Premji Z and Kraus H have published a tutorial on translating searches from Ovid PsycInfo to EBSCOhost.
Cooper C and colleagues have published an Ovid MEDLINE filter for identifying publications on humanitarian crises and emergencies.
Addition of a PubMed filter for queer women.
Addition of translations of a filter (Ovid Embase and Ovid MEDLINE) to find studies about Germany.
Premji Z & Kraus H have published a translation of a PsycInfo RCT filter from the Ovid interface to EBSCOhost.
Qin X, Yao M, Luo X, et al. Machine learning for identifying randomised controlled trials when conducting systematic reviews: Development and evaluation of its impact on practice. Added here.
Ayiku L and colleagues have published a Ovid Embase and MEDLINE filters for AI medical device interventions.
Askin N, Ostapyk T & Epp C have published a 2025 JMLA paper on the algorithm that excludes human studies in MEDLINE suggesting records may be missed because of the automated indexing approach.
The filters provided by Canada's Drug Agency (previously CADTH) have been updated and some new filters have been added including filters for minimal important clinical difference and economic models.
Addition of filters to find economic models, produced by Academic Unit of Health Economics, University of Leeds.
Addition of an updated performance review (Muente et al) of methods to focus on studies about Germany.
Addition of a research paper (Fulbright and Stansfield) describing geographic filters in Web Of Science.
Addition of a publication (Lokker) about the history of McMaster filters
Addition of a final publication (Pachanov) on a filter to find studies about Germany
Addition of a CADTH filter to find real world data in MEDLINE.
Addition of a filter for qualitative studies in PsycINFO, produced by the University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences Library
Addition of a filter for quasi-experimental studies, produced by the University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences Library
Addition of a reference to the searchbuildR tool (Kapp C et al) which may be useful for search filter development.
Addition of a link to the McGill Librarian Knowledge Synthesis Search Materials Repository
Addition of a link to the Repository of search strategies on the (WHO) virtual health library
Addition of a citation to Hanneke et al which reports on the search terms used in 64 evidence syntheses of social determinants of health.
Addition of a caveat to the use of the long standing animal exclusion algorithm in MEDLINE (presented in a conference paper by Askin et al) .
Addition of filters to find studies in a variety of settings including emergency departments, nursing homes, care homes and rural settings
Addition of filters to find instruments used in evaluation studies
Addition of filters to identify studies related to community-based or participatory research
Addition of filters to identify social media studies
Addition of a new section on filters to focus on studies in humans or to remove studies in animals
Addition of a link to WHO country filters for LMIC countries
Addition of a filter for rare cases / case reports
Addition of a filter to identify studies conducted in Germany
Addition of an abstract reporting on a scoping review of the performance of geographic filters
Addition of a burden of illness strategy
Addition of a link to Taubman University recording of a webinar on Handling tough terms in systematic searching
Addition of University of Alberta search filters for remote consultation/telemedicine
Addition of University of Alberta search filters for homeless people
Addition of University of Alberta search filters for RCTs for PsycINFO, Scopus and Web of Science
Addition of University of Alberta search filters for qualitative research
Addition of University of Alberta search filters for diagnostic studies
Addition of a paper comparing a deep learning method to identify rigorous clinical research against and PubMed Clinical Query treatment filters and a McMaster filter
Addition of a protocol for a scoping review of geographic filters - this is a work in progress
Addition of filters and launches for filters to find studies about immigrant populations in PubMed
Addition of launches for filters to find UK studies in MEDLINE and Embase
Addition of launches for filters to find systematic reviews in PubMed
Addition of a performance review of filters to identify economic evaluations
Addition of details about the McMaster University machine learning classifier
Addition of a filter to identify software tools for systematic reviews in MEDLINE
Revision of the section on machine learning classifiers
Addition of filters to find studies of medication discontinuation in MEDLINE and Embase
Addition of a range of filters for studies related to generative artificial intelligence
Addition of a range of PubMed filters for home care
Addition of MEDLINE filters for interrupted time series studies
Addition of filters provided by Helena VonVille for systematic reviews, meta-analyses, clinical trials, observational studies, qualitative studies, quality improvement, guidelines, age, limiting to the USA, case-control studies, cohort studies and cross-sectional studies
