Mahood 2014

Appraisal of: Mahood Q, Van Eerd D, Irvan E. Searching for grey literature for systematic reviews: challenges and benefits. Res Synth Methods. 2014 Sep;5(3):221-34.

Reviewer(s): 

Melissa Walter

Carolyn Spry

Full Reference: 

Mahood Q, Van Eerd D, Irvan E. Searching for grey literature for systematic reviews: challenges and benefits. Res Synth Methods. 2014 Sep;5(3):221-34.

Short description: 

This article describes the grey literature searching done for a 2006 systematic review on participatory ergonomics. A small majority of the search results were grey literature (51%), but after screening, the majority of included studies (33/52) were peer-reviewed journal articles. On average, included grey literature scored slightly lower than the peer-reviewed studies on the team's quality criteria. The majority of these grey literature results were conference papers, and many were found only in a single database/source.

Limitations stated by the author(s): 

The study is based on the process for a single systematic review. The authors mainly focused on grey literature databases, and did not attempt an exhaustive grey literature search. When multiple publications related to the same study, the authors used a peer-reviewed publication (if one existed) as the primary study, which may mean that grey literature's value was underestimated. Relevance of grey literature was difficult for the authors to ascertain at the title and abstract screening stage. Some grey literature may have been missed as a result. The authors used their best judgement about whether a document was peer-reviewed or grey lit, but the accuracy of the judgement was not checked. The authors' definition of grey literature was such that records could be considered both peer-reviewed and grey (3% of included records). 12% of records were also categorized as uncertain. This may not align with others' definitions of grey literature.

Limitations stated by the reviewer(s): 

The methods used (particularly the search methods for specific resources) were pragmatic/post-hoc, so some conclusions cannot be drawn. As well, results from this specific topic may not be applicable to other health topics. It should be noted that although the article was published in 2014, the search itself was conducted in 2006 so conclusions may be out of date.

Study Type: 

Single study

Related Chapters: 

Tags: 

• Grey literature