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EXAMPLES OF SEARCH STRATEGIES USED IN THE PROJECT
Search Filters for MEDLINE (OVID)
THERAPY
Developed by Brian Haynes et al, McMaster University, Canada (xs = exploded
subheading)
01 randomized controlled trial.pt. (Use of this line alone
is a sensitive filter for these trials)
02 exp drug therapy/
03 tu.xs.
04 random:.tw.
05 or/1-4
DIAGNOSIS
Developed by Brian Haynes et al, McMaster University, Canada
01 exp "sensitivity-and-specificity"/
02 sensitivity.tw.
03 exp diagnosis/
04 exp pathology/
05 specificity.tw.
06 or/1-5
PROGNOSIS
Developed by Brian Haynes et al, McMaster University, Canada
01 incidence/
02 exp mortality/
03 follow-up studies/
04 prognos:.tw.
05 predict:.tw.
06 course.tw.
07 or/1-6
AETIOLOGY, CAUSATION OR HARM
Developed by Brian Haynes et al, McMaster University, Canada
01 exp cohort studies/
02 exp risk/
03 (odds and ratio:).tw.
04 (relative and risk).tw.
05 (case and control:).tw.
06 or/1-5
GUIDELINES
Developed by the Evidence Based Informatics Project at McMaster University, Canada
01 guideline.pt.
02 practice guideline.pt.
03 exp guidelines/
04 health planning guidelines/
05 or/1-4
TREATMENT OUTCOME
Developed by Brettle A and Grant MJ at the UK Clearing House on Health Outcomes,
Nuffield Institute for Health, University of Leeds
01 health status indicators/
02 outcome and process assessment (health care)/
03 outcome assessment (health care)/
04 quality of life/
05 (outcome and measure:).tw.
06 (health and outcome:).tw.
07 or/1-6
RANDOMISED CONTROLLED TRIALS
From the Evidence Based Informatics Project at McMaster University and a discussion with
Sam Vincent (Clinical Evidence, London:BMA).
NB The Cochrane Library Controlled Trials Register now includes all the controlled
trials in Medline plus many other trials, and they are currently adding trials from Embase.
Set Search
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
01 random:.tw,sh,pt. or placebo:.tw,sh.
02 (clinical trial or controlled clinical trial).pt.
03 (single or doubl: or tripl: or treb:) and (blind: or mask:)
04 or/1-3
Randomised controlled trials
SYSTEMATIC REVIEWS AND/OR META-ANALYSES – FILTER 1
From Boynton J et al. Identifying systematic reviews in Medline. Developing an
objective approach to search strategy design. Journal of Information Science 1998;
24(3): 137-157
Strategy sensitivity = 98%, precision=20%
01 (meta or synthesis or literature).ab
02 (randomized or trials or controlled).hw
03 (published or extraction or search or medline or selection).ab
04 meta-analysis.pt
05 (sources or trials or review).ab
06 (articles or reviewed or english or language).ab
07 or/1-6
SYSTEMATIC REVIEWS AND/OR META-ANALYSES AND OTHER STUDIES
– FILTER 2
A more specific search filter from the Evidence Based Informatics Project at McMaster
University.
Set Search
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
01 meta-analysis.pt,sh.
02 (meta-anal: or metaanal:).tw.
03 (quantitativ: review: or quantitativ: overview:).tw.
04 (systematic: review: or systematic: overview:).tw.
05 (methodologic: review: or methodologic: overview:).tw.
06 (integrative research review: or research integration:).tw.
07 review.pt,sh. or review:.tw. or overview:.tw.
08 quantitativ: synthes:.tw.
09 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 or 8 ‘Quick’
search for systematic reviews/meta-analyses
10 (medline or medlars).tw,sh. or embase.tw.
11 (scisearch or psychinfo or psycinfo).tw.
12 (psychlit or psyclit).tw.
13 (hand search: or manual search:).tw.
14 (electronic database: or bibliographic database:).tw.
15 (pooling or pooled analys: or mantel haenszel).tw.
16 (peto or der simonian or dersimonian or fixed effect:).tw.
17 or/10-16
18 17 and 7
19 9 or 18 Most systematic reviews
20 random:.tw,sh,pt. or placebo:.tw,sh.
21 (clinical trial or controlled clinical trial).pt.
