Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 recommends that risk assessments are undertaken by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in an independent, objective and transparent manner, on the basis of all available scientific information and data. The systematic review (SR) method implemented by EFSA to inform risk assessment models ensures a methodologically rigorous stepwise process, minimising biases and emphasising transparency and reproducibility. To minimise bias, SRs include an extensive literature search. Locating all relevant information sources can be problematic and missing relevant scientific information may influence SR conclusions. The EFSA Scientific Assessment Support Unit contracted YHEC (CFT/EFSA/SAS/2011/03) to produce five deliverables to support literature searching to inform SRs of food and feed safety. This report describes the development of an inventory of information sources of relevance to systematic reviews of food and feed safety. The inventory uses a metadata schema to record information about each information source. 376 candidate information sources were identified from the EFSA SAS inventory of information sources and other catalogues and websites. The selection of information sources to include in the EFSA inventory were determined using selection criteria (1) relevance to EFSA research areas (2) currency of information in the information source (3) provision of searchable bibliographic data records or full text reports of research and (4) be accessible to EFSA staff. Metadata were identified and recorded in an Excel spreadsheet for the 199 information sources meeting these four criteria.
© York Health Economics Consortium
KEY WORDSliterature searching, inventory, systematic reviews, information sources, databases, relative recall.
DISCLAIMERThe present document has been produced and adopted by the bodies identified above as author(s). This task has been carried out exclusively by the author(s) in the context of a contract between the European Food Safety Authority and the author(s), awarded following a tender procedure. The present document is published complying with the transparency principle to which the Authority is subject. It may not be considered as an output adopted by the Authority. The European food Safety Authority reserves its rights, view and position as regards the issues addressed and the conclusions reached in the present document, without prejudice to the rights of the authors. The present document has been produced and adopted by the bodies identified above as author(s). This task has been carried out exclusively by the author(s) in the context of a contract between the European Food Safety Authority and the author(s), awarded following a tender procedure. The present document is published complying with the transparency principle to which the Authority is subject. It may not be considered as an output adopted by the Authority. The European Food Safety Authority reserves its rights, view and position as regards the issues addressed and the conclusions reached in ...
