Publications

 Cochrane 20th Anniversary publication

Lefebvre C, Glanville J, Wieland LS, Coles B, Weightman AL. Methodological developments in searching for studies for systematic reviews:  past, present and future? Systematic Reviews 2013; 2: 78

The Cochrane Handbook

Cochrane policy and practice recommendations with respect to study identification are available in the ‘Searching for studies’ chapter of The Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions.  The chapter is authored by and on behalf of members of the Cochrane Information Retrieval Methods Group.

The fully revised Searching for and Selecting Studies chapter of the Cochrane Handbook, co-authored by a number of members of the IRMG, was published, on behalf of IRMG, within Cochrane in July 2019 and more widely in December 2019. 
In addition to the main text of the Searching for and Selecting Studies chapter, we also published in December 2019, a Technical Supplement, and an Appendix of Resources.  These two additional sections are available online only.  They complement the material in the main text by providing further detail together with names and URLs of resources.

Main text:

Lefebvre C, Glanville J, Briscoe S, Littlewood A, Marshall C, Metzendorf M-I, Noel-Storr A, Rader T, Shokraneh F, Thomas J, Wieland LS.  Chapter 4:  Searching for and selecting studies.  In:  Higgins JPT, Thomas J, Chandler J, Cumpston M, Li T, Page MJ, Welch VA (editors).  Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions version 6.2 (updated February 2021). Cochrane, 2021.  Available from www.training.cochrane.org/handbook.

https://training.cochrane.org/handbook/current/chapter-04

Technical Supplement:

Lefebvre C, Glanville J, Briscoe S, Littlewood A, Marshall C, Metzendorf M-I, Noel-Storr A, Rader T, Shokraneh F, Thomas J, Wieland LS.  Technical Supplement to Chapter 4:  Searching for and selecting studies.  In:  Higgins JPT, Thomas J, Chandler J, Cumpston MS, Li T, Page MJ, Welch VA (eds).  Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions Version 6.2. Cochrane, 2021.  Available from: www.training.cochrane.org/handbook.

https://training.cochrane.org/handbook/current/chapter-04-technical-supplement-searching-and-selecting-studies

This technical supplement is also available as a PDF document.

Appendix of Resources:

The Appendix of Resources is available at the link below:

https://training.cochrane.org/handbook/supplementary-materials

Cochrane Methods Annual Report

Each year all the Methods Groups including IRMG report on their activity.  Read all about what we have been doing here!

Cochrane Methods Groups Newsletter

Reports of the work of the Group, by Carol Lefebvre, Steve Pritchard and Alison Weightman, were published in the Cochrane Methods Groups' Newsletters in June 2004 and 2005; by Carol Lefebvre, Alison Weightman, Jessie McGowan and Bernadette Coles in June 2006, 2007 and 2009; and in 'Cochrane Methods' by Julie Glanville, Carol Lefebvre, Jessie McGowan, Alison Weightman and Bernadette Coles in 2010 -2018.

Key Methods Publications by group members

2021

Cooper, CDawson, SLefebvre, CSearching for medical devices – Practical guidanceRes Syn Meth. 2021111. doi:10.1002/jrsm.1524

Isojarvi J, Glanville J. Evidence-based searching for health technology assessment: keeping up to date with SuRe Info. International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care 2021;37(1):E51. doi:10.1017/S026646232100009X

Lefebvre C, Duffy S.  Peer review of searches for studies for health technology assessments, systematic reviews, and other evidence syntheses. International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care, 2021 37(1), E64. doi:10.1017/S0266462321000210

Noel-Storr A, Dooley G, Elliott J, Steele E, Shemilt I, Mavergames C, Wisniewski S, McDonald S, Murano M, Glanville J, Foxlee R, Beecher D, Ware J, Thomas J. An evaluation of Cochrane Crowd found that crowdsourcing produced accurate results in identifying randomized trials. J Clin Epidemiol. 2021;133:130-139. doi: 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2021.01.006.

2020

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.

