Recently, a search filter was published in the Health Information and Libraries Journal by Lynda Ayiku et al of NICE that attempts to locate any articles that are about UK research, populations or practice in Medline, and exclude others.
The search filter is validated, meaning it has been tested against a gold standard set of references to make sure it works. The full search filter was designed for the Ovid version of Medline, but unfortunately does not work properly in the HDAS interface used by the NHS. However, there is a simplified version available, which we have adapted for use in the HDAS interface, and this can be copied and pasted into the search box on HDAS, and then combined with your subject search (uisng ‘and’) to filter your search to UK articles only.
Are you looking for information on the cost effectiveness of different treatments, or cost-benefit analyses? Published economic evaluations are a good place to start, but they’re not always easy to find in the literature, so below are some suggestions for places to look and ways to search for them.
Information professionals have supported medical providers, administrators and decision-makers, and guideline creators in the COVID-19 response. Searching COVID-19 literature presented new challenges, including the volume and heterogeneity of literature and the proliferation of new information sources, and exposed existing issues in metadata and publishing. An expert panel developed best practices, including recommendations, elaborations, and examples, for searching during public health emergencies. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
If you’re searching for systematic reviews of evidence, you may find Epistemonikos a useful resource. Unlike the Cochrane Library, this contains systematic reviews from many sources (it does also contain some primary research articles that have been included in the reviews, but the main focus is systematic reviews).
Book Review: Readers of Searching the Grey Literature: A Handbook for Searching Reports, Working Papers, and Other Unpublished Research should come away with a basic knowledge of the range and complexity of grey literature, as well as where it falls within the larger picture of information. Free Access
Conclusion: Searching ≥2 databases improves coverage and recall and decreases the risk of missing
eligible studies. If researchers suspect that relevant articles are difficult to find, supplementary search
methods should be use