Evidence map›Paper›PMID 35193857›Full record

ArticleBMJ health & care informatics2022

Findability of UK health datasets available for research: a mixed methods study.

Emily Griffiths, Rebecca M Joseph, George Tilston, Sarah Thew, Zoher Kapacee, William Dixon, Niels Peek

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in BMJ health & care informatics, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Big Data in Laboratory Medicine-FAIR Quality for AI?Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022
    Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Emily GriffithsCentre for Health Informatics, School of Health Sciences, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7603-3552
Rebecca M JosephSchool of Medicine, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0147-0712
George TilstonInformatics, Imaging, and Data Sciences, The University of Manchester, Manchester, Greater Manchester, UK.
Sarah ThewManchester Academic Health Science Centre, Manchester, UK.
Zoher KapaceeCentre for Health Informatics, School of Health Sciences, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
William DixonCentre for Health Informatics, School of Health Sciences, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5881-4857
Niels PeekCentre for Health Informatics, School of Health Sciences, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK niels.peek@manchester.ac.uk.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6393-9969

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectiveHow health researchers find secondary data to analyse is unclear. We sought to describe the approaches that UK organisations take to help researchers find data and to assess the findability of health data that are available for research.

methodsWe surveyed established organisations about how they make data findable. We derived measures of findability based on the first element of the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reproducible). We applied these to 13 UK health datasets and measured their findability via two major internet search engines in 2018 and repeated in 2021.

resultsAmong 12 survey respondents, 11 indicated that they made metadata publicly available. Respondents said internet presence was important for findability, but that this needed improvement. In 2018, 8 out of 13 datasets were listed in the top 100 search results of 10 searches repeated on both search engines, while the remaining 5 were found one click away from those search results. In 2021, this had reduced to seven datasets directly listed and one dataset one click away. In 2021, Google Dataset Search had become available, which listed 3 of the 13 datasets within the top 100 search results. DISCUSSION: Measuring findability via online search engines is one method for evaluating efforts to improve findability. Findability could perhaps be improved with catalogues that have greater inclusion of datasets, field-level metadata and persistent identifiers.

conclusionUK organisations recognised the importance of the internet for finding data for research. However, health datasets available for research were no more findable in 2021 than in 2018.

Indexed as

MetadataHumansUnited Kingdominformation managementmedical informaticsrecord systems

Identifiers

PMID35193857
PMCPMC8867248

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.