Addition of a performance review of filters to find systematic reviews
Addition of a link to a recent webinar about the ISSG Search Filter Resource
Addition of a reference to machine learning algorithms to identify cluster randomized trials from MEDLINE and EMBASE
Addition of filters from the University of Alberta Libraries for various geographic areas
Updating the Cochrane LMIC filter entries to reflect 2023 updates
Addition of a performance review of deprescribing filters
Addition of CADTH filter for Indigenous people of Canada
Addition of CADTH filters to identify animal studies
Addition of CADTH filters for systematic reviews and HTAs in CINAHL and Scopus
Addition of CADTH filters for guidelines
Addition of CADTH filters to find all trials for CINAHL, MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO and Scopus
Addition of CADTH filters to find publications for Canada
Addition of a CADTH filter for economic evaluations and models for CINAHL
Addition of CADTH adverse events filters
Addition of a new section on machine learning classifiers
Revision of Cochrane MEDLINE (Ovid) RCT filters provided
Revision of Cochrane Embase RCT filters provided
Addition of a new search filter collection resource
Addition of a search filter on deprescribing
Addition of a search filter on patient-based benefit-risk assessment of medicines
Addition of a search filter to identify US studies
Addition of a methods paper using text mining to create search filters (see Cheung 2022)
Addition of two critical appraisals of geographic filters
Report of a new pair of cost-utility filters
Updated information on the sample size page
Updated the prognosis filters performance page to include the new filter published by Stallings
Filters for adverse effects
Filters for persons aged over 50 years
Link to a report of a US geographic filter
Links to new Dialog search hedges
Report of a validation of a published filter to identify non-randomised studies
Report of a filter to identify studies by sample size
An overview of the performance of filters for prognosis, prepared by the ISSG SFR team
Filters to find low and middle income countries, for a range of databases.
Translations of filters for studies of measurement properties of measurement instruments
Filter to identify studies on deprescribing
Burden (cost) of illness filters
In press notice for a low- and middle-income countries geographic search filter
Aged residential care (Flinders University)
General practitioner (Flinders University)
Primary health care (Flinders University)
Rural and remote health care (Flinders University)
Health service accessibility (Flinders University)
Patient experience (Flinders University)
Filters for Paramedic (short version), prehospital care, paramedicine, emergency medical dispatch
Salvador-Oliván JA, Marco-Cuenca G, Arquero-Avilés R. Development of an efficient search filter to retrieve systematic reviews from PubMed. J Med Libr Assoc. 2021;109(4):561-574. [PubMed]
Avau B, Van Remoortel H, De Buck E. 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. J Med Libr Assoc. 2021;109(4):599-608. [PubMed]
Ayiku L, Hudson T, Williams C, Levay P, Jacob C. The NICE OECD countries' geographic search filters: Part 2-validation of the MEDLINE and Embase (Ovid) filters. J Med Libr Assoc. 2021;109(4):583-589. [Ovid]
van der Mierden S, Hooijmans CR, Tillema AH, Rehn S, Bleich A, Leenaars CH. Laboratory animals search filter for different literature databases: PubMed, Embase, Web of Science and PsycINFO. Laboratory Animals. September 2021. doi: 10.1177/00236772211045485 [Embase.com, Ovid]
A series of filters to identify Latinx/Hispanic population studies produced by Temple University Health Sciences Library have been added to the Population filters.
Mesgarpour B, Muller M & Herkner H. Search strategies identifed reports on "off-label" drug use in MEDLINE. J Clin Epi. 2012; 65:827-834.
Walsh E S, Peterson J J, Judkins D Z. Searching for disability in electronic databases of published literature. Disabil Health J 2014; 7(1): 114-118.
Ayiku L, Levay P, Hudson T. The NICE OECD countries’ geographic search filters: Part 1—methodology for developing the draft MEDLINE and Embase (Ovid) filters. Journal of the Medical Library Association. 2021;109(2):258-266
Cassidy L C, Leenaars C H C, Rincon A V & Pfefferle D. Comprehensive search filters for retrieving publications on nonhuman primates for literature reviews (filterNHP). Am J Primatol, 2021; 83: e23287.
Ioerger, M., et al. Developing a systematic search strategy related to people with disability: A brief report testing the utility of proposed disability search terms in a search about opioid use. Disabil Health J 2019;12(2): 318-322.
Damarell RA, Lewis S, Trenerry C, Tieman JJ. Integrated Care Search: development and validation of a PubMed search filter for retrieving the integrated care research evidence. BMC Med Res Methodol. 2020;20(1):12. [PubMed]
Rogers M, Bethel A & Abbott R. Locating qualitative studies in dementia on MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, and PsycINFO: a comparison of search strategies. Res Synth Methods 2018;9:579-586
Search terms to identify children in ERIC, MEDLINE and PsycINFO.
