Refine or merge searches

Refine searches when matched sentences show false positives, false negatives, or ambiguous language.

Refine a query

Start from the existing query, results, and matched sentences. Identify terms to add, remove, quote, or exclude.

Common changes include:

• Add synonyms to improve recall.
• Add exact phrases to improve precision.
• Add plural variants manually.
• Add AND NOT exclusions for false positives.
• Use parentheses to make precedence explicit.

Combine searches

Where merge operations are available, combine searches with AND, OR, or AND NOT.

Use AND when a measure should require both concepts. Use OR when either concept should count. Use AND NOT when a search should exclude a known false-positive concept.

Merge operations work at the sentence level. The merged search takes matched sentences from the first search and checks how they relate to the second search:

• AND keeps sentences that match both searches.
• OR keeps sentences that match either search.
• AND NOT keeps sentences from the first search that do not match the second search.

For complex queries with large keyword groups, it can be clearer to run separate searches and merge them than to maintain one long query. Keep the merge logic in the reproducibility record.

Compare versions

Compare the original and revised searches before choosing the final query. Look at both aggregate output and matched sentences.

Keep search metadata so reviewers can see which query produced the final exported panel.

Document the final definition

For the final measure, record the exact query, date range, any selected options, merge logic where used, export date, and downstream normalization choice.