Article type
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Abstract
Background: Previous analysis indicates a third of research studies for health-related reviews on international development topics are identified outside bibliographic databases(1). Searching websites is an important method to identify research and involves a range of techniques. There are no acknowledged standards for documentation of website searches.
Aims: To promote debate on the challenges and solutions of website searching and promote standards of conduct and reporting.
Methods: We draw together our learning from undertaking and supporting reviews on a range of topics in international development since 2010, to inform recommendations for practice.
Results: We present some problems, share a range of solutions, and propose a template to aid the conduct and documentation when using these resources. Challenges include retrieving large numbers of records; identifying empirical research; using appropriate vocabulary. A taxonomy of techniques is proposed, including: browsing sections of web sites; searching an entire site; searching through a database; searching with pre-defined keywords. Distinctions are drawn between research centres, international organisation, international development specialist resources, topics and government departments.
Conclusions: A template could facilitate consistent searching, help aid transparency and quality assurance of the search process. Limited functionality of searching and exporting options pose challenges for the review. There is a need to raise awareness to websites and organisations in order to make their empirical research more accessible to reviewers.
(1) Stansfield C, Dickson K (2011) Locating evidence for developing countries: a case study of three health promotion reviews (poster presentation) 19th Cochrane Colloquium, Madrid.
Aims: To promote debate on the challenges and solutions of website searching and promote standards of conduct and reporting.
Methods: We draw together our learning from undertaking and supporting reviews on a range of topics in international development since 2010, to inform recommendations for practice.
Results: We present some problems, share a range of solutions, and propose a template to aid the conduct and documentation when using these resources. Challenges include retrieving large numbers of records; identifying empirical research; using appropriate vocabulary. A taxonomy of techniques is proposed, including: browsing sections of web sites; searching an entire site; searching through a database; searching with pre-defined keywords. Distinctions are drawn between research centres, international organisation, international development specialist resources, topics and government departments.
Conclusions: A template could facilitate consistent searching, help aid transparency and quality assurance of the search process. Limited functionality of searching and exporting options pose challenges for the review. There is a need to raise awareness to websites and organisations in order to make their empirical research more accessible to reviewers.
(1) Stansfield C, Dickson K (2011) Locating evidence for developing countries: a case study of three health promotion reviews (poster presentation) 19th Cochrane Colloquium, Madrid.