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Appraisal of: "Levay, P., Raynor, M., & Tuvey, D. (2015). The Contributions of MEDLINE, Other Bibliographic Databases and Various Search Techniques to NICE Public Health Guidance. Evidence Based Library and Information Practice, 10(1), 50–68. "
Appraisal of: "Levay, P., Raynor, M., & Tuvey, D. (2015). The Contributions of MEDLINE, Other Bibliographic Databases and Various Search Techniques to NICE Public Health Guidance. Evidence Based Library and Information Practice, 10(1), 50–68. "
Reviewer(s):
Alan Lovell
Sophie Robinson
MS Copilot
Full Reference:
Levay, P., Raynor, M., & Tuvey, D. (2015). The Contributions of MEDLINE, Other Bibliographic Databases and Various Search Techniques to NICE Public Health Guidance. Evidence Based Library and Information Practice, 10(1), 50–68.
Short description:
This study retrospectively analysed how publications included in three systematic reviews commissioned by NICE (on obesity, spatial planning, and tuberculosis) were retrieved, aiming to inform future database and search technique selection for public health guidance. The authors examined the contribution of MEDLINE, other databases, and non-database methods such as citation searching and expert contact.
Results showed that MEDLINE contributed 24.2% of included publications in the obesity review, none in spatial planning, and 72% in tuberculosis. Other databases contributed modestly, while non-database methods accounted for 42.4% in obesity, 5% in spatial planning, and 24% in tuberculosis. The study concluded that search strategies should be tailored to the topic, with scoping searches and non-database techniques playing a critical role, especially for grey literature and multidisciplinary evidence.
Limitations stated by the author(s):
Small sample size (three reviews) limits generalisability.
Retrospective analysis was hindered by lack of data on duplicate records and iterative search documentation.
Difficulty in determining how some publications were retrieved, especially in spatial planning.
Non-database methods were hard to assess due to inconsistent recording.
Limitations stated by the reviewer(s):
TThe study does not quantify the impact of missed publications on review conclusions.
The analysis does not evaluate precision or relevance of retrieved records, focusing only on retrieval source.
Study Type:
Retrospective Retrieval Analysis of Systematic Review Sources
Related Chapters:
Tags:
NICE
Databases
Search methods
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