Literature Searching & Reviews

Why do you need reporting a search history?

In a literature search, it is essential to achieve reproducibility, transparency and a high level of detail. The search should be reported by showing: Where you searched, what you searched for and how many results it returned.
All searched databases and other sources of information should be reported.
It is important that you include the date of each search - in each source. Finally, it may be usefull or a requirement to include the report as an appendix or in the methods section.

PRISMA 2020 Statement (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses) is a reporting tool for use when preparing systematic reviews and includes a checklist and a flowchart. It is designed with a focus on systematic reviews that assess the effectiveness of health-related interventions, but can be used for systematic reviews that assess other interventions.

• PRISMA 2020 Checklist includes 27 items that should be reported when preparing a systematic review. In general, the checklist serves to achieve transparency and improve reporting.
• PRISMA 2020 flowdiagram helps to graphically outline the information flow.

There is a number of extensions to PRISMA 2020 statement, including:

• PRISMA for Protocols, related to reporting in connection with the creation of protocols for systematic reviews
• PRISMA for Scoping Reviews, related to the reporting in connection with the creation of scoping reviews
• PRISMA for Searching, which includes 16 points that should be reported in connection with literature searches for systematic reviews

Below is one version of PRISMA Flow Chart, other versions are available

Evidence-based guideline for Peer Review of Electronic Search Strategies (PRESS) for systematic reviews (SRs)

The PRESS 2015 guideline helps ensure the quality of electronic literature search strategies by identifying errors and strengthening search quality. The accompanying 35-point checklist can be used as a tool to review and optimise your own search.

McGowan J. et al. PRESS Peer Review of Electronic Search Strategies: 2015 Guideline Statement. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology. Vol. 75, July 2016, Pages 40-46.

Ovid
Use an Ovid ..ps command
Conduct a complete search in an Ovid database and in the end write ..ps in the search field and the search history is shown.

Or click on

When creating reviews for publication, it may be appropriate to update the searches to include the latest literature. This can be done in different ways:

• McGill Library suggests that you run your saved searches again, exporting them as RIS files that you import into Covidence (which removes duplicates). You should adjust the PRISMA flowchart and report the date of the last search, etc.
   
• Another option is to use the databases' field codes and time limits to update the search to that date. However, this method can potentially cause thar you will miss some literature. McGill Library has an overview of how to use search fields for the different databases.
   
• A third option is by using Covidence, You ca see a description in the Covidence guidance ”How to update a review with new studies - Tracking study sources and update numbers”: https://support.covidence.org/help/updating-a-review-with-new-studies. There are more ways to make updates in Covidence.