%0 Journal Article %1 Montori:2005 %A Montori, Victor M. %A Wilczynski, Nancy L. %A Morgan, Douglas %A Haynes, R. Brian %A Team, Hedges %D 2005 %J BMJ %K Information\_Storage\_and\_RetrievalMEDLINEMedical\_Subject\_HeadingsReview\_Literature\_as\_TopicSensitivity\_and\_SpecificityEBM %N 7482 %P 68 %T Optimal search strategies for retrieving systematic reviews from Medline: analytical survey. %U http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15619601 %V 330 %X 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.

@article{Montori:2005, abstract = {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.}, added-at = {2009-11-05T23:20:37.000+0100}, author = {Montori, Victor M. and Wilczynski, Nancy L. and Morgan, Douglas and Haynes, R. Brian and Team, Hedges}, biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/29cb039f742e73bc3f9144e1d729ce0d2/diego_ma}, institution = {Department of Medicine, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, MN 55905, USA.}, interhash = {098b5b4fb42e91d8aa511696ca7a9a50}, intrahash = {9cb039f742e73bc3f9144e1d729ce0d2}, journal = {BMJ}, keywords = {Information\_Storage\_and\_RetrievalMEDLINEMedical\_Subject\_HeadingsReview\_Literature\_as\_TopicSensitivity\_and\_SpecificityEBM}, month = Jan, number = 7482, pages = 68, pmid = {15619601}, timestamp = {2011-09-26T09:05:21.000+0200}, title = {Optimal search strategies for retrieving systematic reviews from Medline: analytical survey.}, url = {http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15619601}, volume = 330, year = 2005 }