Can electronic search engines optimize screening of search results in systematic reviews: an empirical study

BMC Medical Research Methodology
Margaret SampsonLi Zhang

Abstract

Most electronic search efforts directed at identifying primary studies for inclusion in systematic reviews rely on the optimal Boolean search features of search interfaces such as DIALOG and Ovid. Our objective is to test the ability of an Ultraseek search engine to rank MEDLINE records of the included studies of Cochrane reviews within the top half of all the records retrieved by the Boolean MEDLINE search used by the reviewers. Collections were created using the MEDLINE bibliographic records of included and excluded studies listed in the review and all records retrieved by the MEDLINE search. Records were converted to individual HTML files. Collections of records were indexed and searched through a statistical search engine, Ultraseek, using review-specific search terms. Our data sources, systematic reviews published in the Cochrane library, were included if they reported using at least one phase of the Cochrane Highly Sensitive Search Strategy (HSSS), provided citations for both included and excluded studies and conducted a meta-analysis using a binary outcome measure. Reviews were selected if they yielded between 1000-6000 records when the MEDLINE search strategy was replicated. Nine Cochrane reviews were included. Included...Continue Reading

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Citations

Jun 17, 2011·Nephron. Clinical Practice·Aminu K BelloMarcello Tonelli
Mar 26, 2013·Clinical Epidemiology·Farrah J MateenBiren B Kamdar
Jun 21, 2015·Journal of Clinical Epidemiology·C M Dintsios, C Niederstadt
Dec 19, 2020·International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care·Margaret SampsonJ Dayre McNally

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Software Mentioned

Perl scripts
Ovid
Reference Manager
Ultraseek
Perl script
SAS

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