22 (single or doubl: or tripl: or treb:) and (blind: or mask:)
23 or/20-22
24 19 and 23 Systematic reviews/meta-analyses of therapies
Search Filter to be added to the Systematic Reviews of
Therapies Filter above to look for Observational Studies (Type IV evidence)
(under development by Alison Weightman for the Health Evidence Bulletins - Wales project)
024 = systematic reviews of therapies filter (as above)
025 comparative study.sh
026 exp evaluation studies/
027 follow up studies.sh
028 prospective studies.sh
029 (single group pre-post stud: or cohort stud: or time series stud: or case-control:
stud:).tw
030 (cohort stud: or time series stud: or case-control: stud:).tw
031 or/25-30
032 31 not (19 or 23) Observational studies
RANDOMISED CONTROLLED TRIALS
Developed for use in the Health Evidence Bulletins – Wales from the
McMaster Medline strategy and as a result of discussion with Sam Vincent (Clinical
Evidence, London: BMA, NB The NHS Centre for Reviews and Dissemination is currently
developing strategies for use with Embase)
01 exp Randomized Controlled Trial/
02 randomi?ed controlled trial.mp
03 (random: or placebo: or double-blind:).mp
04 or/1-3
05 controlled clinical trial.mp
06 4 and 5
SYSTEMATIC REVIEWS AND/OR META-ANALYSES
Developed for use in the Health Evidence Bulletins – Wales from the
McMaster Medline strategy
01 exp meta analysis/
02 meta-anal:.mp
03 metaanal:.mp
04 quantitativ:.mp
05 quantitativ: overview:.mp
06 systematic: review:.mp
07 systematic: overview:.mp
08 methodologic: review:.mp
09 methodologic: overview:.mp
10 integrative research review:.mp
11 research integration:.mp
12 quantitativ: synthes:.mp
13 (medline or medlars or embase).mp
14 hand search:.mp
15 manual search:.mp
16 (pooling or pooled analy:).mp
17 mantel haenszel.mp
18 (peto or der simonian or dersimonian or fixed effect:).mp
19 (scisearch or psychinfo or psycinfo or psychlit or psyclit).mp
20 (electronic database: or bibliographic database:).mp
21 or/1-20 SYSTEMATIC REVIEWS AND/OR META ANALYSES
SYSTEMATIC REVIEWS/META-ANALYSES OF THERAPIES
If the randomised controlled trials filter is added to the end of the systematic
reviews filter as lines 22-26 and lines 21 and 26 are combined then: 027 21 and
26 = systematic reviews of therapies
SYSTEMATIC REVIEWS AND/OR META-ANALYSES
Developed by the NHS Centre for Reviews and Dissemination. This search has a high
recall but a low precision. The NHS CRD plan to develop the strategy into a tiered
approach with the most precise search terms listed first.
01 meta analysis/
02 meta-analysis research/
03 metaanaly:.tw.
04 meta-analy:.tw.
05 cochrane:.tw.
06 nursing interventions.pt.
07 (review: or overview:).ti.
08 literature review/
09 literature searching/
10 computerized literature searching/
11 synthes:.tw. adj3 (literature: or research: or studies or data).tw.
12 (medline or medlars or embase or scisearch or psycinfo or psychinfo or psyclit or
psychlit).tw,sh.
13 pooled analy:.tw.
14 ((data adj2 pool:) and studies).tw.
15 ((hand or manual: or database: or data base: or computer:) adj2 search:).tw.
16 reference databases/
17 ((electronic: or bibliographic:) adj2 (database: or data base:)).tw.
18 review.pt.
19 (review: or overview:).ab.
20 (systematic: or methodologic: or quantitativ: or research: or literature: or studies or
trial: or effective:).ab.
21 18 and 20
22 19 adj10 20
23 or/1-17,21,22
24 editorial.pt.
25 letter.pt.
26 case study.pt.
27 record review/
28 peer review/
29 (retrospective: adj2 review:).tw.
30 (case: adj2 review:).tw.
31 (record: adj2 review:).tw.
32 (patient: adj2 review:).tw.
33 (patient: adj2 chart:).tw.
34 (peer adj2 review:).tw.
35 (chart: adj2 review:).tw.
36 (case: adj2 report:).tw.
37 exp case control studies/
38 exp prospective studies/
39 case studies/
40 animal studies/
41 rat:or mouse or mice or hamster: or animal: or dog: or cat: or rabbit: or bovine or
sheep).tw.
42 or/24-41
43 42 not (42 and 23)
44 23 not 43 = SYSTEMATIC REVIEWS AND/OR META ANALYSES
SEARCH FILTER FOR PSYCHLIT/CLIN PSYCH/PSYCHINFO
Under development by Alison Weightman for use in the Health Evidence Bulletins –
Wales project.
01 meta analysis.sh
02 meta-anal:.tw
03 metaanal:.tw
04 meta analysis.id
05 (systematic: and (review: or overview)).tw
06 (critical: and apprais:).tw
07 (critical: and review:).tw
08 or/1-7
09 literature review.sh
10 literature review.id
11 9 or 10
12 8 or 11
13 case report.sh
14 8 not 13
15 12 not 13
16 limit 14 to human SYSTEMATIC REVIEWS AND/OR META ANALYSES
17 limit 15 to human Systematic reviews/meta-analyses and some
other reviews
18 treatment effectiveness evaluation.sh
19 (random: and trial:).tw
20 (random: and allocat:).tw
21 double blind.tw
22 single blind.tw
23 or/18-22
24 limit 23 to human
25 clinical trial.id
26 clinical trial:.tw
27 (singl: or doubl: or trebl: or tripl:) adj5 blind.tw
28 (clin: adj25 trial:).ti,ab
29 placebo:.tw
30 placebo:.id
31 placebo:.ti,ab
32 random:.ti,ab
33 methodology.sh
34 experimental design.sh
35 experimentation.sh
36 experimental methods.sh
37 or/25-36
38 limit 38 to human RANDOMISED CONTROLLED TRIALS
39 effectiveness.id
40 followup studies.sh
41 posttreatment followup.sh
42 treatment outcomes.sh
43 longitudinal studies.sh
44 (control: or prospectiv: or volunteer:).ti
45 comparative study.tw
43 or/39-45
47 limit 46 to human CONTROLLED PROSPECTIVE AND OTHER STUDIES