Boulos L, Ogilvie R, Hayden J A. Search methods for prognostic factor systematic reviews: a methodologic investigation. Journal of the Medical Library Association [Online]. 2021; 109(1): 23–32. [performance review of 4 prognosis filters]
Kavanagh PL, Frater F, Navarro T, LaVita P, Parrish R, Iorio A, Optimizing a literature surveillance strategy to retrieve sound overall prognosis and risk assessment model papers, Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 2021; ocaa232.
Gorayeb RP, Forjaz MJ, Ferreira AG, Duarte GNS, Machado T, Ferreira JJ. Electronic search strategies fail to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in neurosurgery. Clin Neurol Neurosurg. 2019;184:105446. [performance assessment of one filter, in the field of neurosurgery]
Popoff E, Cheung A, Szabo S. PNS46 Application of Text Mining to the Development of a Geographic Search Filter to Facilitate Evidence Retrieval in Ovid Medline. Value in Health. 2020;23 (Supplement 2):S651. [conference abstract only]
Ayiku L, Hudson T, Glover S, Walsh N, Adams R, Deane J, et al. The NICE MEDLINE and Embase (Ovid) health apps search filters: development of validated filters to retrieve evidence about health apps. Int J Technol Assess Health Care. 2020:1-7.
Library and Knowledge Service for NHS Ambulance Services in England. Search blocks for Prehospital and Emergency Care. Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME)
Glanville J, Kotas E, Featherstone R, Dooley G. Which are the most sensitive search filters to identify randomized controlled trials in MEDLINE? J Med Libr Assoc. 2020 Oct 1;108(4):556-563. doi: 10.5195/jmla.2020.912. PMID: 33013212; PMCID: PMC7524635.
Rosumeck S, Wagner M, Wallraf S, Euler U. A validation study revealed differences in design and performance of search filters for qualitative research in PsycINFO and CINAHL. J Clin Epidemiol. 2020 Sep 25:S0895-4356(20)31117-3. doi: 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2020.09.031. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 32987157.
Medical Library Association LA Latinx Caucus Hispanic/Latinx Search Hedges 2020
Franco JVA, Garrote V, Vietto V, Escobar Liquitay CM, Solà I. Search strategies (filters) to identify systematic reviews in MEDLINE and Embase. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2020, Issue 7. Art. No.: MR000054. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.MR000054. Note: this is a protocol so as yet (21st September 2020) strategies are not available
Ayiku L, Levay P, Hudson T, Finnegan A. The NICE UK geographic search filters for MEDLINE and Embase (Ovid): Post-development study to further evaluate precision and number-needed-to-read when retrieving UK evidence [published online ahead of print, 2020 Jul 2]. Res Synth Methods. 2020;10.1002/jrsm.1431. doi:10.1002/jrsm.1431
Waffenschmidt S, Navarro-Ruan T, Hobson N, Hausner E, Sauerland S, Haynes RB. Development and validation of study filters for identifying controlled non-randomized studies in PubMed and Ovid MEDLINE [published online ahead of print, 2020 May 29]. Res Synth Methods. 2020;10.1002/jrsm.1425. doi:10.1002/jrsm.1425
Taljaard M, McDonald S, Nicholls SG, et al. A search filter to identify pragmatic trials in MEDLINE was highly specific but lacked sensitivity [published online ahead of print, 2020 May 11]. J Clin Epidemiol. 2020;S0895-4356(19)30880-7. doi:10.1016/j.jclinepi.2020.05.003
Cochrane EPOC filter 2020 for low and middle income countries filters for CENTRAL (The Cochrane Library), Embase (Ovid), MEDLINE (Ovid) and PubMED
Wagner M, Rosumeck S, Kuffmeier C, et al. A validation study revealed differences in design and performance of MEDLINE search filters for qualitative research . J Clin Epidemiol. 2020;120: 17-24.
Tummers M, van Hoorn R, Levering C, Booth A, van der Wilt GJ, Kievit W. Optimal search strategies for identifying moderators and predictors of treatment effects in PubMed. Health Info Libr J. 2019 Dec;36(4):318-340. doi: 10.1111/hir.12230. Epub 2018 Jul 13.
Stewart F, Fraser C, Robertson C et al. Are men difficult to find? Identifying male-specific studies in MEDLINE and Embase. Syst Rev 2014;3:78.
Moerman C J, Deurenberg R & Haafkens J A. Locating sex-specific evidence on clinical questions in MEDLINE: a search filter for use on OvidSP™. BMC Med Res Methodol 2009;9: 25.
Lunny C, Salzwedel DM, Liu T, Ramasubbu C, Gerrish S, Puil L, Mintzes B, Wright JM. Validation of five search filters for retrieval of clinical practice guidelines produced low precision. J Clin Epidemiol, 2019. 117:109-116.
