Phrasing in reproducible search methodology: The consequences of straight and curly quotation marks

Abstract

Various disciplines have shown commitment to research reproducibility including the adoption of replicable search methodologies. With the development of reporting checklists and guidelines for systematic reviews, authors are expected to transparently report search strategies. Replicable search strategies are critical since the included studies will be screened for inclusion in some form of evidence synthesis which could have practice and policy implications. In cases where search strategies miss germane literature, studies could face criticism and difficulties in peer review. Search strategies containing non-alphanumeric or special characters may not retrieve pertinent literature due to a search platform's capacity for handling said characters. In this study, 40 platforms were tested using quotation characters and the absence of said characters to investigate platform behavior. This study found that 42.5% platforms ignored curly quotation marks and interpreted the test terms as a phrase, 30% of the platforms completed the phrase search, and one platform flagged curly quotation marks as an unsupported character.