Background: Search strategies have become increasingly complicated with time. This increases effort for both searching and parsing effort. We wondered whether simpler searches would reduce unnecessary 'hits' while preserving the core ones.

Objectives: To test whether simple searches will improve specificity without compromising sensitivity.

Methods: We have searched past Cochrane reviews in the acute respiratory infections (ARI) Group with two or more search strategies to test whether included studies identified in the reviews were retrieved.

Results: These are presented with recommendations about expanding or contracting either the aetiological agents; the symptoms; or the disease search terms.

Conclusions: These recommendations should improve the efficiency of searching and parsing titles.