Lunny Carole, Salzwedel Douglas M., Liu Tracy, Ramasubbu Cynthia, Gerrish Savannah, Puil Lorri, Mintzes Barbara, Wright, James M. Validation of five search filters for retrieval of clinical guidelines produced low precision. Presented at the Cochrane Colloquium: Embracing diversity; 2019 Dec 2-6; Santiago, Chile
Budram D, Navarro-Ruan T, Haynes RB. The efficiency of database searches for creating systematic reviews was improved by search filters. J Clin Epidemiol 2018 Mar;95:1-6. doi: 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2017.11.017. Epub 2017 Nov 27
Glanville J, Foxlee R, Wisniewski S, Noel-Storr A, Edwards M, Dooley G. Translating the Cochrane EMBASE RCT filter from the Ovid interface to Embase.com: a case study. Health Info Libr J. 2019 Jul 22. doi: 10.1111/hir.12269.
Li L, Smith HE, Atun R, Tudor Car L. Search strategies to identify observational studies in MEDLINE and Embase. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2019 Mar 12;3:MR000041. doi: 10.1002/14651858.MR000041.pub2
Collection of filters from ASTED(3S)/CHLA
Collection of filters from OVID
Glanville Julie, Dooley Gordon, Wisniewski Susi, Foxlee Ruth, Noel‐Storr Anna. Development of a search filter to identify reports of controlled clinical trials within CINAHL Plus. Health Lib J 08 February 2019 https://doi.org/10.1111/hir.12251
Hirt Julian , Buhtz Christian, Meyer Gabriele, Balzer Katrin. [Publications German-speaking countries in high impact journals:development and validation of a search filter]. Publikationen aus dem deutschsprachigen Raum in Zeitschriften mit hohem Impact Factor: Entwicklung und Validierung eines Suchfilters. Pflege (2018), 31, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1024/1012-5302/a000658
Prady SL, Uphoff EP, Power M, Golder S. Development and validation of a search filter to identify equity-focused studies: reducing the number needed to screen. BMC Med Res Methodol. 2018;18(1):106
Lunny C; Brennan SE; McDonald S; McKenzie JE. Toward a comprehensive evidence map of overview of systematic review methods: paper1-purpose, eligibility, search and data extraction. Systematic Reviews. 6(1):231, 2017 Nov 21.
Pieper D; Mathes T; Palm R; Hoffmann F. How do authors of systematic reviews restricttheir literature searches when only studies from Germany should be included? Zeitschrift fur Evidenz Fortbildung und Qualitat im Gesundheitswesen. 117:1-8, 2016 Nov.
Glanville J; Eyers J; Jones AM; Shemilt I; Wang G; Johansen M; Fiander M; Rothstein H. Quasi-experimental study designs series-paper8: identifying quasi-experimental studies to inform systematic reviews. J Clin Epid. 2017;89:67-76.
Arber M, Garcia S, Veale T, Edwards M, Shaw A, Glanville JM Performance of Ovid medline search filters to identify health state utilitystudies. Int J Technol Assess Health Care. 2017 Jan;33(4):472-480. doi: 10.1017/S0266462317000897. Epub 2017 Oct 25.
Tadmouri GO, Mandil A, Rashidian A. Development of an Eastern Mediterranean Region search strategy for biomedical citations indexed in PubMed. East Mediterr Health J. 2017 Nov 19;23(9):619-629.
Golder S, Wright K, Loke YK. The feasibility of a search filter for the adverse effects of nondrug interventions in MEDLINE and Embase. Res Synth Methods. 2017 Dec;8(4):506-513. doi: 10.1002/jrsm.1267. Epub 2017 Oct 11.
University of Alberta Libraries. Health Sciences Search Filters [Africa]
University of Alberta Libraries. Health Sciences Search Filters. [Canada]
HLWIKI International. Social media filter updated 24th June 2016
Selva A, Solà I, Zhang Y, Pardo-Hernandez H, Haynes RB, Martínez García L, Navarro T, Schünemann H, Alonso-Coello P. Development and use of a content search strategy for retrieving studies on patients' views and preferences.Health Qual Life Outcomes. 2017 Aug 30;15(1):126
Ayiku L, Adams R, Barrett E, Craven J, Finnegan A, Hudson T, Levay P. The medline UK filter: development and validation of a geographic search filter to retrieve research about the UK from OVID medline. Health Info Libr J. 2017 Jul 13
Lorenzetti DL, Lin Y. Locating sex- and gender-specific data in health promotion research: evaluating the sensitivity and precision of published filters. J Med Libr Assoc.2017 105 (3): 216-225.
