Cooper, C., Varley-Campbell, J., Booth, A. orcid.org/0000-0003-4808-3880 et al. (2 more authors) (2018) Systematic review identifies six metrics and one method for assessing literature search effectiveness but no consensus on appropriate use. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 99. pp. 53-63. ISSN 0895-4356
Abstract
Objective To identify the metrics or methods used by researchers to determine the effectiveness of literature searching where supplementary search methods are compared to bibliographic database searching. We also aimed to determine which metrics or methods are summative or formative and how researchers defined effectiveness in their studies.
Study Design and Setting Systematic review. We searched MEDLINE and EMBASE to identify published studies evaluating literature search effectiveness in health or allied topics.
Results Fifty studies met full-text inclusion criteria. Six metrics (Sensitivity, Specificity, Precision, Accuracy, Number Needed to Read and Yield) and one method (Capture recapture) were identified.
Conclusion Studies evaluating effectiveness need to identify clearly the threshold at which they will define effectiveness and how the evaluation they report relates to this threshold. Studies that attempt to investigate literature search effectiveness should be informed by the reporting of confidence intervals, which aids interpretation of uncertainty around the result, and the search methods used to derive effectiveness estimates should be clearly reported and validated in studies.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2018 Elsevier. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health (Sheffield) > School of Health and Related Research (Sheffield) > ScHARR - Sheffield Centre for Health and Related Research |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 19 Mar 2018 14:43 |
Last Modified: | 11 Nov 2020 09:17 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2018.02.025 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:128645 |