Testing search
Developing a search strategy for a literature review is an iterative process. Testing your search strategy enhances and strengthens your search. It ensures that you are effectively capturing all literature relevant to your review and meeting the review objectives.
Test search with gold set articles
The gold set is literature used to check the relevance and comprehensiveness of your search strategy. It consists of the literature that meets the review eligibility criteria and would be included in the final review. The gold set can include seeding articles identified through the preliminary search.
How to use the gold set to test your search
A main search can be tested by checking whether gold set articles, that are indexed in a specific database, appear in the search results. If your search results doesn't retrieve the relevant gold set articles, which meet your review's selection criteria, it indicates a need to revise the search strategy.
To do this in a database relevant to your review:
- Search for each of the gold set articles individually by title to identify which ones are indexed in the relevant database.
- Combine all gold set articles indexed in the relevant database into a single line using the OR Boolean operator.
- Then search the combined gold set articles against your main search using the NOT Boolean operator. The results should display any of the gold set articles which are missing from the results in the main search.
- If any gold set articles are present in the results you should examine the terms in the title, abstract and subject headings of any gold set articles not found in the main search. Consider whether there are terms that could be used to enhance the main search strategy.
Proofreading your search
Proofreading your search is an important step in the review process. It helps to reduce the likelihood of missing important studies, and contributes to the comprehensiveness of your review.
PRESS Checklist
We recommend working through the PRESS Checklist to assist you in checking your search strategy for typos and errors in syntax and logic, appropriate use of subject headings, and relevant filters. Developed by the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH) the proofreading checklist is designed to help you self-assess the accuracy and comprehensiveness of your search. Consider documenting the reasons for adjustments to the search for the review team's benefit.
Ready to run and translate your search
It's important to remember that creating an effective search strategy for a literature review is an iterative process that requires balance. Your search is ready to run and translate when:
- Search strategy matches your inclusion/exclusion criteria.
- Search results indexed in a specific database relevant to your review include your gold set articles.
- You have proofread your search, to ensure there are no spelling or syntax errors.
Alert
A search strategy for a literature review aims to retrieve mostly relevant results and allows for some irrelevant ones to be included. If all search results were relevant to a literature review, the search could be too restrictive and risk the exclusion of important studies.
Key consideration
Once you are confident that your search meets all your requirements, finalise and document it. Avoid making any changes after this point. If any changes are necessary, they must be justified, documented, and updated in each translation of the search.