Evaluation of methodological search filters—a review

Jenkins, Michelle

doi:10.1111/j.1471-1842.2004.00511.x

Cited by 164 publications

(310 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Work is required to test and validate our search filter against an established gold standard. This requires the identification of publications by hand searching a range of target journals 18 to determine and optimize the sensitivity, specificity, precision, and accuracy. Subsequently, it will be possible to refine the search terms to produce a 'second generation' subject search filter.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Search filters were initially developed in the 1990s to help researchers identify publications pertaining to particular methodological designs, such as prevention, diagnosis, treatment, prognosis, systematic reviews, and randomized controlled trials. [16][17][18] It was beyond the scope and intent of this project to review all the articles identified using our search filter. What we set out to achieve by making the comparison with the general search results was to highlight the potential to miss many relevant publications if a suboptimal search strategy is used.…”

Section: Subject Search Filter For Spinal Cord Damage Not Due To Traumamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We have developed the first reported 'first-generation' subject search filter 18 for spinal cord damage not due to trauma. It is important to highlight that simply using a broad search term (e.g.…”

Section: Subject Search Filter For Spinal Cord Damage Not Due To Traumamentioning

confidence: 99%

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What to call spinal cord damage not due to trauma? Implications for literature searching

New

Delafosse

2012

The Journal of Spinal Cord Medicine

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Objectives: To illustrate the importance of multiple search terms and databases when searching publications on spinal cord damage not due to trauma. Conclusions: Concise searches using terms 'non-traumatic spinal cord injury' and 'nontraumatic spinal cord injury' fail to identify relevant articles unless combinations of terms and databases are used. These are inadequate search terms for a comprehensive search. Further research is needed to validate our comprehensive search filter. An international consensus process is required to establish an agreed term for 'spinal cord damage not due to trauma.' Keywords: Information storage and retrieval, Spinal cord diseases, Spinal cord injury, Systematized nomenclature of medicine, TerminologyThat which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.1 Although Shakespeare's perspective on names can be generalized to healthcare, there is a compromise when multiple non-standard terms are used to describe the same entity. In relation to spinal cord medicine, for example, evidence suggests that all patients with spinal cord damage, irrespective of their etiology (i.e. 'the name'), should be able to access specialist rehabilitation services without bias or discrimination. 2,3However, patients with spinal cord damage not due to trauma do not always have this equity of access. 2,3 In addressing this, and other research agendas involving these patients, a major compromise occurs because there is no accepted general collective term for this group of disorders. It is essential, however, in healthcare to have consistent vocabulary and definitions to facilitate discussion and knowledge transfer among planners, managers, educators, clinicians, and researchers. This is extremely important with regard to having consistent terms for searching the literature, which is a vital component of evidence-based medicine. 4 Furthermore, efficient and timely access to pertinent information is a vital part of the evidence-based healthcare process. Clinicians and health planners have an enormous challenge in dealing with the volume of published information, particularly knowing where and how to search, and how to appraise the quality of information.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Subject Search Filter For Spinal Cord Damage Not Due To Traumamentioning

confidence: 99%

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What to call spinal cord damage not due to trauma? Implications for literature searching

New

Delafosse

2012

The Journal of Spinal Cord Medicine

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“…They manage the search process in its entirety, from designing the search strategy to conducting and documenting the actual search and managing the references [2]. Information specialists also develop search filters that enable the efficient searching of bibliographic databases for specific methodological and subject-specific research questions [3][4][5][6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Routine development of objectively derived search strategies

et al. 2012

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Background: Over the past few years, information retrieval has become more and more professionalized, and information specialists are considered full members of a research team conducting systematic reviews. Research groups preparing systematic reviews and clinical practice guidelines have been the driving force in the development of search strategies, but open questions remain regarding the transparency of the development process and the available resources. An empirically guided approach to the development of a search strategy provides a way to increase transparency and efficiency.

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“…Filters are objectively derived, pretested strategies optimized to help users efficiently retrieve articles for a specific purpose. 7,8 PubMed provides two types of clinical search filters: methods-based and topic-based. Methodsbased filters (known as clinical queries) were designed to retrieve articles on therapy, diagnosis, prognosis and etiology.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%