- Framework of problems / Comprehensive
- Insufficient literature searches
- Improving the quality of systematic reviews of neurological conditions: an assessment of current practice and the development and validation of six new search strategies
| Ref ID | 257 |
| First Author | K. A. Bui |
| Journal | EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROLOGY |
| Year Of Publishing | 2018 |
| URL | https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/ene.13758?download=true |
| Keywords |
Neurology Searching |
| Problem(s) |
Insufficient literature searches |
| Number of systematic reviews included | 182 |
| Summary of Findings | 60% of key quality criteria for literature search strategies (PRESS) used in recent systematic reviews of neurological conditions published in 2015-2016 were not met. Over 30% of search strategies relied on a single keyword to identify the neurological condition. The quality of the overall and condition-specific search strategies was not correlated to the impact factor of the publishing journal. The authors highlight that single-term hedges are insensitive for most neurological conditions tested, with the exceptions of migraine and MS. Insensitive search strategies will result in many false negatives during the course of a literature search and the failure to identify potentially important data. |
| Did the article find that the problem(s) led to qualitative changes in interpretation of the results? | Not Applicable |
| Are the methods of the article described in enough detail to replicate the study? | Yes |