Article type
Year
Abstract
Background: Studies from United Kingdom (UK) health and social care settings can be required to inform evidence-based guidance developed by the UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). However, robust methods for retrieving UK studies in systematic literature searches do not exist. The pragmatic use of non-validated UK search strategies risks an unknown proportion of UK studies being missed. Conversely, sifting search results that are not restricted by geographic location creates a costly and time-consuming information overload when UK studies are required. Information specialists at NICE are developing validated UK geographic search filters to resolve this issue.
Objectives: To develop validated UK geographic search filters for MEDLINE and Embase (Ovid) with the best balance of recall and precision for systematic literature searches.
Methods:
1. Gold standard: This will be generated using the relative recall method. UK studies that have informed NICE guidance will be identified and the studies that are indexed in MEDLINE or Embase will form the gold standard for each database. A power calculation will determine the number of gold standard studies required to develop each filter.
2. Filter development: The gold standard for each database will be randomly divided into a ‘development set’ and a ‘test set’. The UK-related search terms for the MEDLINE and Embase filters will be derived objectively using a text analysis system on the ‘development set’ of each database.
3. Validation: The effectiveness of the filters will be validated against the ‘test set’ of each database by calculating their recall and precision.
Expected conclusions: The validated UK geographic search filters will enable the robust retrieval of UK studies from MEDLINE and Embase in systematic literature searches. The filters and accompanying methods will be shared via online search filter resources and peer-reviewed journal articles. Professional peers will be able to use the filters to retrieve UK studies or to transfer the development methods to create search filters for other geographic regions.
Objectives: To develop validated UK geographic search filters for MEDLINE and Embase (Ovid) with the best balance of recall and precision for systematic literature searches.
Methods:
1. Gold standard: This will be generated using the relative recall method. UK studies that have informed NICE guidance will be identified and the studies that are indexed in MEDLINE or Embase will form the gold standard for each database. A power calculation will determine the number of gold standard studies required to develop each filter.
2. Filter development: The gold standard for each database will be randomly divided into a ‘development set’ and a ‘test set’. The UK-related search terms for the MEDLINE and Embase filters will be derived objectively using a text analysis system on the ‘development set’ of each database.
3. Validation: The effectiveness of the filters will be validated against the ‘test set’ of each database by calculating their recall and precision.
Expected conclusions: The validated UK geographic search filters will enable the robust retrieval of UK studies from MEDLINE and Embase in systematic literature searches. The filters and accompanying methods will be shared via online search filter resources and peer-reviewed journal articles. Professional peers will be able to use the filters to retrieve UK studies or to transfer the development methods to create search filters for other geographic regions.