Li, J; Lu, Z. Developing topic-specific search filters for PubMed with click-through data. Methods of Information in Medicine. 52(5):395-402, 2013.
Corp N.,Jordan J.L., Hayden J.A., Irvin E., Parker R., Smith A., van der Windt, D.A. Protocol: A systematic review of studies developing and/or evaluating search strategies to identify prognosis studies. Systematic Reviews. 6 (1), 2017. Article Number: 88.
University Hospitals of Leicester Clinical Librarian Blogspot. Systematic review filter for Proquest PsycINFO [2017]
Cochrane Embase filter [no date]
Ayiku L, Adams R, Barrett E, Craven J, Finnegan A, Hudson T, Levay P. The development of validated UK geographic search filters for MEDLINE and Embase. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence
DeJean D, Giacomini M, Simeonov D, Smith A. Finding qualitative research evidence for health technology assessment. Qual Health Res. 2016;26(10): 1307–1317
Farrah K, Mierzwinski-Urban M, Cimon K. Effectiveness of adverse effects search filters: drugs versus medical devices. J Med Libr Assoc. 2016 Jul;104(3):221-225
Huang Y, Yang Z, Wang J, Zhuo L, Li Z, Zhan S. Performance of search strategies to retrieve systematic reviews of diagnostic test accuracy from the Cochrane Library. J Evid Based Med. 2016, 9(2): 77–83
Song MM, Simonsen CK, Wilson JD, Jenkins MR. Development of a PubMed based search tool for identifying sex and gender specific health literature. J Womens Health (Larchmt). 2016 Feb;25(2):181-7. Epub 2015 Nov 10
van Hoorn R, Kievit W, Booth A, Mozygemba K, Lysdahl KB, Refolo P, Sacchini D, Gerhardus A, van der Wilt GJ, Tummers M The development of PubMed search strategies for patient preferences for treatment outcomes. BMC Med Res Methodol. 2016 Jul 29;16:88.
Waffenschmidt S, Hermanns T, Gerber-Grote A, Mostardt S. No suitable precise or optimized epidemiologic search filters were available for bibliographic databases. J Clin Epidemiol. 2016 Aug 26. pii: S0895-4356(16)30366-3.
Lunny C, McKenzie JE, McDonlad S. Retrieval of overviews of systematic reviews in MEDLINE was improved by the development an objectively derived and validated search strategy.J Clin Epidemiol. 2015; pii: S0895-4356(15)00578-8
Kok R; Verbeek JA; Faber B; van Dijk FJ; Hoving JL. A search strategy to identify studies on the prognosis of work disability: a diagnostic test framework. BMJ Open. 2015;5(5):e006315. [Note: filter available in supplementary file ]
Gargon E; Williamson PR; Clarke M. Collating the knowledge base for core outcome set development: developing and appraising the search strategy for a systematic review. BMC Med Res Methodol. 2015;15:26.
Orphanet. Prevalence and incidence of rare diseases: bibliographic data. 2015. (Orphanet Report Series; Volume July 2015, Number 1). Available at http://www.orpha.net/orphacom/cahiers/docs/GB/Prevalence_of_rare_diseases_by_alphabetical_list.pdf. Accessed November 2016
Parker R, Tougas M, Hayden JA. When the RCT filter is not enough: best practices for finding prognosis studies. Can Health Libr Assoc J. 2014.
Tieman JJ; Lawrence MA; Damarell RA; Sladek RM; Nikolof A. LIt.search: fast tracking access to Aboriginal andTorres Strait Islander health literature. Aus Health Rev. 2014;38(5):541-5.
Larney S, Kopinski H, Beckwith CG, Zaller, ND, Des Jarlais D, Hagan H, Rich JD, van den Bergh BJ, Degenhardt L. The incidence and prevalence of hepatitis C in prisons and other closed settings: Results of a systematic review and meta-analysis. Hepatology. 2013; 58(4): 1215–1224.
Parker R, Tougas M, Hayden JA. Validating prognosis search filters using relative recall based on prognosis systematic reviews. 21st Cochrane Colloquium, Quebec 19th - 23rd September 2013
Jayawardena R, Ranasinghe P, Byrne NM, Soares MJ, Katulanda P, Hills AP. Prevalence and trends of the diabetes epidemic in South Asia: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Public Health. 2012;12:380
Wessels M, Hielkema L, van der Weijden T. How to identify existing literature on patients' knowledge, views, and values: the development of a validated search filter. J Med Libr Assoc. 2016;104(4):320-324
Arber M, Garcia S, Veale T, Edwards M, Shaw A, Glanville J. Performance of search filters to identify health state utility studies. ISPOR 19th Annual European Congress Vienna, Austria October, 2016