The role of the information specialist in the systematic review process: a health information case study

Beverley, Catherine; Booth, Andrew; Bath, Peter A.

doi:10.1046/j.1471-1842.2003.00411.x

Cited by 68 publications

(70 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Over the past few years, information retrieval has become more and more professionalized [1], and information specialists are considered full members of a research team conducting systematic reviews. Trial search coordinators in Cochrane Collaboration review groups are a good example of this development.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Routine development of objectively derived search strategies

et al. 2012

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BackgroundOver the past few years, information retrieval has become more and more professionalized, and information specialists are considered full members of a research team conducting systematic reviews. Research groups preparing systematic reviews and clinical practice guidelines have been the driving force in the development of search strategies, but open questions remain regarding the transparency of the development process and the available resources. An empirically guided approach to the development of a search strategy provides a way to increase transparency and efficiency.MethodsOur aim in this paper is to describe the empirically guided development process for search strategies as applied by the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (Institut für Qualität und Wirtschaftlichkeit im Gesundheitswesen, or "IQWiG"). This strategy consists of the following steps: generation of a test set, as well as the development, validation and standardized documentation of the search strategy.ResultsWe illustrate our approach by means of an example, that is, a search for literature on brachytherapy in patients with prostate cancer. For this purpose, a test set was generated, including a total of 38 references from 3 systematic reviews. The development set for the generation of the strategy included 25 references. After application of textual analytic procedures, a strategy was developed that included all references in the development set. To test the search strategy on an independent set of references, the remaining 13 references in the test set (the validation set) were used. The validation set was also completely identified.DiscussionOur conclusion is that an objectively derived approach similar to that used in search filter development is a feasible way to develop and validate reliable search strategies. Besides creating high-quality strategies, the widespread application of this approach will result in a substantial increase in the transparency of the development process of search strategies.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Routine development of objectively derived search strategies

et al. 2012

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“…Many studies have advocated for and described various roles that librarians and information professionals could play on a review team [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26]. Several standards and organizations also suggest that a librarian or information professional be involved in the review process [27][28][29][30].…”

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confidence: 99%

Impact of librarians on reporting of the literature searching component of pediatric systematic reviews

Meert

Torabi

Chen³

2016

J Med Libr Assoc

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Objective: A critical element in conducting a systematic review is the identification of studies. To date, very little empirical evidence has been reported on whether the presence of a librarian or information professional can contribute to the quality of the final product. The goal of this study was to compare the reporting rigor of the literature searching component of systematic reviews with and without the help of a librarian.Method: Systematic reviews published from 2002 to 2011 in the twenty highest impact factor pediatrics journals were collected from MEDLINE. Corresponding authors were contacted via an email survey to determine if a librarian was involved, the role that the librarian played, and functions that the librarian performed. The reviews were scored independently by two reviewers using a fifteen-item checklist.Results: There were 186 reviews that met the inclusion criteria, and 44% of the authors indicated the involvement of a librarian in conducting the systematic review. With the presence of a librarian as coauthor or team member, the mean checklist score was 8.40, compared to 6.61 (p,0.001) for reviews without a librarian.Conclusions: Findings indicate that having a librarian as a coauthor or team member correlates with a higher score in the literature searching component of systematic reviews.Keywords: Systematic Review, Librarian, Critical Appraisal, Literature Search, Reporting There is ample literature assessing the quality of systematic reviews across many disciplines [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16], and a common theme that has emerged from a number of these studies has been the need for improving the conduct and reporting of systematic reviews. Many studies have advocated for and described various roles that librarians and information professionals could play on a review team [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26]. Several standards and organizations also suggest that a librarian or information professional be involved in the review process [27][28][29][30]. Documents produced by the Campbell Collaboration and a recent Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR) Knowledge Synthesis grant competition strongly recommend that an information professional or librarian be included among the members of a review team [31,32].However, to date, there has been very little empirical evidence on whether the presence of a librarian or information professional on a systematic review team contributes to the quality of a systematic review. Golder et al. found that only a very small percentage of reviews reported their search strategy with enough detail to be reproducible, and of those with reproducible searches, nearly half employed an information professional [33]. In the same study, the authors noted that literature searches performed by information professionals tended to be carried out

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“…The following are disadvantages of the conceptual approach to search strategies: (1) It is difficult to determine when the search strategy is "complete"; (2) numerous search queries make the strategy more extensive but prone to error; (3) the conceptual approach is suited only for the development of a strategy, not for its validation; (4) if the retrieval rate is high, subsequent restriction of the search is required; and (5) it is timeconsuming. A more objective way to generate and validate a search strategy for those parts of the search that are not covered by validated filters (for example, health condition, intervention) could help solve these difficulties.…”

Section: Disadvantages Of the Conceptual Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Routine development of objectively derived search strategies

et al. 2012

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Background: Over the past few years, information retrieval has become more and more professionalized, and information specialists are considered full members of a research team conducting systematic reviews. Research groups preparing systematic reviews and clinical practice guidelines have been the driving force in the development of search strategies, but open questions remain regarding the transparency of the development process and the available resources. An empirically guided approach to the development of a search strategy provides a way to increase transparency and efficiency.

show abstract

The role of the information specialist in the systematic review process: a health information case study

Cited by 68 publications

References 16 publications

Routine development of objectively derived search strategies

Routine development of objectively derived search strategies

Impact of librarians on reporting of the literature searching component of pediatric systematic reviews

Routine development of objectively derived search strategies

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