ArticleJournal of the Medical Library Association : JMLA2021
Translation and validation of PubMed and Embase search filters for identification of systematic reviews, intervention studies, and observational studies in the field of first aid.
Article in Journal of the Medical Library Association : JMLA, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Interventions to Enhance COVID-19 Pandemic Health Literacy in Health Professionals: Systematic Review.JMIR medical education · 2026Pooled it
- A systematic review of the association between history of sexually transmitted infections and subsequent condom use in adolescents.BMC public health · 2024Pooled it
- Early Versus Late Tracheostomy: An Umbrella Review and Meta-Analysis.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Review
- Nourish the mind: protocol for an umbrella review on nutrients and bioactive food components supporting brain health across the lifespan.Systematic reviews · 2026Article
- Clinical Care and Referral Pathways for Food Security Screening in Health Care: A Scoping Review.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2026Article
- Development and validation of high-sensitivity and high-specificity pubmed search filters for systematic and non-systematic reviews.BMC medical research methodology · 2025Article
- Acute mental health concerns in emergency settings: development and validation of an Ovid MEDLINE search filter.Journal of the Medical Library Association : JMLA · 2025Article
- Filtering failure: the impact of automated indexing in Medline on retrieval of human studies for knowledge synthesis.Journal of the Medical Library Association : JMLA · 2025Article
- How trustworthy and applicable is the evidence from systematic reviews of depression treatments: Protocol for systematic examination.PloS one · 2025Article
- Article
- Searching for studies: A guide to information retrieval for Campbell systematic reviews.Campbell systematic reviews · 2024Article
- Clinical outcomes of pelvic bone marrow sparing radiotherapy for cervical cancer: A systematic review andClinical and translational radiation oncology · 2024Review
- Searching for the social determinants of health: observations from evidence synthesis publications.Systematic reviews · 2024Article
- Household Air Pollution Interventions to Improve Health in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: An Official American Thoracic Society Research Statement.American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine · 2024Article
- Overview of systematic reviews comparing endovascular to best medical treatment for large-vessel occlusion acute ischaemic stroke: an umbrella review.Therapeutic advances in neurological disorders · 2024Review
- Epidemiology and Reporting Characteristics of Systematic Reviews in Orthopedic Journals: A Meta-Epidemiological Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Review
- Search strategies (filters) to identify systematic reviews in MEDLINE and Embase.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2023Review
- Fortification of Staple Foods for Household Use with Vitamin D: An Overview of Systematic Reviews.Nutrients · 2023Review
- Research transparency in dental research: A programmatic analysis.European journal of oral sciences · 2023Article
- Vaccination for the Prevention of Infection among Immunocompromised Patients: A Concise Review of Recent Systematic Reviews.Vaccines · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveThe aim of this project was to validate search filters for systematic reviews, intervention studies, and observational studies translated from Ovid MEDLINE and Embase syntax and used for searches in PubMed and Embase.com during the development of evidence summaries supporting first aid guidelines. We aimed to achieve a balance among recall, specificity, precision, and number needed to read (NNR).
methodsReference gold standards were constructed per study type derived from existing evidence summaries. Search filter performance was assessed through retrospective searches and measurement of relative recall, specificity, precision, and NNR when using the translated search filters. Where necessary, search filters were optimized. Adapted filters were validated in separate validation gold standards.
resultsSearch filters for systematic reviews and observational studies reached recall of ≥85% in both PubMed and Embase. Corresponding specificities for systematic review filters were ≥96% in both databases, with a precision of 9.7% (NNR 10) in PubMed and 5.4% (NNR 19) in Embase. For observational study filters, specificity, precision, and NNR were 68%, 2%, and 51 in PubMed and 47%, 0.8%, and 123 in Embase, respectively. These filters were considered sufficiently effective. Search filters for intervention studies reached a recall of 85% and 83% in PubMed and Embase, respectively. Optimization led to recall of ≥95% with specificity, precision, and NNR of 49%, 1.3%, and 79 in PubMed and 56%, 0.74%, and 136 in Embase, respectively.
conclusionsWe report validated filters to search for systematic reviews, observational studies, and intervention studies in guideline projects in PubMed and Embase.com.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.