Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2005 Jan 8;330(7482):68.
doi: 10.1136/bmj.38336.804167.47. Epub 2004 Dec 24.

Optimal search strategies for retrieving systematic reviews from Medline: analytical survey

Affiliations

Optimal search strategies for retrieving systematic reviews from Medline: analytical survey

Victor M Montori et al. BMJ. .

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.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1
Manual review to build criterion standard dataset
Fig 2
Fig 2
Retrieval on PubMed by combining each of the strategies (see table on bmj.com, using boolean AND, with topic terms to identify systematic reviews about β blockers for congestive heart failure
Fig 3
Fig 3
Retrieval on Ovid by entering topic terms (see table on bmj.com) about β blockers for congestive heart failure, then choosing Ovid strategies by clicking on the Limit button on the top of the screen and selecting a strategy for retrieving systematic reviews from the list under Clinical Queries

Comment in

  • Clever searching for evidence.
    Sanders S, Del Mar C. Sanders S, et al. BMJ. 2005 May 21;330(7501):1162-3. doi: 10.1136/bmj.330.7501.1162. BMJ. 2005. PMID: 15905232 Free PMC article. No abstract available.

Similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Montori VM, Swiontkowski MF, Cook DJ. Methodologic issues in systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Clin Orthop 2003;(413): 43-54. - PubMed
    1. Dickersin K, Higgins K, Meinert CL. Identification of meta-analyses. The need for standard terminology. Control Clin Trials 1990;11: 52-66. - PubMed
    1. Haynes RB, Wilczynski N, McKibbon KA, Walker CJ, Sinclair JC. Developing optimal search strategies for detecting clinically sound studies in Medline. J Am Med Inform Assoc 1994;1: 447-58. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hunt DL, McKibbon KA. Locating and appraising systematic reviews. Ann Intern Med 1997;126: 532-8. - PubMed
    1. White V, Glanville J, Lefebvre C, Sheldon T. A statistical approach to designing search filters to find systematic reviews: objectivity enhances accuracy. J Information Sci 2001;27: 357-70.

Publication types

MeSH terms

-