Investigating the Status and Errors of Search Strategy in Persian Medical Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses

Search strategy is one of the main criteria for quality assessment of meta-analyses and systematic reviews. This descriptive-analytical research aims to investigate the status and errors of search strategy in Persian medical meta-analyses and systematic reviews indexed in The Scientific Information...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Mahsa Ghasemian, Mohammad Karim Saberi, Mohammad Reza Amiri
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Regional Information Center for Science and Technology (RICeST) 2025-01-01
Series:International Journal of Information Science and Management
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ijism.isc.ac/article_719332_fa891ac306157eef4bc34ae200c9ee4a.pdf
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1832595691246977024
author Mahsa Ghasemian
Mohammad Karim Saberi
Mohammad Reza Amiri
author_facet Mahsa Ghasemian
Mohammad Karim Saberi
Mohammad Reza Amiri
author_sort Mahsa Ghasemian
collection DOAJ
description Search strategy is one of the main criteria for quality assessment of meta-analyses and systematic reviews. This descriptive-analytical research aims to investigate the status and errors of search strategy in Persian medical meta-analyses and systematic reviews indexed in The Scientific Information Database (SID) until February 2023. A total of 421 articles were identified. A checklist containing 31 items was used to collect the data. It is established based on a similar study and getting experts' opinions to check the status of search strategy reporting in articles and collaboration of librarians. Using SPSS version 25, descriptive statistics was used to analyze the data. The results showed that 15.9% of articles reported the systematic search strategy; 97.1% of the reviewed articles did not mention the collaboration of librarians in formulating the search strategies. 17.3% of articles had complete comprehensiveness regarding the number of databases used. The most common errors in PubMed and Scopus were “Not using controlled keywords,” but in the Web of Science database, it was “Not using all the concepts and keywords related to the subject”. The final result is that in most Persian medical meta-analyses and systematic reviews, the search strategy does not have a proper status in terms of reporting in the article and errors, which can influence the recall and reduce the quality of this type of article. Not having enough skills in how to search effectively and not using librarians in searching can be the cause of this situation.
format Article
id doaj-art-7bf86f0cc27b4f7ca22684356977d7cf
institution Kabale University
issn 2008-8302
2008-8310
language English
publishDate 2025-01-01
publisher Regional Information Center for Science and Technology (RICeST)
record_format Article
series International Journal of Information Science and Management
spelling doaj-art-7bf86f0cc27b4f7ca22684356977d7cf2025-01-18T06:18:23ZengRegional Information Center for Science and Technology (RICeST)International Journal of Information Science and Management2008-83022008-83102025-01-0123110912410.22034/ijism.2024.2028948.1483719332Investigating the Status and Errors of Search Strategy in Persian Medical Systematic Reviews and Meta-AnalysesMahsa Ghasemian0Mohammad Karim Saberi1Mohammad Reza Amiri2Department of Medical Library and Information Sciences, School of Paramedicine, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, IranDepartment of Nursing, Shirvan, Faculty of Nursing, North Khorasan University of Medical Sciences, Bojnord, IranDepartment of Medical Library and Information Sciences, School of Paramedicine, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran.Search strategy is one of the main criteria for quality assessment of meta-analyses and systematic reviews. This descriptive-analytical research aims to investigate the status and errors of search strategy in Persian medical meta-analyses and systematic reviews indexed in The Scientific Information Database (SID) until February 2023. A total of 421 articles were identified. A checklist containing 31 items was used to collect the data. It is established based on a similar study and getting experts' opinions to check the status of search strategy reporting in articles and collaboration of librarians. Using SPSS version 25, descriptive statistics was used to analyze the data. The results showed that 15.9% of articles reported the systematic search strategy; 97.1% of the reviewed articles did not mention the collaboration of librarians in formulating the search strategies. 17.3% of articles had complete comprehensiveness regarding the number of databases used. The most common errors in PubMed and Scopus were “Not using controlled keywords,” but in the Web of Science database, it was “Not using all the concepts and keywords related to the subject”. The final result is that in most Persian medical meta-analyses and systematic reviews, the search strategy does not have a proper status in terms of reporting in the article and errors, which can influence the recall and reduce the quality of this type of article. Not having enough skills in how to search effectively and not using librarians in searching can be the cause of this situation.https://ijism.isc.ac/article_719332_fa891ac306157eef4bc34ae200c9ee4a.pdfsystematic reviewmeta-analysissearch strategysearch errorsmedicinepersian documents
spellingShingle Mahsa Ghasemian
Mohammad Karim Saberi
Mohammad Reza Amiri
Investigating the Status and Errors of Search Strategy in Persian Medical Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses
International Journal of Information Science and Management
systematic review
meta-analysis
search strategy
search errors
medicine
persian documents
title Investigating the Status and Errors of Search Strategy in Persian Medical Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses
title_full Investigating the Status and Errors of Search Strategy in Persian Medical Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses
title_fullStr Investigating the Status and Errors of Search Strategy in Persian Medical Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses
title_full_unstemmed Investigating the Status and Errors of Search Strategy in Persian Medical Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses
title_short Investigating the Status and Errors of Search Strategy in Persian Medical Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses
title_sort investigating the status and errors of search strategy in persian medical systematic reviews and meta analyses
topic systematic review
meta-analysis
search strategy
search errors
medicine
persian documents
url https://ijism.isc.ac/article_719332_fa891ac306157eef4bc34ae200c9ee4a.pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT mahsaghasemian investigatingthestatusanderrorsofsearchstrategyinpersianmedicalsystematicreviewsandmetaanalyses
AT mohammadkarimsaberi investigatingthestatusanderrorsofsearchstrategyinpersianmedicalsystematicreviewsandmetaanalyses
AT mohammadrezaamiri investigatingthestatusanderrorsofsearchstrategyinpersianmedicalsystematicreviewsandmetaanalyses