Construcción de estrategias sistemáticas para la búsqueda exhaustiva de información en Internet: un marco de toma de decisiones aplicado a la información sobre psicología de la salud.

Background: With the progressive increase of publicly available contents on the Internet and as information searching has become one of the most frequent online activities, informal and common searching cannot respond to the aims of scientific research. In regard to the relevant contents in a specific field of knowledge in a non-organized environment such as the Internet, the need to develop efficient procedures to guarantee a systematic search process arises. Aim: The aim of this article is to suggest a framework for developing systematic strategies for the exhaustive information seeking process on the Internet, easily adaptable to specific seeking goals. Method: Review and proposal of a framework for this decision making process based upon method and instruments selection, and equation development. Furthermore, the whole process is exemplified by the development of a systematic strategy in the field of the information about Health Psychology. Conclusions: The development of these procedures or strategies, articulated by means of the properties of exhaustiveness in the search process, replicability of the procedure and ecologic validity, is not arbitrary, but is directly related to the time spent in the carrying out of the process and the quality of the resulting information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]