Article type
Year
Abstract
Background: Epistemonikos (www.epistemonikos.org) is a user-friendly, multilingual, collaborative database of evidence. One unique feature of this database is that connects different types of evidence and allows to compare different systematic reviews addressing a similar question.
Methods: Systematic reviews (SR), overviews and structured summaries of reviews are searched for in over 20 databases, and information is uploaded into a single database. Primary studies included in SR are also uploaded, independent of the publication or language status. All information is collaboratively classified and a direct connection between systematic reviews, overviews of reviews and their included studies is added, making it easy to get an overview of the evidence and find what is being looked for. A tool for comparing reviews that share primary studies and to mantain an updated body of evidence for a specific question has been recently released.
Results: The database contains over 160 000 records, including 29 000 systematic reviews and more than 100 000 primary studies. Using software and a network of collaborators, titles and abstracts are translated into nine languages. More than 20 000 official translations to Spanish, French, Chinese, German, Dutch, Arabic, Portuguese and Italian have been compiled from the internet. Over 1000 translations to Spanish have been generated by collaborators of Epistemonikos. It is possible to search in those nine languages, using both intuitive (i.e google-like) and traditional (i.e. boolean) strategies. More than 150 000 connections between related articles are available which makes possible to navigate between different types of evidence (e.g. from primary studies to systematic reviews) and to compare different reviews that share primary studies.
Conclusion: Epistemonikos allows user to obtain relevant evidence in an easy way, and can also help Cochrane reviewers and CRGs to search for studies, decide upon updating reviews or prioritising new reviews. The tool to compare reviews has potential to improve Cochrane Reviews.
Methods: Systematic reviews (SR), overviews and structured summaries of reviews are searched for in over 20 databases, and information is uploaded into a single database. Primary studies included in SR are also uploaded, independent of the publication or language status. All information is collaboratively classified and a direct connection between systematic reviews, overviews of reviews and their included studies is added, making it easy to get an overview of the evidence and find what is being looked for. A tool for comparing reviews that share primary studies and to mantain an updated body of evidence for a specific question has been recently released.
Results: The database contains over 160 000 records, including 29 000 systematic reviews and more than 100 000 primary studies. Using software and a network of collaborators, titles and abstracts are translated into nine languages. More than 20 000 official translations to Spanish, French, Chinese, German, Dutch, Arabic, Portuguese and Italian have been compiled from the internet. Over 1000 translations to Spanish have been generated by collaborators of Epistemonikos. It is possible to search in those nine languages, using both intuitive (i.e google-like) and traditional (i.e. boolean) strategies. More than 150 000 connections between related articles are available which makes possible to navigate between different types of evidence (e.g. from primary studies to systematic reviews) and to compare different reviews that share primary studies.
Conclusion: Epistemonikos allows user to obtain relevant evidence in an easy way, and can also help Cochrane reviewers and CRGs to search for studies, decide upon updating reviews or prioritising new reviews. The tool to compare reviews has potential to improve Cochrane Reviews.