Search

Over the past 50 years, different types of reviews evolved with different objectives. In a summary, 48 review types were identified, which were grouped into seven "review families" with regard to their underlyin g o bjectives and their literature search methods. Among these, the "Focused Mapping Review and Synthesis" (FMRS) approach was not considered. The aim of our short paper is to introduce FMRS as a potential further member of a review family and to highlight its methodological characteristics, potentials, and challenges. FMRS can be used for exploration and focused description of a wide range of topics, but especially fo r a s-pects of knowledge production, i.e., methodological and theoretical issues. A specific search in PubMed and medRxiv revealed nine publi-cations on FMRS between 2016 and 2022, the majority of which addressed research practice as the object of investigation, rather than topics of clinical research. The inclusion of the FMRS in a review family would be welcome due to the peculiarities of the systematisation of literature search within the approach of FMRS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent transfer of RefHunter to a web format (https://refhunter.org/) describes a decisive step in its further development. As a practical aid to systematic literature research, the site now offers customisable search, filter, and display functions of the database overviews previously available in tabular form. In addition, further research aids have been expanded and made available in an improved format. A community area serves to develop RefHunter as a platform for cooperation and interprofessional exchange. To establish a cooperative updating and further development process, the database overviews can be edited by registered users in wiki style. An integrated forum and mutual notification as well as newsletter functions facilitate the establishment of a "research community" for the maintenance and further development of the website as well as interdisciplinary exchange regarding the topic of literature research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessing the quality of literature searches and their updating and adaptation require careful, comprehensive and transparent documentation. Guidelines exist for documenting the development and progress of a literature search. However, the authors are not aware of an editable template that can be used to document the literature search. Therefore, this paper aims to present a search template for the systematic and transparent development and documentation of a comprehensive literature search. The template includes essential steps of the database search as well as supplementary search options and offers a possibility for methodical and content-related justification of the included steps. It considers current guidelines for reporting search strategies. The search template is provided free of charge and is editable with common text editing programs. The contents are to be adapted according to the individual search strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Methodological issues (e.g., ignoring missing data, irrelevant outcomes, flawed subgroup analyses) often limit the value of health research. One reason is that health researchers cannot easily find relevant methods guidance. To improve the findability of methods guidance, we initiated the development of the Library of Guidance for Health Scientists (LIGHTS, https://lights.science/). LIGHTS is a new open access database to effectively support health researchers, statisticians, methods consultants, methods developers, ethics boards, peer reviewers, journal editors, funding bodies, and others who are searching for optimal methods guidance in clinical research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a basis for systematic reviews and thus for evidence-based clinical decision making, conducted literature searches often show methodological weaknesses and errors. Educational interventions such as training or workshops are a potential way to improve searching skills and enhance the methodological quality of literature searches in the health care sector. In a scoping review, we investigated what is known about educational interventions to improve searching skills, what the objectives of such interventions are and how good the quality of their reporting is. This article summarizes and discusses the main findings and provides implications for future research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The selection of databases in the context of systematic reviews should be well-reflected since it can affect the overall result of the literature search or the subsequent literature evaluation and analysis. Methodological criteria to be considered step by step in the selection of databases include the thematic focus of the databases and a sensitive or specific approach to searching. Pragmatic considerations such as database accessibility do not correspond to a high-quality methodical approach. However, they cannot always be disregarded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since February 2018, the RefHunter manual provides tabular overviews of the basic and special functions of health-related databases as downloadable PDFs. For the purpose of further development, the transition to a web format is now being carried out. The web format will provide new, enhanced and need-oriented search and filter functions, information and presentation formats as well as improved possibilities for collaborative work and exchange. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A comprehensive literature search (CLS) describes a complex search with the aim to identify as many studies as possible to answer an underlying research question of a systematic review. However, concrete recommendations or a definition of the CLS are not available. The present article introduces a framework of the CLS, presents the associated challenges and points to methodological implications as well as potential future research topics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

RefHunter, a manual for literature search in databases, was published in February 2018. A main focus of the manual are information sheets showing functions and specifics of relevant health-scientific databases in table format. With the recently published version 2.0, the manual was updated for the first time and comprehensively reviewed and expanded, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]