Lefebvre C, Glanville J, Briscoe S, Featherstone R, Littlewood A, Marshall C, Metzendorf M-I, Noel-Storr A, Paynter R, Rader T, Thomas J, Wieland LS.  Chapter 4:  Searching for and selecting studies.  In:  Higgins JPT, Thomas J, Chandler J, Cumpston M, Li T, Page MJ, Welch VA (editors).  Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions version 6.2 (updated February 2021). Cochrane, 2021.  Available from www.training.cochrane.org/handbook.https://training.cochrane.org/handbook/current/chapter-04

Lefebvre C, Glanville J, Briscoe S, Featherstone R, Littlewood A, Marshall C, Metzendorf M-I, Noel-Storr A, Paynter R, Rader T, Thomas J, Wieland LS.  Technical Supplement to Chapter 4:  Searching for and selecting studies.  In:  Higgins JPT, Thomas J, Chandler J, Cumpston MS, Li T, Page MJ, Welch VA (eds).  Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions Version 6.2. Cochrane, 2021.  Available from: www.training.cochrane.org/handbook.https://training.cochrane.org/handbook/current/chapter-04-technical-supplement-searching-and-selecting-studies

Noel-Storr AH, Dooley G, Wisniewski S, Glanville J, Thomas J, Cox S, Featherstone R, Foxlee R. Cochrane Centralised Search Service showed high sensitivity identifying randomized controlled trials: A retrospective analysis. J Clin Epidemiol. 2020 Nov;127:142-150. doi: 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2020.08.008. Epub 2020 Aug 13. PMID: 32798713.

2019

Berber S, Tan-Koay AG, Opiyo N, Dwan K, Glanville JM, Lasserson TJ, Willson ML.  A cross-sectional audit showed that most Cochrane intervention reviews searched trial registers.  Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 2019;113:86-91.

Devos Y, Guajardo IM, Álvarez F and Glanville J. Explanatory note on literature searching conducted in the context of GMO applications for (renewed) market authorisation and annual post-market environmental monitoring reports on GMOs authorised in the EU market.
EFSA (European Food Safety Authority). EFSA supporting publications 2019:EN-1614. 62pp. doi:10.2903/sp.efsa EFSA (European Food Safety Authority), Devos Y, Muñoz-Guajardo I, Alvarez F, Glanville J. Explanatory note on literature searching conducted in the context of GMO applications for (renewed) market authorisation and annual post-market environmental monitoring reports on GMOs authorised in the EU market. EFSA supporting publications 2019: EN-1614. 62 pp. doi:10.2903/sp.efsa.2019.EN-1614.
 
Glanville J. Searching bibliographic databases. In: Cooper H, Hedges LV, Valentine JC, editors. The Handbook of Research Synthesis and Meta-Analysis. Russell Sage Foundation; 2019. pp. 73–100.
Glanville J. Text mining for information specialists. Levay P, Craven J (eds.) Systematic searching: practical ideas for improving results. London: Facet Publishing. January 2019. 
 
Glanville, J. PP206 Search Filter to Identify Reports of RCTs in CINAHL [Poster] Exhibited at:  HTAi Annual Conference Cologne, Germany. 18 June 2019. 
 
Glanville J, 
Dooley G, Wisniewski S, Foxlee R, Noel-Storr A. Development of a search filter to identify reports of controlled clinical trials within CINAHL Plus. Health Info Libr J. 2019 Mar;36(1):73-90. doi: 10.1111/hir.12251. Epub 2019Feb 8. PubMed PMID: 30737884.

2018

Arber M, Glanville J, Isojarvi J, Baragula E, Edwards M, Shaw A et al. Which databases should be used to identify studies for systematic reviews of economic evaluations? Int J Technol Assess Health Care. 2018 Jan;34(6):547-554. doi:10.1017/S0266462318000636. Epub 2018 Nov 16. PubMed PMID: 30442221.

Hodkinson A, Dietz KC, Lefebvre C, Golder S, Jones M, Doshi P, Heneghan C, Jefferson T, Boutron I, Stewart L. The use of clinical study reports to enhancethe quality of systematic reviews: a survey of systematic review authors. Syst Rev. 2018 Aug 8;7(1):117. doi: 10.1186/s13643-018-0766-x. PubMed PMID: 30089508; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6083614.

Isojarvi J, Wood H, Lefebvre C, Glanville J. Challenges of identifying unpublished data from clinical trials: getting the best out of clinical trials registers and other novel sources. Res Synth Methods. 2018; doi:10.1002/jrsm.1294

Jefferson T, Doshi P, Boutron I, Golder S, Heneghan C, Hodkinson A, [Lefebvre C] et al. When to include clinical study reports and regulatory documents in systematic reviews. BMJ Evid Based Med. 2018 Dec;23(6):210-217. doi: 10.1136/bmjebm-2018-110963. Epub 2018 Oct 11. PubMed PMID: 30309870.

