Mounting evidence that librarians are essential for comprehensive literature searches for meta-analyses and Cochrane reports

Ref ID 5
First Author A. C. Weller
Journal JOURNAL OF THE MEDICAL LIBRARY ASSOCIATION
Year Of Publishing 2004
URL https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC385293/
Keywords • Reproducibility
• General medical
• Expertise
• Searching
Problem(s) • Weaknesses identified in some Cochrane reviews
• Insufficient literature searches
• Errors or omissions in search strategy
• Errors in study inclusion or omission of relevant studies
• Methods not described to enable replication
Article Type Editorial
Article Subtype Comment/letter
First Author Country United States
Aim Discusses a Cochrane methodology review (Jefferson 2003) where a number of errors in the literature searches were noted.
Level of Investigation Descriptive
Summary of Findings Inadequate free word terms; no criteria for database selection or for the years searched, and not all databases were searched fully; did not explain their selection criteria; missed relevant studies; no information specialist consulted; not reproducible
Number of systematic reviews included 1
Number of eligible systematic reviews assessed 1
Treatment impacted No
Treatment impacted description
Interpretation impacted No
Interpretation impacted description