Validating Search Filters for Systematic Reviews
Author Information
Author(s): Margaret Sampson, Li Zhang, Andra Morrison, Nicholas J Barrowman, Tammy J Clifford, Robert W Platt, Terry P Klassen, David Moher
Primary Institution: Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute
Hypothesis
Can relative recall of studies from systematic reviews validate methodological search filters as an alternative to hand searching?
Conclusion
Using relative recall instead of a hand searching gold standard is feasible and yields comparable recall figures.
Supporting Evidence
- 72% of included primary studies were indexed in MEDLINE.
- Relative recall ranged from .98 to .91 across different search strategies.
- The study included 105 systematic reviews that met specific criteria.
Takeaway
This study shows that we can check if search filters work well by looking at how many relevant studies they find, instead of searching through everything by hand.
Methodology
The study analyzed 105 Cochrane reviews to measure the effectiveness of different search strategies in retrieving relevant studies indexed in MEDLINE.
Limitations
The relative recall approach may miss important studies if the searches are not comprehensive.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
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