Lefebvre C, Glanville J, Briscoe S, Littlewood A, Marshall C, Metzendorf M-I et al.  Chapter 4: Searching for and selecting studies. Draft version (13 September 2018) for inclusion in Higgins JPT, Thomas J, Chandler J, Cumpston MS, Li T, Page MJ, Welch V (editors). Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions. London: Cochrane. 

Tricco AC, Lillie E, Zarin W, O'Brien KK, Colquhoun H, Levac D, [McGowan J] et al. PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR): Checklist and Explanation. Ann Intern Med. 2018 Oct 2;169(7):467-473. doi: 10.7326/M18-0850. Epub 2018 Sep 4. PubMed PMID: 30178033.

Wood H, O’Connor A, Sargeant J, Glanville J. Information retrieval for systematic reviews in food and feed topics: a narrative review. Res Syn Meth. 2018. https://doi.org/10.1002/jrsm.1289 

2017

Arber M, Garcia S, Veale T, Edwards M, Shaw A, Glanville JM. Performance of Ovid MEDLINE search filters to identify health state utility studies. Int J Technol Assess Health Care. 2017 Oct 25:1-9. doi: 10.1017/S0266462317000897

Lefebvre C, Glanville J, Beale S, Boachie C, Duffy S, Fraser C, et al. Assessing the performance of methodological search filters to improve the efficiency of evidence information retrieval: five literature reviews and a qualitative study. Health Technol Assess 2017;21(69).

Briscoe S, Cooper C, Glanville J, Lefebvre C. The loss of the NHS EED and DARE databases and the effect on evidence synthesis and evaluation. Res. Syn. Meth 2017. doi:10.1002/jrsm.12352 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jrsm.1235/abstract

EFSA (European Food Safety Authority)Devos YGuajardo IMGlanville J and Waigmann E2017Explanatory note on literature searching conducted in the context of GMO applications for (renewed) market authorisation and annual post-market environmental monitoring reports on GMOs authorised in the EU marketEFSA supporting publications 2017:14(4): EN-1207. 48 pp. doi: 10.2903/sp.efsa.2017.EN-1207

Wood H, Arber M, Glanville JM. Systematic reviews of economic evaluations: how extensive are their searches? International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care 2017; 1-7. doi:10.1017/S0266462316000660

2016

Garner P, Hopewell S, Chandler J, MacLehose H, Schünemann HJ, Akl EA et al (incl. Lefebvre C); Panel for updating guidance for systematic reviews (PUGs).. When and how to update systematic reviews: consensus and checklist. BMJ. 2016 Jul 20;354:i3507. doi: 10.1136/bmj.i3507. PubMed PMID: 27443385; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4955793.

Glanville J.  Overview: keeping up to date with methods research. Cochrane Methods. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2016;10 (suppl 1). dx.doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD201601

Glanville J, Eyers J, Jones AM, Shemilt I, Wang G, Johansen M et al. Identifying quasi-experimental (QE) studies to inform systematic reviews. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology 2017, doi: 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2017.02.018

 

Marshall C, Glanville J.  Software tools to support systematic reviews.  Cochrane Methods. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2016;10 (suppl 1). dx.doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD201601

 

Marshall C, Glanville J, McCool R.  The systematic review toolbox: finding software to support the systematic review process. Journal of EAHIL.  2016;12(3):58-59.

 

McGowan J, Sampson M, Salzwedel D, Cogo E, Foerster V, Lefebvre C. PRESS – Peer Review Electronic Search Strategies: 2015 Guideline Explanation and Elaboration (PRESS E&E). Ottawa: CADTH; 2016 Jan.

 

McGowan J, Sampson M, Salzwedel D, Cogo E, Foerster V, Lefebvre C. PRESS: Peer Review of Electronic Search Strategies 2015 Guideline Statement. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology.  2016;75:40-6. PMID: 27005575

 

2014

Golder S, Loke YK, Zorzela L.  Comparison of search strategies in systematic reviews of adverse effects to other systematic reviews

Health Information and Libraries Journal 2014; 2 (31): 92-105