Horton 2023

Appraisal of: Ethics information retrieval in HTA: state of current practice (Horton 2023) 

Reviewer(s): Sabine Calleja

Full Reference: Horton, J., DeJean, D., Farrah, K., Hodgson, A., Kaunelis, D., & Walter, M. (2023). Ethics information retrieval in HTA: state of current practice. International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care, 39(1), e43. doi:10.1017/S0266462323000247

Short description:

This review examined available literature to identify 25 Health Technology Assessments (HTAs) to determine what specific searching mechanisms and methodologies were used, if any, to search specifically for information pertaining to ethics. The authors identified a lack of reporting in search methodologies specific to topics in ethics. For this reason, it is not clear what strategies are being employed across the board to search for information on ethics.  The authors found that only 8 of these HTAs reported publicly available search strategies and identified similarities in subject headings and keywords used in the searches. It was found that Medline/PubMed accounted for the most searched database within the sample of HTAs.  

Limitations stated by the author(s): 

• Small sample of relevant HTAs due to limited number of HTAs published 

• Lack of publicly available handbooks on searching for ethics information 

• English language limitation in terms of English availability and English search capabilities in search engines 

• Lack of transparency and clarity in reporting of methods 

• Authors only examinded Medline search strategies 

• Limited feedback from HTA information specialists 

• Closely looked at HTAs though other knowledge syntheses may provide insight on different ways to search for ethics information 

All the above limitations were listed by the authors on page 4 of their manuscript.  

Limitations stated by the reviewer(s): 

The authors state that they “browsed and searched the 57 HTA websites included in the checklist for ethics-related content, limited by publication type—methods guidance and HTA reports—where applicable” but did not indicate in their supplementary materials how they browsed and what keyword searches they employed to search these 57 HTA websites. It is unclear if the same browsing and searching method was used across all websites. Otherwise, everything was reported very thoroughly.  

Study Type: 

Literature Review

Related Chapters: 

Ethical Analysis

Tags: 

• Ethics

• Databases

• Search Engines