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Optimal search strategies for retrieving systematic reviews from Medline: analytical survey.

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BMJ, 330 (7482): 68 (Januar 2005)

Zusammenfassung

OBJECTIVE: To develop optimal search strategies in Medline for retrieving systematic reviews. DESIGN: Analytical survey. DATA SOURCES: 161 journals published in 2000 indexed in Medline. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The sensitivity, specificity, and precision of retrieval of systematic reviews of 4862 unique terms in 782,485 combinations of one to five terms were determined by comparison with a hand search of all articles (the criterion standard) in 161 journals published during 2000 (49,028 articles). RESULTS: Only 753 (1.5\%) of the 49,028 articles were systematic reviews. The most sensitive strategy included five terms and had a sensitivity of 99.9\% (95\% confidence interval 99.6\% to 100\%) and a specificity of 52\% (51.6\% to 52.5\%). The strategy that best minimised the difference between sensitivity and specificity had a sensitivity of 98\% (97\% to 99\%) and specificity of 90.8\% (90.5\% to 91.1\%). Highest precision for multiterm strategies, 57\% (54\% to 60\%), was achieved at a sensitivity of 71\% (68\% to 74\%). The term "cochrane database of systematic reviews.jn." was the most precise single term search strategy (sensitivity of 56\% (52\% to 60\%) and precision of 96\% (94\% to 98\%)). These strategies are available through the "limit" screen of Ovid's search interface for Medline. CONCLUSIONS: Systematic reviews can be retrieved from Medline with close to perfect sensitivity or specificity, or with high precision, by using empirical search strategies.

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