.
- ScirusNRH 13.05.2013
[Search not functioning properly - returns “Sorry, your query is too general”. Limited characters accepted. Supposedly should function with above string since wildcards, parentheses, quotation marks and Boolean operators are acceptable. Restricted search to ‘keywords’ instead of ‘the complete document’. 6,214 articles found.]
[Managed to get the following strings to function but had to split them down by groups of population terms, since only 40 hits could be exported at any one time.]
(keyword:grassland OR keyword:farm* OR keyword:cropland OR keyword:agricultur* OR keyword:land OR keyword:field OR keyword:pasture) (keyword:destock* OR keyword:abandon*) (keyword:"high altitude" OR keyword:"higher altitude" or keyword:"high ground") [2]
(keyword:grassland OR keyword:farm* OR keyword:cropland OR keyword:agricultur* OR keyword:land OR keyword:field OR keyword:pasture) (keyword:destock* OR keyword:abandon*) (keyword:"higher ground" or keyword:*alpine or keyword:montane) [44]
(keyword:grassland OR keyword:farm* OR keyword:cropland OR keyword:agricultur* OR keyword:land OR keyword:field OR keyword:pasture) (keyword:destock* OR keyword:abandon*) (keyword:mount*) [144]
(keyword:grassland OR keyword:farm* OR keyword:cropland OR keyword:agricultur* OR keyword:land OR keyword:field OR keyword:pasture) (keyword:destock* OR keyword:abandon*) (keyword:upland or keyword:plateau or keyword:mesa) [25]
(keyword:grassland OR keyword:farm* OR keyword:cropland OR keyword:agricultur* OR keyword:land OR keyword:field OR keyword:pasture) (keyword:destock* OR keyword:abandon*) (keyword:tableland or keyword:slope or keyword:aspect) [24]
(keyword:grassland OR keyword:farm* OR keyword:cropland OR keyword:agricultur* OR keyword:land OR keyword:field OR keyword:pasture) (keyword:destock* OR keyword:abandon*) (keyword:remote* or keyword:massif or keyword:sierra) [49]
(keyword:grassland OR keyword:farm* OR keyword:cropland OR keyword:agricultur* OR keyword:land OR keyword:field OR keyword:pasture) (keyword:destock* OR keyword:abandon*) (keyword:steep or keyword:rugged or keyword:apennine) [1]
(keyword:grassland OR keyword:farm* OR keyword:cropland OR keyword:agricultur* OR keyword:land OR keyword:field OR keyword:pasture) (keyword:destock* OR keyword:abandon*) (keyword:alps or keyword:volcano* or keyword:carpathian*) [83]
(keyword:grassland OR keyword:farm* OR keyword:cropland OR keyword:agricultur* OR keyword:land OR keyword:field OR keyword:pasture) (keyword:destock* OR keyword:abandon*) (keyword:pyren* or keyword:caucasus or keyword:andes or keyword:rockies) [20]
354 Results exported to EndNote Library (Scirus Library.enl). Scirus results screened at title and imported into Library of accepted titles after merged database results screened. 14 duplicates removed.
- DogPileNRH 14.05.2013
[Cannot use full search string. Does not allow wildcards. Cannot search multiple ‘all of these terms’.]
[Replaced above search string with the following basic string. Screened first 150 returns.]
(agricultural land abandonment mountain high altitude alpine farm)
[22 relevant titles saved as html or PDF files within DogPile Folder in search results. Dogpile Library.enl merged with Library of accepted titles after merged database results screened. No duplicates identified]