Literature searching methods or guidance and their application to public health topics: A narrative review

Abstract

Background: Information specialists conducting searches for systematic reviews need to consider key questions around which and how many sources to search. This is particularly important for public health topics where evidence may be found in diverse sources. Objectives:The objective of this review is to give an overview of recent studies on information retrieval guidance and methods that could be applied to public health evidence and used to guide future searches. Methods: A literature search was performed in core databases and supplemented by browsing health information journals and citation searching. Results were sifted and reviewed. Results: Seventy-two papers were found and grouped into themes covering sources and search techniques. Public health topics were poorly covered in this literature. Discussion: Many researchers follow the recommendations to search multiple databases. The review topic influences decisions about sources. Additional sources covering grey literature eliminate bias but are time-consuming and difficult to search systematically. Public health searching is complex, often requiring searches in multidisciplinary sources and using additional methods.Conclusions: Search planning is advisable to enable decisions about which and how many sources to search. This could improve with more work on modelling search scenarios, particularly in public health topics, to examine where publications were found and guide future research.

Characteristics of the sources, evaluation, and grading of the certainty of evidence in systematic reviews in public health: A methodological study

“…We included SRs in public health that met the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis Protocols (PRISMA-P) definition of a systematic review, that is, articles that explicitly state the methods of study identification (i.e., a search strategy), study selection (e.g., eligibility criteria and selection process), and synthesis (or other types of summary) ( 17 ). Public health is defined as the promotion and protection health and wellbeing, prevention of illness and prolongation of life through organized societal efforts, and it includes three key domains: health improvement, improving services, and health protection ( 18 ). We included only published SRs written in English.…”

Efficient searching for NICE public health guidelines: Would using fewer sources still find the evidence?

“…35 A literature review by the authors of the current paper identified a lack of research into approaches to public health searching, suggesting that further work modelling different scenarios was needed. 8 This study takes up the challenge and shows the contribution of the sources that were used and then provides scenarios modelling whether a more efficient selection could have been used in a sample of NICE PHGs.…”

“…The NICE manual warns against retrieving an unmanageable volume of results, even though it requires adequate coverage of the best available evidence 1 . (sec5.1) This can be particularly challenging in public health topics that are difficult to define at the outset, require a range of terminology and must draw on multi‐disciplinary sources 8 . Similarly, authors of social, behavioural, and educational science reviews for the Campbell Collaboration are advised that searches must be ‘thorough’ and ‘identify as many relevant studies as possible’ while being done ‘within resource limits’ 9 .…”

“…1 (sec5.1) This can be particularly challenging in public health topics that are difficult to define at the outset, require a range of terminology and must draw on multi‐disciplinary sources. 8 Similarly, authors of social, behavioural, and educational science reviews for the Campbell Collaboration are advised that searches must be ‘thorough’ and ‘identify as many relevant studies as possible’ while being done ‘within resource limits’. 9 (sec2.1.1) The potential demand for resources is clear from the standards for conducting Cochrane reviews of health interventions, where it is mandatory to search the Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Embase, and MEDLINE, as well as trials registers and the reference lists of relevant studies and reviews.…”

Health Libraries Group at 75

“…This issue takes the broad theme of public health as its inspiration, starting with Heath et al’s (2022) narrative review of literature searching in relation to public health topics, a sector where evidence can be in a diverse set of resources. Analysis of 72 papers provides insight into sources and search techniques.…”